Text & Photographs: Polish Arabian Horse Breeders Association
It’s been three years now that the Polish Arabian Horse Breeders Association – under new management – came up with the idea to foster a growth mindset amongst Polish Arabian horse breeders. A year later, we organised our first seminar, with another one following a year later. Recently, we wrote “Chapter 3” of our novella on education, and we are beyond certain that we’re doing the right thing. Our seminars and courses attract not only Polish breeders and enthusiasts of purebred Arabians alike, but also from (basically) all over the globe. Sounds neat, doesn’t it? Well, it does indeed!
Last year, we wrote that a lot had changed in recent years in the world of Polish Arabian horses, and we truly meant it. After the new Board of our Association had been elected, we started growing again and have been gaining new members regularly ever since. At the same time, we have been conquering ceaselessly new fields of activity – courageously, because “no risk, no champagne” as the saying goes. Being a PBO (“public benefit organisation”) helped us a lot, there’s no denying this fact, as at the end of 2023, PAHBA was granted tax exemptions and free-of-charge access to public media. This in turn made our activities in the fields of education and charity “easy peasy lemon squeezy” as our British friends might joke. Yet jokes aside, we take both our charity work and educational mission extremely seriously. You can say it’s a vocation, a walk of life.
A quarter million reasons
The word “million” never fails to pique one’s interest, or does it? Our friend and member Jolanta Gębka summarised the three auctions we have thus far successfully organised during the All-Polish Arabian Horse Championship in Tarnów – a horse show that we resurrected after the pandemic. The auctions always have the same goal: help children and youth from institutions and foster homes, many of them orphans.
During our first auction for Przyjazny Dom (“The Friendly Home”), it only took us half an hour to raise 17,250€. Our members, the Rzepka Family who own Klikowa Arabians Stud, then invited the kids to their stables to show them Arabian horses up close. Last year, at the second auction, we raised 20.500€ for Słoneczny Dom (“The Sunny Home”). This year, we raised 21.000€ for the Janusz Korczak Care and Educational Facility. All three are local institutions who look after and take care of kids who need our help the most. And we pledge to continue this work, because if you add up what we raised for kids and teens, you will get an impressive quarter million Polish złoty! All of which goes directly to help the youngest member of society have a good life as full-fledged adults; much of it towards a good education.
Learning? We like that a lot!
In autumn 2023, more or less a quarter of the year after the first Tarnovian edition of the All-Polish Arabian Horse Championship, our first seminar for breeders took place. One of the instructors was Bérengère Fayt of Faber Arabians, a well-known and accomplished breeder and judge with incredible insight into the purebred Arabian horse, who was one of the judges in Tarnów. She eagerly shared her knowledge, experience, and passion with Polish breeders who met with her at the Grabów nad Pilicą Arabian Horse Stud. It was our first course and we still didn’t really know what people wanted and needed the most, even though all of us have been part of the industry for most of our lives! Still, we felt like pioneers wandering into the unknown as we were opening this wonderful new chapter in the history of our Association.
The “DC & Judging Course and Breeding Seminar”, at which Bérengère together with Tomasz Tarczyński, Farhang Fazeli and Mariusz Liśkiewicz were instructors, was a triumph. Several people who participated have already become judges in their own right, others chose the path of DCs – and we’re proud of them. Since we successfully broke new ground, it made sense to strike while the iron was hot.
Next up came a dressage course in the spring of 2024. We invited Agnieszka Kolek-Kowieska, a graduate of Janów Podlaski Stud and accomplished rider who has won countless awards with her horses, to teach how to ride horses. She accepted and coached a group of young equestriennes in the arcane art of dressage. Some of them, you could later see participating – and winning! – at the European Championship for Arabian Sport Horses in Wiener Neustadt or at the All Nations Cup in Aachen. As we laughed last year: “education for the win”. Literally.
