Tribute to Ignacy Jaworowski

from Kay (Patterson) Sharpnack and Richard Patterson

(formerly Patterson Arabians)    

Where to start . . . how to weave all the memories that come flooding back, covering 3 decades together?  Tis truly now the end of an era - both of our good friends and mentors are gone: first Director Andrez Krzysztalowicz who was Janow Podlaski State Stud, and now Director Ignacy Jaworowski, who was and always will be Michalow to us.  Both men, true breeders and visionaries, who single-handedly rebuilt the Arabian horse breeding programs in Poland after the ravages of World War II.

For Richard and me, the journey with Director Jaworowski and his charming and gracious wife Maria began in June of 1968 on our first trip to Poland.  This would be followed by at least one trip annually for over 20 years in search of knowledge and breeding stock (the importation of over 100 horses) for Patterson Arabians in Sisters, Oregon.

Dr. Edward Skorkowski, founder of both the Polish Arabian Horse Registry and the racing program, met us at the airport in Warsaw and acted as our personal guide for several weeks, immersing us in Polish history, culture, and taking us to the two State Stud farms breeding Arabians: Janow Podlaski and Michalow and a number of stallion stations, introducing us to extraordinary men and their horses.

Behind the Iron Curtain, the years faded as we took a trip back in time on the long, slow drive south to Michalow, winding our way in, out, and around horse-drawn carts, bicycles, and cows dragging picket chains,  on unpaved roads.  Hand and horse labor in the verdant, fertile farm land.  Then - beautiful stone stables, with tile roofs, and a tall handsome, aristocratic man dressed in a blue Polish army uniform and hat, carrying a cane, met us at the office - Director Jaworowski, who soon became “Ignac” to us.  The cane was used to point out horses, move them apart in the stables where each was tied beneath its name sign) or just to emphasize a point as we communicated in a cocktail of Polish, German, French and English.

Our arrival in Poland propitiously coincided with a bi-annual inspection and evaluation of all the mares and foals by a group of breeding experts from the Horse Breeding Department of the Ministry of Agriculture.  Ignacy introduced all the horses one by one.  Richard took notes, while I took slides.  There was lots of laughing as we stumbled over the names and pedigrees that we had already memorized, using English pronunciations.  A good example (although, she belonged to Janow) would be EUNICE - but in Polish, “Eh-ooh-neet-sa.”  The polish word for stallion is ogiery, and I remember Ignacy doubling over in laughter when we asked if we could please see the next ogorek, which was the Polish word for pickle.

Ignacy & Maria were so kind to us, giving an open invitation to come and stay with them at Michalow any time we came to Poland.  Many days were spent in their small, treasure-filled home which was close to the foaling barns.  Maria is an excellent cook and around her table we spent a virtual condensed lifetime exploring recipes for breeding great horses.  Ignacy immediately recognized that we were students with an insatiable thirst for learning about the old Polish horses, their pedigrees, and how to cross the various lines.  He shared willingly from his great store of archive photos, books, and practical  knowledge. He also spoke openly and honestly of his successes and failures with various bloodlines and specific horses - this often done over a snack of chocolate cookies and vodka. He introduced us to Roman Pankiewicz (breeder of *Bask+) and acted as interpreter, as Roman, spoke no English.  He also introduced us to Zygmunt Braur, one of a few private breeders whose entire life and meager fortune was spent breeding Arabian horses.

Ignacy loved best beautiful grey Saklawi horses.  Part of the magic of Michalow was walking into the stables and seeing rows of beautiful grey mares with huge black eyes looking your way, and then when turned loose, charging joyfully out to pasture with tails flagged. Ignacy’s program and phenotypic goals at Michalow were quite different from those of his good friend and competitor, Andrzej Krzysztalowicz.  He did not really care for strong Kuhailan type horses (although he always used some in his program) and he would wrinkle up his nose and make a face when speaking of Muniqui pheontype and or the mention of any French blood.  He had very definite opinions of what he liked and would tolerate in his breeding program - a quality necessary for any true breeder to produce consistency of type.  Michalow has and hopefully will always be known for its beautiful white mares, the true legacy of a master breeder’s vision.

