In the article recently published in Tutto Arabi magazine we can read about the significant influence the mares that were taken to Poland after the II. World War had on Polish Arabian horse breeding which can be felt until this day.

Downloadable pdf:  Babolnian mares and their influence on modern polish breeding

Algeria (Celebes, Algonkina/Pietuszok, 1971), Polish national champion in 1982

The Princess visited us on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of establishing the Japanese-Hungarian diplomatic relations. Ambassadors from Japan visited Bábolna 130 years ago to choose horses for the Imperial Court, where we can still find horses out of Hungarian bloodlines.

Princess Kako, accompanied by the Minister of Agriculture István Nagy, also made a short trip to the estate with the famous five-in-hand.

Escorted by István Nagy, Minister of Agriculture, Gábor Haál, Director of Bábolna National Stud Farm and Dávid Cseri, referee, Princess Kako visited our Horse Museum that is looking after the hundreds of years old relics of the Stud Farm and the stud yard, then the visit continued with a ride on our five-horse carriage representing and keeping alive our traditions till today. After this we had the opportunity to present the horses bred on the Stud Farm – Salamat B, Purebred Arabian, Gazal XIX-2 Shagya-Arabian and Firsty, the Thoroughbred – in our historic Riding Hall.

The covered riding arena also hosted a horse show for the Princess’s visit

Photo: Csaba Pelsőczy

Source: Ministry of Agriculture

The right to organize the event this year was won by the two German association of Arabian horses together, which is a great success in itself, as putting aside their previous differences they joined their forces again for the success of their event.  

A picture of life on the stud farm in Marbach

Choosing the right location is half the battle. Marbach is a stud established more than 500 years ago in 1514, protected and maintained as the jewel of Baden-Württemberg, which is serving German horse breeding in the middle of a biosphere reserve – that is also declared protected by the UNESCO – bordered by the forests of the „Schwäbische Alb”, 750 meters above sea level.  Four traditional horse breeds are bred here, one of them is the Purebred Arabian horse. As the successor of the Stud in Weil, breeding work is done still based on the original principles today with 20 broodmares and their offspring. As a stud, as a horse training centre, breeding station, stallion examination location, almost the whole “equestrian industry” is represented here on the highest level. Their eventing course is exceptional, but driving competitions were organized here as well, they are farming 1000 hectares, where they mainly produce fodder.

Gazal XIX-2 and Anita Arany

The class winners of age categories were chosen out of more than half a hundred horses of 26 breeders from 7 countries. The junior and senior champions were chosen for each sex out of the class winners and second best horses.

Out of the five judges (Lea Ernst, Switzerland, Franz Hoppenberger, Austria, Michal Horny, Slovakia, Diether von Kleist, Germany, Tamás Rombauer, Hungary) three judged in each class, of course judges did not judge horses arriving from their own stud.

Unfortunately Hungary was only represented by the Bábolna National Stud Farm, from where five horses were sent to Marbach. The class of 1 year old stallions was won clearly by the grey studcolt, Gazal XXIII-1 (Lenkoran) from Bábolna with 7.38 points, and he also won the title of Reserve Champion in the Junior Championship behind the Czech bred, German owned three-years old bay stallion, Shengo Khaliff from the Koheilan line.

Gazal XXIII-1 and Olivér Tóth

Among the junior mares we did not win a title, albeit we did not enter.

O’Bajan XXVI-6, a grey mare born in 2011, with start number 27 earned second place in a very strong class with 11 horses with a score of 7.86, therefore she was entitled to participate in the finals. 294 O’Bajan Basa, born in 2008 was entered into the class of 11 years old and older horses, and won the class with a record score of 8.95, and later was chosen as champion mare.

Tamás Rombauer and Anita Arany with 294 O’Bajan Basa

In the class of 11 years and older stallions Gazal XIX-2 (XXIV), born in 2006, son of Páris showed exceptional form and won the class with a score of 8.62, and won the championship without a doubt and was even chosen as the best stallion of the show. From the mares this title was won by Januska, a swiss bred and owned, Thamias-Jamila horse, born in 2016.

 From the four champion titles, in the 4 years and older category, a horse from Bábolna was the best among the stallions and also among the mares, from the 1-3 years old category we won a Reserve Champion title, in which the skill of our handlers played a big part. We thank our handlers Anita Arany, Tamás Vaskó and Olivér Tóth, who helped us out as László Molnár got injured.

Tamás Rombauer

Results:

This race was the last one this year on the 7th of October for the Pigeon Catcher – Ejtihaad three-year-old colt. The 2800 m race for three-year-olds had three colts and five fillies, altogether four horses bred in our stud.

Esti Fény on the track

Esti Fény, trained by Csaba Zala won the 96th Hungarian Derby, the Szent István Prize and the Kincsem Prize before winning also here with jockey Tamás Nagy. They not only won the Hungarian Horseracing League, but also gained as many points for the Horse of the Year title, that nobody can catch him.

After the awards ceremony Esti Fény and the team

Survivor (Linngari – Surveyance) and Rebeka Gönczi became third in the race with a big finish.

Photo: Dr. Gábor Kovács

Esti Fény, rider Tamás Nagy

The next race for Esti Fény will be the Hungarian St. Leger in the beginning of October.

The beautiful bay colt is now on the second place in the National League, with only 1 point less than the leader.

Photo: Katona Zita