Kaszmir Stud
& Racing Stables: A Brief History
© 1996 Roxanne Rogers
Kaszmir Stud and Racing Stables
has only flown under the banner of its current name for nine years
(est. 1987) but its roots go back to the 1950's when my parents,
Allan and Lois Rogers began working with Arabian horses. Those
of you who have had Arabians for longer than fifteen years will
already know of my father. He was a top trainer in his day, competing
with the likes of Gene LaCroix, Howie Kale, Murrel Lacey, Ron
Palalek, and my personal favourite, "Uncle" Mo Morris.
My memories are sketchy as I was a small child but I know my father
won the first Legion of Merit award for Canada with MHR Hallany's
Talab in 1965. He trained and showed this horse for P. B. Williamson
of Kelowna, B.C. Talab was Hallany Mistanny breeding and a far
cry from a good horseman's ideal but he made a great gelding although
he was shown as a stallion. It took a while for Dad to convince
Mr. Williamson that there were better candidates for the job of
herd sire if he (Mr. Williamson) was to become a force in the
industry.
It was at this time that the Polish Arabian started to gain some
momentum and my father liked what he saw. He was sent by Mr. Williamson
to Gainey's Arabians to buy a Ferzon son but instead Dad came
back with the only Polish Arabian on the place, *Gay Polka++++
(*Pietuszok x *Caliope). While at Gainey's, all the Ferzon get
were paraded out in front of him but he kept noticing a young
chestnut stallion standing in a box stall and the handlers realized
they were not getting my father's attention with their offerings.
A good horseman can pick a horse in five minutes but I think Dad
picked *Gay Polka in about 2 seconds. He had the class and the
substance that Dad was looking for, so after some phone calls
to Kelowna a deal was struck and the search for a herd sire was
over. *Gay Polka was a two year old so Dad trained and campaigned
him as well. *Gay polka was National Top Ten in halter, Breeder's
Champion more than once and because of his prepotency he was a
shoe in for Get of Sire. As a performance horse he was National
Top Ten Western Pleasure amongst many other championships in this
event. Because of him and a mare named *Dornaba, Mr. Williamson
and Dad went to Poland to buy some more of these quality horses.
Mr. Williamson wanted a National Champion Halter horse and it
looked like *Dornaba would get there. Dad was instructed to approach
the Kales but the deal went sour so Mr. Williamson said, "Fine,
we'll just go to Poland and buy a better one." He was told
*Dornaba was the best there was but Dad maintains her eye-catching
features - head and height (about 15.1 hh) could be bettered by
an animal with correct conformation and that "special something."
Mr. Williamson and Dad traveled on the Queen Mary, for what my
father describes as a long and boring journey, to Poland in 1964.
Once in Poland they became Hotel Hostages as their passports were
confiscated and their activities were limited to visiting Stud
Farms and the Warsaw racetrack. Dad remembers Czort as being the
most outstanding stallion he saw. He also saw Negatiw, Branibor
and Gwarny. Of the stallions presented for sale, Dad chose the
imposing Gwarny son *Kirkor (x Carmen) and Mr. Williamson picked
*Barysz (Faher x Bandola) 2/13 (5-3-2) strictly on the extreme
type of his head-the rest of him was less than ideal and Dad would
sooner have left *Barysz in Poland. As a footnote, although it
seems *Barysz was not a bad racehorse in Poland, he was defeated
by *Gaypolka in a private match race with *Gaypolka carrying more
weight and having no previous race training at all.
Dad preferred the *Pietuszok daughters above many of the mares
he was shown since their athletic ability and conformation was
obviously superior. He chose two bays but two chestnuts got shipped,
*Harda and *Harpia full sisters aged one and two respectively
and out of Harfa (Omar II and Arfa). Fortunately they were outstanding
fillies. The list of Sales horses was rather short but a visit
to the racetrack supplied Dad with the mare he was searching for.
She was not on the list but he got her name from the interpreter
even though Mr. Williamson told them they were not to show horses
unless they were for sale, so she was whisked away very quickly.
However the impression was made and Dad convinced Mr. Williamson
this tall (15.3 hh), dappled vision was what they had come for.
The only problem being, how to get her to Canada.