Among the great horses we were blessed to see in 1968 at Michalow were:

            Mares

Daszawa (Nabor - Daribba)

Druchna (Rozmaryn - Darda)

Ela (Miecznic - Lala)

Estebna (Nabor - Estokada) perhaps the most beautiful Saklawi mare we have ever seen

Fatma (Anarchista - Forta)

Forta (Kuhailan Abu Urkub - Porta)

Potencja (Priboj - Taktika)

Warmia (Comet - Wadera)

Zwota Iwa (Arax - Cesima)

            Stallions

Ariel (Sedziwoj - Arfa)

Celebes (Witraz - Canaria)

Chazar (Laur - Celina)

Czardasz (Wielki Szlem - Baza)

Espartero (Nabor - Ela)

Gwarny (Amurath Sahib - Gwara)

I list these horses to illustrate our first big lesson from Ignacy, which was the huge value of Amurath Sahib as a broodmare sire.  Over 50% of the above mares and stallions carry his blood.  The influence of Amurath Sahib in Polish breeding cannot be over emphasized.  He must go down in Polish breeding history as the greatest broodmare sire of all time as far as genotypic influence on phenotype. The line (Bairactor) comes from the Babolna Stud in Hungary and is intensely inbred to a stallion named Tajar, who from photos exhibits this same phenotype.  Unfortunately, Aquinor (Miecznik - Amneris) and the Amurath Sahib daughters, Amneris, Darda, and Daribba, had already passed away, but Ignacy had photos.

As the years passed, the warm, intimate, relationship with our mentors matured.  We grew, as did our breeding program from the synthesis of ideas and knowledge soaked up from the many hours of serious discussion.  It was the mares - always the mares and their ability to produce consistent quality that came first and foremost.  Ignacy was extremely competitive, proud, and covetous of his mares.  Everyone knows that it is not difficult to pick out the most beautiful mares, or the best producers.  It was very hard to buy a good mare from Ignacy - much harder than it was from Andrzej.  We had to ask him year after year for the same mare, until he might finally relent and put her into the annual Polish Sale, so we could bid against others to buy her.  Pretty smart marketing technique, as he knew that we were not about to be out-bid on a horse we wanted to add to our program.

Richard and I were driven to breed “Beautiful Polish Arabians” (the Patterson Arabians slogan for years of advertising.)  Ignacy realized, year by year, how well his students were doing and eventually treated us as breeders on totally equal ground.  Each year we brought him an inventory list of our horses and asked him (knowing their pedigrees) how he would breed them.  We would then do the same with the Michalow list.  The brain-storming sessions were wonderful fun, and we always agreed that disagreement was OK.  Foals born the following year would bear out the validity of the breeding decisions.

Patterson Arabians bought many great horses bred by Ignacy over the years, among them some fabulous Comet and Negative daughters.  Perhaps his biggest surprise with one of our purchases was that of *Deficyt 1979 BS (Algomej - Dewiza, a special Negatiw daughter tracing back to Darda, dam of our Comet son *Dar.)  *Deficyt was on the track and sold in the 1983 Silent Sale at Janow in conjunction with the annual Polish Prestige Auction.  An elegant bay stallion, we had been watching as he grew up, *Deficyt had a good race record and was poetry in motion unshod.  Much excitement as Mike Nichols and David Murdock were among the bidders.

