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WAHO, the AHRA, and ROM-GATE By Carol M. Shultz The following comments are not intended as an endorsement or recommendation for either side of the AHRA/WAHO dispute, but are matters of existing pedigree records. What the AHRA and/or WAHO ought to do about those records, other than tell the truth about them, is IMHO another issue altogether. All AHRA horses are 'purebred' by declaration. In the animal husbandry sense, and as the term is used by WAHO, they are purebreds: that is, they are members of a breed (a population of animals selected by man for some degree of common ancestry and certain shared traits, which they possess to a greater degree than does the species (i.e. the domestic horse) as a whole. The members of any breed which has a registry are, by definition, purebred members of that breed. Since the AHRA registry and the other WAHO registries are not mutually inclusive, we have in this case two "pure" breeds: the WAHO Arabian and the AHRA Arabian. The term purebred, as applied to the Arabian horse, has another common meaning, one which is reflected in the AHRA statement that its certificate "proves" to an owner "that their horse's pedigree can be traced in all lines back to the deserts of Arabia." (AHRA website, "Our Product: The Certificate of Registration") This reflects the widespread belief that exclusive descent from "the deserts of Arabia" is a requirement for an Arabian horse to be described as 'purebred'. The fact is, however, that in terms of actual AHRA pedigrees that statement is simply not accurate. Few modern AHRA horses (about 5%) are traceable entirely even to "original Arab" foundation stock, or to ANY middle-eastern or Arabic-speaking country, let alone to the deserts of Arabia itself. And this is true even giving the benefit of the doubt to ALL foundation horses recorded without pedigree as "original Arabs," even those 19th century animals with no more provenence than "purchased from a Nubian in Berlin", or those which can be traced no further than the 19th century studs of Egypt, or Algeria, or the racetracks of India. For example, Mameluke, sire of the English mare *Shabaka who was imported to the USA in 1898 and now appears in some 75% of AHRA pedigrees, is recorded (GSB Vol.17, p814, 1893) only as "a high-caste Arab. Imported from India by Lord Herebrand Russell", with no mention of whether he was born in India or whether he or his parents were imported from Arabia or elsewhere. Such animals may well be DESCENDED entirely from desert-breds, but they certainly cannot be TRACED to the desert. In contrast, documented non-Arab ancestors in AHRA pedigrees include the Thoroughbred stallion Trevilliam 1829 and the warmblood stallion Nonius XX 1829 in the pedigree of *Habanera, one of the 1945 US Army importation who now has several thousand descendants. Both of these, together with a second Thoroughbred stallion, Chief Justice 1847, appear in Spanish pedigrees through Ornis 1907, one of the foundation horses imported to Spain from Poland's Antoniny stud in 1912. This 'Chief Justice' blood first came to the USA in the pedigree of Ornis' descendant *AN Malik, imported from Spain in 1970. A third Thoroughbred, the mare 30-Maria 1842, who curiously is the only disputed factor in the pedigrees of the Argentinian foundation horses Kurdo III 1902 and Obajan-7 now under dispute between the AHRA and WAHO, may also be present in AHRA pedigrees, though it is not positively traceable. Six mares descended from Kurdo III (daughters and granddaughters) were imported from Argentina to Spain in 1927 by the Duke of Veragua. By 1936, when the Duke was killed and his stud records destroyed in the Spanish Civil War, they and their daughters had produced no less than 17 foals registered in the SSB. The last SSB records prior to the Duke's death show some 7 females of this blood still in his herd. At the time of the Duke's death in the fall of 1936, his broodmares and foals were at his stud at Valjuanete, where they then remained for more than two years until late 1938 when the herd was taken over by the Yeguada Militar, the Spanish Military Stud which also maintains the Spanish Registry. Since they were unable to identify the parentage of any of the young stock, and could not positively identify many of the older mares either, but were unwilling to delete them from purebred breeding, they registered/re-registered them in the 1941 SSB as "Veragua" horses, with no details of parentage or pedigree. Those mares retained by the Yeguada Militar were given names beginning with "Vera", such as Veralca, Vera Cruz, etc. No less than 21 of the older (1929-1935) mares and 15 of the 1936-7 fillies were subsequently used for breeding, and some two dozen of them have current descendants. Which of them might have been descended from Kurdo III is anyone's guess. The first Arabian of "Veragua" blood registered by the AHRA was *AN Malik in 1970. However, the most common source of non-Arab blood in AHRA pedigrees (and in WAHO pedigrees worldwide) is from native Polish mares from the 19th century Sanguszko and Branicki studs. This was documented in scholarly studies of those studs published in Germany prior to World War I, by the