Also chosen were *Gorczyka (*Nabor x Gwara) and *Edycja (*Nabor
x Estokada). Dad was not a *Nabor fan but *Nabor was popular in
the States and marketability was also a factor. *Arnika (Faher
x Arwila) 2/15 (1-2-3) small, pretty and not very fast was chosen
and also *Esterka (Anarchista x Estokada). *Esterka was one of
Dad's personal favourites as she showed so much class, had wonderful
conformation and was a game race mare with a race record of 3/17
(4-2-1) Oaks. Another favourite was *Rusalkaa (*Czort x Rusznica)
also a good race mare with a record of, 2/14 (4-3-5). My father
was never made aware of race records while in Poland, but being
a horseman first, he was drawn to the natural athletes.
After having picked nine good quality horses, there was still
one missing. That astonishingly beautiful mare at the track, *Arwistawa
(Geyran x Arfa). The travelers returned home and negotiated for
her from Canada. It was a dry year for sales in Poland and Mr.
Williamson offered them the most money they had ever heard of
for a horse - $10,000.00. Approximately ten times more than *Bask's
price or any of the other horses being purchased at that time.
Finally after much negotiation *Arwistawa became number ten. This
could explain why those two bay *Pietuszok daughters became chestnuts.
The following year *Arwistawa qualified for the Nationals after
only five shows and became the first Double National Champion
in the breed's history defeating *Dornaba and many other fine
mares. She is probably the only National Champion of this caliber
to also have a top race record 2/15(4-4-5) 2+ Oaks and a track
record for 2600m! This type of horse appears in a lifetime only
once. She was shown one more year doing well in English Pleasure
and Park but she obviously preferred the racetrack lifestyle and
Father thought it a sham to humiliate such a great race mare.
Mr. Williamson wanted her to start producing babies as soon as
possible anyway, as people were putting in orders for these potential
champions. Mr. Williamson also turned down an offer of $100,000.00
for *Arwistawa. This may sound like a small sum today but by modern
standards its equivalent value would be about one million dollars.
In 1968 Mr. Williamson had Dad buy three more Polish mares from
the States. They were. *Muzaa (Comet x Musailima), the lovely
*Mortissa (Trypolis x Mordzanna) 1/5 (1-0-1) and Gazort's full
sister, Czortina (*Czortan x *Gwara). The Williamson's divorced
shortly thereafter. From the divorce Mrs. Williamson received
*Gay Polka, *Edycja (a proven show mare by then), *Esterka, *Harpia,
*Muzaa, and of course, *Arwistawa herself. The rest of the horses
were dispersed and ended up all over North America.
The only real fault *Arwistawa had was her difficulty reproducing.
Pullman Veterinary Hospital (State of the Art then) couldn't help
nor anyone else even our great vet, Vic Demetrik. Finally in 1971
after years of trying everything, we did the obvious thing and
turned *Arwistawa out with *Gay Polka. She conceived and had a
fabulous filly which we named Gay Miracle. The decision to breed
her to *Elkin was made as he almost matched her beauty and was
also a Double National Champion. She contracted Cleb while away
and now scar tissue was added to her already less than ideal uterus.
When she came home after much expensive treatment to clear up
this worst of all STDs we again turned her out with *Gay Polka
in 1973 and she again conceived. She had a tiny, premature (but
not dwarfish) colt - Arwitraz. The Vet said his size was due to
the scarring of her uterus and Arwitraz's inability to receive
proper nourishment while being carried by the mare. It was a miracle
he survived at all but he sires normal to above average sized
foals. Unfortunately not enough of them are Pure Polish.
My father went back to work for Mrs. Williamson in 1970 at Okanagan
Falls, B.C. A large Arena (called Circle 13 Arena) was built but
help was hard to maintain and Dad was getting tired of mucking
25 stalls and training up to fifteen head a day for horse shows
that were really beginning to get crazy. Mrs. Williamson could
see my father's disillusionment with the way the showring was
going (lack of proper horsemanship and too many political games)
and realized that he would not give up his integrity to employ
the inhumane methods of training necessary to achieve a certain
"look." In 1972 the decision to quit frequenting these
spectacles was made. My father also purchased a Thoroughbred stallion
named *Turin, who would sire a Stakes winner a few years later.