The early Polish Silent Sales were truly silent.  Progressive bids were never posted anywhere, so we and Leonard & Jean Skeggs, Locust Farms, Ohio (our partners for this horse only, who never saw *Deficyt until after he was purchased) didn’t have a clue as to what anyone else was thinking - or even if we were bidding against ourselves!  The morning of the final day, we decided to bid our hotel room number, 603, that was $603,000.  Looking back it seems incredible, but that was then.  We had the winning bid, with David Murdoch’s bid an unbelieveably close $600,000, followed by Mike Nichols with $500,000 as I recall.  Ignacy was stunned.  Now, one would think that the breeder of such a horse might want to repeat the breeding of a horse that brought so much money (a Polish record to date) to the stud farm.  Not, Ignacy!  He did not especially like Algomej (a favorite of ours) because of the Pietuszok in his pedigree, and thought *Deficyt was just another “nice” young stallion.  With this one exception, Ignacy continued to breed Dewiza to Saklawi stallions.  Director Jaworowski at his finest - a man of principle, steadfast in his focus!  We understood his reasoning.

Just as we spent time in their home, Ignacy and Maria were guests in our home on a

number of occasions throughout the years.  He delighted in these times as he was personally able to see the magical results of some the influence of his mentorship.  Ignacy loved Negatraz and thought him to be the best bay, pure Polish breeding son of *Bask+.

It was always our dream to send Negatraz to Poland for 2 breeding seasons to return in a small way the great gift given us over the years by both Ignacy and Andrzej.  Due to the difficulty of shipping a horse behind the Iron Curtain with the Solidarnosc movement picking up steam, it was an impossible dream.

However, in 1983, we purchased the “Queen” of Bob Stratmore’s, Make Believe Farms, Russian breeding program, *Monogramma (Knipple - Monopolia), at the age of 18 for $250,000 cash to breed to Negatraz.  The first born of 4 full siblings was Monogramm, an outrageously beautiful chestnut colt. He was sold at one year of age to the Bishop family, in California, who were looking for a world class colt.   Ignacy saw him at Scottsdale a few years later with Iza Zawadska and knew that he needed Monogramm at Michalow.  Thanks to the generosity of Bill & Meredith Bishop, our fantasy was vicariously and prophetically fulfilled.  Monogramm went to Poland on breeding loan to Michalow.  Ignacy bred Monogramm to everything he could, and finally shared him a bit with Janow.  Even after Monogramm’s return to the USA, Ignacy had the foresight to continue to breed to him with shipped semen.  The rest is history.  Monogramm daughters and sons bred by Director Ignacy Jaworowski have brought fame and fortune to Michalow State Stud since Poland’s independence, winning championships in every country in which they have been shown, the world over.  Both Ignacy and Andrzej told us many years ago that such a breeding stallion comes along perhaps once in every 50 years. 

My proudest moment as a breeder was returning to Poland and watching with my special friends, Ignacy & Maria Jaworowski, Andrzej Krzysztalowicz, Izabella Zawadska, and Roman Pankiewicz as 5 Monogramm daughters, all bred by Michalow  took first through fifth place in the Two Year Old Filly Class at the 1997 Polish National Show.  I do not recall ever having seen the get of one sire take all of the places in any given class at the Polish National Show.  To be the breeder of such a sire is a special blessing.  That day was a gift I shall never forget.  I only wish that Richard had been there too.

Ignacy, we are so thankful that the knowledge you so patiently shared with us, came back around to you through Monogramm to bless Michalow and Poland at the end of your journey.  We know that your legacy at Michalow continues in the capable hands of Jerzy and Urszula Bialobok.

And . . . Maria, we love you, and  realize what an important part you played in the story.   (12-8-2004. used with permission of Kay Patterson.  Thanks, Kay!  God bless you.)

ASA Farm does not alter photos, videos, and horses' conformation. 

In this day and age of computer graphics, surgery, and photoshop, here is a word of caution to people shopping for horses from a farm where they do not know their policy on this important issue. We know of photos where the horse "magically" has a different head than it would "in person", or has funny black mark put below the eye,  "makeup" painted on after the photo was taken...and when you see the horse, you wonder what happened! 

Forewarned is forearmed! 

We occasionally remove the "boy parts" in a stallion photo shoot, but haven't had to do that in awhile, so don't think there are currently any photos of that nature on our website at this time...this we believe is not truly conformationally altering the horse (some would disagree) We're sure the horse would disagree!  And we sometimes remove a hand or leadline.  But we do not alter the individual.