Next came the ECAHO DC Course which preceded the 2024 All-Polish Arabian Horse Championship. Here the teachers were Janet Court and Dr Nils Ismer, and it was the first time the Association organised an international teaching experience. We had students not only from Poland, but also Italy, Denmark, even Kuwait and Australia! But this time, the course was a lot more complex and tough, as the practical part lasted two days. That’s right: two days in the scorching sun labouring as disciples of Janet, Nils and Farhang who joined them to help them get a massive group of followers under control. Once again, we were pleased to hear two magic words that Janet spoke with a broad smile on her face after the show: “Everyone passed”.
Inter-National
The logical thing to do was to raise the stakes and step up our game. The fact that we were organising international courses for breeders and professionals working in the purebred industry crossed borders big time reaching faraway corners of the world. Seeing this as an immense opportunity, we announced our first “Judging Course and Breeding Seminar” at Klikowa Arabians Stud. We had 25 students from all over Poland, but also from Iran and Sweden. Those were two very intense days, packed with so much knowledge that it took us from early morning until the early evening to cover the entire curriculum. The list of lecturers and instructors was equally impressive: Scott Benjamin, Allan Preston, Kathleen Ohlsson, Antonia Bautista, Łukasz Goździalski and Tomasz Tarczyński.
We called it last year “a crazy experiment”, since it doesn’t really happen every day that there are as many as six lecturers shedding light on the secrets of Arabians at the same time. But it worked! And if it works, why change it? Improve on it, refine it, repeat it. So a year later, we met once again at Klikowa Arabians Stud, once again there were six teachers, and we spent another weekend taking in as much knowledge as we could. Obviously, the list of experts was no less impressive than year ago: Anna Stojanowska, Scott Benjamin, Jennifer Dhombre, Allan Preston, Łukasz Goździalski and Tomasz Tarczyński. Our students were – again – not only Poles. Poland is a global nexus for Arabian horses, it is no surprise then that we had students this year from Romania or Sweden, but also from Kuwait and… Venezuela! And this year’s curriculum?
Just like last year, we began with the most rudimentary of fundamentals, going as far back in history as 50 million years, all the way to the fox-sized forest-dwelling Eohippus, or “dog-horse” as Scott Benjamin called this prehistoric proto-equine. We covered the basic anatomy of modern horses, analysing all major body parts one by one, sometimes in excruciating detail, and still the students would ask questions. We discussed the purebred Arabian type, how and where this majestic breed evolved, most frequent and commonplace posture defects, faults and deficiencies, some of the most famous Arabians that roamed the global show stage over the past several decades, but also how to score, how to judge, what to look for in horses and why, as well as ethics and genetics. If we said “there was enough time to answer all questions”, we’d be lying as our students had plenty and didn’t hesitate to ask them over lunch or supper or during breaks.
When all our students, some of them future judges (fingers crossed!!!), were done with theoretical knowledge, came the practical part. Our instructors painstakingly and thoroughly helped their wide-eyed pupils analyse the horses that the Rzepka Family generously brought out of their stables. Everyone was asked what they thought about the legs, croup, wither, hooves or movement of the horses in front of them. And while those weren’t trick questions, they were far from easy. Because whoever thought judging was simple was – let’s face it – wrong. The mock class was followed by a mock championship, so their expertise could be put to the test to the fullest extent, and after they were done, they returned all their scorecards to the instructors. Oh, lest we forget: there also were a written exam and oral test… Like we said at the beginning, we take our educational mission extremely seriously. All the seriousness aside, we may rejoice as it looks like we are going to have more new probationer judges at ECAHO-affiliated shows next year, so… congrats!
We shalt not rest on our laurels
Education remains one of the top-priority statutory objectives of the Polish Arabian Horse Breeders Association. There is an insatiable hunger for knowledge out there which knows no borders. And we are lucky to be the epicentre of lifelong learning about Arabians. Which does indeed make sense. After all, Poland is one of the global capitals of purebred horses – the hub, heart, and hotbed of all things Arabian. That is why already now we promise and vow to continue our mission, and come 2026, we shall start writing “Chapter 4”. Everyone is invited – no matter where you’re from, come and learn with us. Even the best videos are not going to replace a real-life course during which you can freely interact with teachers, colleagues and fellow breeders. So it’s not really a question if you should come. The right question is: why on Earth wouldn’t you?!