In the meantime *Edycja was sold to Robert McKay of Diamond M
Arabians for $30,000.00. *Kirkor (purchased at the divorce dispersal
by the McKays) was killed in a barn fire in 1972. He had sired
11 Pure Polish Arabians in Canada and stood two seasons in the
U.S. *Edycja later sold for $107,000.00 in the *Nabor Generation
Sale II and then at age 20 for $120,000.00 at the Lasma Classic
in 1982. She produced Edytor, Kirkor's Legenda, and Gay Apollo.
Both Edytor and Gay Apollo are showing up in modern day race pedigrees.
Edytor is the sire of Edyzar (x Gay Miracle) who is the grandsire
of Edy 1/2 (2-0-0) and Gay Apollo is the sire of K-Cuch Jedan
5/27 (6-7-3) who has himself sired Sayhi Mc 6/45 (21-5-4) 6 and
Adorya (3/35 (10-10-8) 2. *Muzaa died of colic, after leaving
three *Gaypolka daughters, at Nichol's Arabians where she was
sent to be bred to *Elkin with *Arwistawa in 1973.
In 1974 (the year Arwitraz was born) another move was made to
Princeton, B.C. (Eagle Rock Stables) and we purchased the remaining
horses from Mrs. Williamson. By this time my father was deeply
involved with Thoroughbreds and we also owned a Native Dancer
son, Native Talent and usually stood one or two other Thoroughbred
stallions for outside owners/syndicates. We were very busy as
a breeding operation with two or more Thoroughbred stallions and
*Gay Polka. It was my decision to keep the Arabians as Dad did
not see what we could do with these horses since the showring
was no longer an option. We were racing Thoroughbreds and selling
them with some success and this was more interesting and viable
from a business standpoint. But we took the Arabians with us to
two large Thoroughbred facilities, one in Kamloops B.C. (Rocky
Point Farms) and the last one in Longview, Alberta (Horizon Farms).
Both farms were managed by my father. There are no ready-made
yearling sales for Arabians and so the selling problem is always
an issue with them and not so with the Thoroughbreds.
*Muzaa had a gorgeous filly by *Gay Polka named Gay Muzalina.
I owned her as my first Arabian at the tender age of thirteen.
I sold her in the 80's for $50,000.00. The deal was defaulted
on, she came home and she was resold to Jack Brothwell. He then
sold her Jim Brown of Paramount Stud where she was bred to *Fawor
and produced a colt "Ghent" 2/8 (2-3-2) which was exported
to Europe and earned his impressive race record at Warsaw, Poland
Ghent consistently defeated *Piechur, *Europejczyk, *Ortalion,
*Penitent, *Algomej ,Tallin and Partner get to name just a few
and now stands in Germany bringing it full circle. *Muzaa had
three fillies by *Gaypolka, the others being , Gay Comment and
Gay ZaZa.
*Gay Polka was a busy sire and of his numerous get 29 were Pure
Polish. He is the foundation sire of our breeding program and
can be found in most of our present day pedigrees as well as many
others world wide. To quote Neil Wood, "He (*Gaypolka) is
one of the few stallions that most knowledgeable breeders wish
were still with us."
*Esterka produced only four foals and died quite young. Of those
the *Kirkor daughter, Kirstra was kept. She produced Arwisza,
by Arwitraz , Continence by *Gay Polka and Khazor by *Gaypolka
then died very young also.
*Harpia was bred to *Kirkor and produced Kerobert the grandsire
of such famous racehorses as Wikings Dream and Tyme to Run. She
also produced Harpona of whom we have a Pure Polish daughter,
Beatrice who is 37.5% *Pietuszok blood. *Harpia also died very
young, shortly after being sold to George Allen of the now defunct
WillOMar.