In conclusion, know what the farm's policy is on this issue before signing on the dotted line!  When we sold a horse recently, the people said that he was the ONLY horse that they had come to see that was accurately represented.  They had been to many other farms and viewed many other horses.  We were proud because they not only liked the horse well enough to purchase him, but because we did not waste their time by inflating the qualities of the horse beyond what the horse actually was.  ASA Farm has been breeding quality Arabian horses for over 3 decades, and we are committed to fairly representing our stock.

I started riding Arabian stallions when I was 14 years old. 

Polish Connections ASA Farm By Dixie Fenton Cheryl Showah, owner of ASA Farm located in the historic town of Washington Depot, Connecticut, has been breeding Arabian horses since the late 1960s. Gaining the attention of Lois Selby Perry, daughter of the famous Roger Selby, who imported *Raffles from Lady Wentworth’s Crabbet Park Stud in 1932, Cheryl was offered a financial grant in 1975 from The Arabian Horse Owner’s Foundation to study *Raffles at the (then) Arabian Horse Registry of America, Inc. Cheryl then graduated from Cal-Poly studying equine science under the expert tutelage of William Hughes and Norman Dunn. “I am very grateful to have had the opportunity to spend countless hours ‘on the rail’ with Bill, Norm, Gladys Brown Edwards and Frank and Helen McCoy, among many other prominent Arabian devotees,” Cheryl said. Cheryl’s breeding program progressed and she acquired her first Pure Polish horse in 1983, a direct daughter of *Sambor++, and a ¾ sister to the National Champion Racehorse, Samtyr++. Bred to the then Leading Living Sire of National Champions, Wisdom (*Bask++ x Wizteria by *Bask++), she produced a horse named Mr. Wisdom, who went on to win numerous national titles with his new owners Julie and Bill Wrigley. Cheryl owned the famous mare, Nadjana (Gdansk++ x *Negotka), ¾ sister to the legendary Negatraz. Nadjana won the Open English class at Scottsdale as a 3 year-old and sold for $700,000 before Cheryl acquired the mare. Her horses also included a direct offspring of *Amfibia, Wisdom, Gwasz El Ajzaa, and the National Champion Promotion (ex *Prowizja). Promotion is an interesting Polish phenomenon as he was a National Winning Park horse, sired by a National Winning Park horse and out of a National Winning Park horse – and he has three full siblings who won National Championships in Park – Ibn Prowizja (1976), Cometego (1978) and Pro-Fire (1980). Currently, Cheryl has collected an impressive group of broodmares which include her Pure Polish direct daughters of Gdansk++, Cognac (tail-female to Balalajka), three Promotion daughters, a Negatraz daughter out of *Cyrenajka (who sold for $101,000 at the Polish Prestige sale), two daughters of three-time US National Champion Park Horse MHR Nobility++, an English Champion daughter of *Pepi PASB (a Celebes son) and a direct Monogramm*** daughter, with the same tail-female line as *Ecaho. Bonne Vivant (Monogramm x Bonne Cherie by *Bandos x Bonfieree), ASA Farm’s herdsire, is a multiple Regional Champion Stallion in both main-ring and sport horse, and a multiple Grand Champion. Son of the world-famous Monogramm, and out of one of the most beautiful daughters of *Bandos, Bonne Cherie, daughter of Bonfieree, who sold as a part of a 3 mare package for $3.6 million back in the 80’s. He is a beautiful bay with four white socks and a faint star and snip. According to the Polish Arabian horse expert Tomasz Skotnicki,“Bonne Vivant’s pedigree is difficult to match. The horse is bred close to *Bask++ and he has similar movement and character. It is amazing coming from someone who still remembers well ‘the Great One’. He is a breeder’s dream. COME MAKE HISTORY!” Bonne Vivant is standing at University of Massachusetts, under the expert care of Dr. Carlos Gradil, DVM, where fresh-cooled shipped and frozen semen will be available.  BONNE VIVANT was named the REGION 15 GRAND CHAMPION STALLION SPORT-HORSE-IN-HAND in 2008, at the BIGGEST REGIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP SHOW this year (US and Canada), AND with the HIGHEST SCORE OF THE SHOW in sport horse!  Cheryl, who was featured on the Martha Stewart Omnimedia TV Show PetKeeping with Marc Morrone, also breeds National and International Champion Italian Greyhounds, proving that animals are central to this family. “With seven little toy dogs and over twenty Arabians and two American Saddlebreds (daughters of the World Grand Champion HARLEM GLOBETROTTER nonetheless!), life is quite hectic but very enjoyable, thanks to the wonderful animals that we have been blessed with,” smiles Cheryl. “May God bless you, your families and your animals and may your adventures with Arabian horses be as wonderful as ours have.”