owner of the Sanguszko stud in 1900, and by officials of the Polish registry. The Polish Studbook (PASB) identifies the sources of its "purebreds" as the studs of the Branicki, Dzieduszycki, Potocki, and Sanguszko families (PASB 1932, p. iv, ix). The Potocki stud at Antoniny was derived from and considered by its owner as a branch of the Sanguszko stud, a Sanguszko daughter having taken a large portion of the Sanguszko horses with her as dowry when she married into the Potocki family. Count Alexander Dzieduszycki, for 20 years (1925-1945) President of the Arab Horse Breeding Society of Poland, declared openly in 1935 that "The basis of the Polish breed of full-bloods was therefore an Oriental material, attained by the crossing of imported Arab stallions with Polish mares, the breed of which had also been improved by centuries of intermixture of Arab blood". ("The Breeding of Arab Horses in Poland", in The Arab Horse, An Annual Journal, Arab Horse Society, England, 1935. Reprint 1979 in The Journal of the Arab Horse Society 1935-1938.) Borowiack, studying the Branicki studs in 1914, cited "the admixture of the 'Polish blood' of tap-root mares", identifying "The foundation stock of 'Polish horses' as the base of the breeding" in the Branicki studs. (Die Arabische und Anglo-Arabische Pferdezucht der Grafen Branicki in Bialocerkiew, 1914. Olms Press reprint 1979. Skorkowski translation.) Lukomski, in a similar 1906 study, reported the same "admixture of old blood" in the Sanguszko/Potocki studs, stating outright that "the progeny of the Slawuta stud is not of so pure an origin as e.g. the Arabs of Count Dzieduszycki... whose whole stud descents from three imported desert bred mares and desert bred stallions only". (Das Arabische Pferd in Slawuta und anderen Gestuten des sudwestlichen Russlands, 1906. Olms Press reprint 1979. Skorkowski translation.). Dr. Edward Skorkowski, Secretary of the Arab Horse Breeding Society of Poland, compiler of genealogies for the Polish studbook and preeminent authority on Polish pedigrees, characterized "the Sanguszko horses of the Slawuta, Antoniny and Guminska studs, and the Branicki horses of the Bialocerkiew studs" as "Horses developed by continuous improvement by desert bred Arabs", placing them in a separate class "with regard to descent" from the Dzieduszycki horses which descended from imported Arab MARE lines. (Originally published circa 1965 in Your Pony magazine. Reprinted 1969 by Your Pony in Arab Breeding in Poland.) In a 1900 letter Prince Roman V. Sanguszko (born c. 1837), owner/manager 1860-1917 of the original Sanguszko stud at Slawuta/Chrestowka, stated that his Arabs were "without any infusion of alien blood (excepting local mares)", and that "our horses are two-thirds to four-fifths pure Arabians", having "some amount of local non-Arabian blood or blood the Arabian origin of which cannot be proven (from one-fifth to one-third)". Commenting on a proposed studbook classification for "those animals that have even the slightest drop of non-Arabian blood", he admitted: "This would apply to all my horses, since I have at present none born from original desert sires and dams." (Sherbatov & Stroganov, The Arabian Horse, A Survey, 1900, reprint translation 1989). At least 90% of AHRA registrations today trace to the Sanguszko bloodlines identified in 1900 by Prince Roman as "non-Arabian". Horses in AHRA pedigrees which were present at Slawuta in 1900, and thus acknowledged by its owner as containing some amount of "non-Arabian blood", include the stallion Mazepa 1892, and the mares Oferta 1894, Omega 1894, Parada 1895 and Unia 1899. Among the most widespread Polish imports to the USA which trace to these specific horses are *Bask 1956 (now in more than 25% of AHRA pedigrees) and *Czubuthan 1933 (also in 25% of AHRA). Since Oferta, one of the above mares with "non-Arabian" blood, was the product of breeding imported "original Arab" sires to an 1846 home-bred mare Pruszyna and her daughters through four generations, obviously the 'non-Arabian" blood in Oferta came through Pruszyna. Among the most widespread Polish imports to the USA which trace to Pruszyna are *Witez II 1938 (found in about 1/3 of AHRA pedigrees) and *Kaztelanka 1929 (granddam of Fadjur, now in about 20% of AHRA pedigrees). The existing pedigree for Pruszyna, as per the
pedigree tables published by Dr. Skorkowski, Secretary of the Polish
registry, show that only 3 of her great grandparents were "original Arab"
imports. Although SOME of the other five trace to imported STALLIONS, none
of their recorded female ancestors were imports. All five of these
Polish-born great-grandparents of Pruszyna are found in the pedigree of
the single most widespread Polish export, Skowronek, sire of the
Crabbet-bred AHRA imports *Raseyn and *Raffles, among others, and through
him in 90% of AHRA pedigrees. Don't take my word for it. Check it out yourselves. The books and documents are available in the files of the AHRA, the Arabian Horse Trust, the W.K.Kellogg Arabian Horse Library, and other collections, as well as the collections of private researchers. Carol M. Schulz
Thanks to Carol M. Shultz for speaking out on this issue. Please send your comments to: Stacey Mayer, Webmaster |