I acquired a stallion (*Falat) in 1984 to replace *Gay Polka after
his untimely death. The original plan had been to use the Gwarny
son, *Kirkor on the *Gaypolka daughters so *Falat being a Gwarny
son fit nicely into the picture. *Falat however with his French
related, racing dam extraordinaire, Forta would change our focus
to a racehorse specific goal. Since our Arabians were already
heavily race-bred, and now we have the last son of Poland's greatest
race progenetrix - Forta the decision to breed for racing and
racing alone was a simple one. *Falat has sired a Stakes winner
in the U.S. from a tiny crop to the track. He is now 27 and still
healthy though used only on a private basis.
*Arwistawa died at the age of thirty-five after producing only
two offspring; Gay Miracle and Arwitraz both by *Gay Polka++++.
Her legs were still straight and unblemished until the day she
died and she never lost her presence.
Her daughter Gay Miracle has had thirteen Pure Polish foals and
we are awaiting number fourteen (due Feb. 29). She has produced
show champions, a race winner, and race-producing dams and sires
She is 24 years old.
Arwitraz has sired a number of show champions although it is obvious
that he is bred for racing, he has not had any offspring to the
track.
We have finally found roots and own a large Thoroughbred breeding/lay-up/training
facility close to Calgary, Alberta. The Thoroughbred business
is the bread and butter but the Arabians are still a passion.
The farm is named after Poland's greatest Arabian racehorse, Kaszmir
3/18 (17-1-0) D., AP. 3x + 9. He was also the grandsire of our
great Arabian mare *Arwistawa and I have made it a task to try
and recuperate some of this bloodline although it is very difficult
(see "Kaszmir: His Influence on Arabian Racing" ). Almost
all of our horses have the blood of Kaszmir in their pedigrees.
We have added some classic Polish racing lines to our foundation
stock such as *Mellon, *Sambor, *Wosk, *Chutor, Samtyr, *Dimrak,
*Czubuthan etc. However we decided many years ago to avoid the
over-used lines such as *Bask, *Nabor and Comet . This narrows
the gene pool considerably when 25% of all Arabians have *Bask
in their pedigree. Therefore after much thought and research a
decision to outcross to some French lines was made and we are
now awaiting the results. It was a much more palatable outcross
for us than Egyptian or Crabbet (the latter we did with top bloodlines
- crossing Crabbet mares onto Polish stallions) and a much more
logical one since the French horses are strictly bred for racing..
We are expecting foals this Spring by Haffir el Rimal, Ala Croix
Noire, *Falat, *Chutor, and a stallion we recently acquired, Eldans
Wotan (*Wosk x Zortana by *Czortan). Wotan has two crosses to
Kaszmir, *Czubuthan 2/19 (6-8-3)1 and *Ba-Ida (one of Poland's
fastest milers). Wotan's sire *Wosk was the magnificent *Pietuszok's
best racing son with a record of 6/31 (10-7-6)D+5. *Wosk is also
a full brother to *Wiking's dam, Wilma. Wotan has sired a Stakes
winning track record holder out of a crop of only two to the racetrack!
It has not been easy keeping the breeding nucleus together through
all the moves and tempting prices in the crazy 80's but somehow
we managed, To this nucleus some new blood has been added over
the years to compliment the program (see "The Horses of Kaszmir").
We think of ourselves as preservationist breeders and believe
that old Polish racing bloodlines from the (1930's to the 1960's)
are a source of true quality in the Arabian breed but are diminishing
rapidly. They cannot be found even in Poland but rather must be
hunted down in other European countries and especially North America.
The continuation of these old lines opens up the racing gene pool
which is already narrowing quickly as Arabian racehorse breeders
are breeding fashionably for the quick dollar and not looking
around for other more creative and probably even faster sources.
This mistake has already been made in the Thoroughbred breed which
is considered the most inbred of all horse breeds. Smart Thoroughbred
breeders know that there is a big difference between breeding
for a market and breeding a racehorse but there are no longer
any outcrosses for Thoroughbreds. It would be a shame to have
the same thing happen to Arabians. It is for this reason and also
for the simple one of love of a good quality horse, that Kaszmir
Stud and Racing Stables exists.
Tanglewood
Breeders of Polish and French Arabian Horses and Thoroughbred
Racehorses
RR1
New Noway, Alberta
Canada T0B 3L0
Tel (780) 352-6413
roxannerogers13@gmail.com
This document © 1996 - 2009
Roxanne Rogers, all rights reserved.