HIGHEST PRICES PAID FOR POLISH HORSES

AT THE POLISH PRESTIGE SALE



The prices of Polish horses paid at Janów Podlaski during 30 years+ of the Sale history are as follows :

Year Of Sale Horse Year of birth

Colour, sex

Breeder SireDam/by Price(EUR) Purchaser (country)

2005 ELANDRA 1995

grey mare

Michalów Monogramm

Erlanda/Eukaliptus 290 000 USA

AMBA 2001

bay mare

Janów Podlaski Eukaliptus

Albigowa/Fawor 85 000 USA

LARISSA 1992

grey mare

Michalów Eukaliptus

Linda/Palas 80 000 USA

2004 PALESTYNA 1994

grey mare

Michałów Monogramm

Palestra/Penitent 300 000 USA

ESKALOPKA 1994

grey mare

Michałów Monogramm

Egzotyka/Probat 140 000 UAE

SAVVANNAH 1997

bay mare

Janów Podlaski Monarch AH

Sarmacja/Gil 135 000 UAE

EKSCELLA 1994

grey mare

Michałów Monogramm

Estancja/Palas 120 000 USA

2003 EMBELLA





ELWIA 1995

grey mare

Michałów

1996

grey mare

Michałów Monogramm

Emanacja/Eukaliptus



Ecaho

Etopka/Eukaliptus 140 000





140 000 George Z (USA)





United Arab Emirates



Year

Of Sale Horse Year of birth

Colour, sex

Breeder SireDam/by Price(USD) Purchaser (country)

2002 WIEŻA WIATRÓW 2001

dark bay filly

Michałów Ganges

Wiaźma/Arbil 220 000 Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

2001 EGNA 1992

grey mare

Michałów Eukaliptus

Egzotyka/Probat 120 000 Shirley Watts (England)

2000 EUZA





ALEJKA





PAMIR 1995

grey mare

Janów Podlaski

1985

bay mare

Janów Podlaski

1984

grey stallion

Janów Podlaski Etogram

Eura/Fawor



Palas

Aleja/Bandos



Probat

Parma/Aswan (Raafat) 110 000







100 000







100 000 Shirley Watts (England)







Shirley Watts (England)







Paulo A.P.Bilyk (Brazil)

1999 DRUID





ALBULA 1993

bay stallion

Michałów

1994

bay mare

Janów Podlaski Wojsław

Dalida/Probat



Fawor

Algeria/Celebes 500 000







130 000 Jockey Club (Turkey)







UK

1998 EMILDA 1990

grey mare

Michałów Pamir

Emanacja/Eukaliptus 200 000 Shirley Watts (England)

1997 BATYSKAF 1990

grey stallion

Janów Podlaski Pamir

Bajeczka/Bandos 450 000 Jockey Club (Turkey)

1996 ELEUZA 1991

grey mare

Michałów Eukaliptus

Etopa/Partner 71 000 Raymond Mazzei (USA)

1995 PISANKA 1990

grey mare

Janów Podlaski Pepton

Pilarka/Palas 35 000 Jacques Mazet (France)

1994 PALBA 1985

grey mare

Michałów Penitent

Pliszka/Gwarny 100 000 Shirley Watts (England)

1993 FLORIA 1988

grey mare

Michałów Penitent

Fladra/Bandos 45 000 Bob Magness (USA)

1992 HAWANNA 1987

grey mare

Janów Podlaski Argo

Hajnówka/El Paso 50 000 Arnold Fischer (USA)

1991 EMFAZA 1980

grey mare

Michałów Eukaliptus

Ekstaza/Celebes 60 000 Arnold Fischer (USA)

1990 PILARKA 1975

grey mare

Janów Podlaski Palas

Pierzga/Negatiw 215 000 Paolo Gucci (Anglia)

1989 ALBANETA 1985

bay mare

Janów Podlaski Banat

Algeria/Celebes 90 000 Richard Freeman (USA)

1988 WECZERA 1979

grey mare

Michałów Bandos

Warmia/Comet 106 000 Loyal McMillan (USA)

1987 ALOES 1973

bay stallion

Janów Podlaski Celebes

Algoa/Czort 395 000 Abdul Al Saihati (USA)

1986 HARACZ 1976

grey stallion

Janów Podlaski Palas

Harmonia/Negatiw 385 000 John Jates (USA)

1985 ALGIERCZYK 1977

bay stallion

Janów Podlaski Engano

Algeria/Celebes 310 000 Abdul Al Saihati (USA)

1984 BANAT 1967

bay stallion

Janów Podlaski El Azrak

Bandola/Witraż 525 000 Lasma Arabians (USA)

1983 DEFICYT 1979

bay stallion

Michałów Algomej

Dewiza/Negatiw 609 000 Leonard Skeggs (USA)

1982 BANDOS 1964

grey stallion

Janów Podlaski Negatiw

Bandola/Witraż 806 000 David Murdock (USA)

1981 WERSJA 1975

bay mare

Michałów El Paso

Warmia/Comet 115 000 David Murdock (USA)

1980 PERSJA 1975

grey mare

Michałów Namiet

Platyna/Czardasz 185 000 David Murdock (USA)

1979 ALGOA 1964

bay mare

Janów Podlaski Czort

Algonkina/Pietuszok 88 000 Eugene LaCroix (USA)

1978 DACJA 1973

grey mare

Michałów El Paso

Daszawa/Nabor 90 000 Alec Courtelis (USA)

1977 CARAWELLA 1971

grey mare

Michałów Negatiw

Czatanoga/Anarchsita 153 000 Leonard Skeggs (USA)

1976 SALETRA 1967

bay mare

Janów Podlaski Gwarny

Salina/Comet 67 000 Eleanor Romney (USA)

1975 DAGMARA 1970

grey mare

Michałów Negatiw

Daszawa/Nabor 21 000 Leonard Skeggs (USA)

1974 DRATWA 1966

grey mare

Michałów Badr Bedur

Darda/Amurath Sahib 20 000 Leon Rubin (USA)

1973 ARENDA 1968

bay mare

Janów Podlaski El Azrak

Arkadia/Wielki Szlem 25 000 Richard Patterson (USA)

1972 BAHAR 1968

bay stallion

Janów Podlaski Ego

Banda/Pietuszok 17 000 Paul Guthrie (Canada)

1971 CZAROWNA 1961

bay mare

Nowy Dwór Comet

Czaruta/El Haifi 10 550 Leon Rubin (USA)

1970 BAJDAK 1962

bay stallion

Janów Podlaski Comet

Bajdara/Gabor 30 000 Denis Sculli (USA)





The highest prices of Polish horses sold abroad :

The place of Sale Year Horse Price (USD) Purchaser

USA - Polish Ovation Sale 1985 PENICYLINA

DIANA 1 500 000

1 200 000 David Murdock

Jim Palafiato

USA, negotiation in Poland 1981 EL PASO 1 000 000 Armand Hammer (USA)

USA 1976 ELKANA 175 000 Aude Espourteile (USA)

USA 1969 NABOR 150 000 Tom Chauncey (USA)