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A HISTORY OF HUNGARIAN HORSES
[Continued.]
Mezöhegyes
In 1784 when Mezöhegyes was established, Hungary had about
1 1/2 million horses. The army needed 10,000 per year in peace,
15,000 during wars, and about 40,000 were exported; consequently
half of the mares had to foal each year. Of the privately owned
horses ten% were on stud farms of the aristocracy and the rest,
90%, on working farms.
Mezöhegyes had to deliver yearly 1000 horses for the cavalry,
send stallions to the breeding stations serving farmers, and send
40 good stallions to Austrian breeding stations.
In 1809 when there was war with France, Mezöhegyes collected
and sent 13,000 horses for the army and a greater number was returned
for breeding and rehabilitation.
This was the distribution of mares and stallions around 1800:
| 54% |
Moldavian
mares, probably from Radautz which was the biggest imperial
stud farm, over 60 miles long. All had oriental blood, many
were "Araber Rasse" which we call Shagya today. |
| 22% |
German,,
Neapolitan, Spanish. |
| 13% |
Cherkess.
Cherkessk or Cirkassia , inhabited by Cherkess people, which
is in Russia between the North Caucasus Range and the Black
Sea. (They still breed and export horses today.) |
| 8% |
Hungarian. |
Following
the fashions of the day and attempting to breed bigger, stronger
horses, the stallions were:
•
Spanish: 6
• Transylvanian: 4 (remember the Turkish, Arab influence
there)
• Lipizzan 3; (Karst mountain breed from Spanish stock,
now Slovenia, used in the Spanish Riding School in Vienna)
• Berber: 2 (Arabs of North Africa)
• German: 2 (Holstein, Mecklenburg)
• English Thoroughbred: 1
While the
word Arabian does not appear on the list, there was considerable
Arab influence in both mares and stallions. I have written on
Arab blood in the great performers of our day and found that many
champions have a DROP of Arab blood from an ox in the fourth generation,
while others have a Shagya in the second line of ancestors. Czekonics
may have known this.
In Mezohegyes at the beginning they used the criterion of conformation,
rather then breeding, in pairing.
In 1854 Prince Lobkowitz became the commander of the establishment.
He emphasized the necessity to develop " constant breeds".
That meant line breeding and inbreeding.
Here are the breeds they have developed
NONIUS
Nonius was born in 1810 during the Napoleonic Wars in Calvados,
Normandy. He was 3/8 Thoroughbred, 5/8 Norman. Today we would
call him an Anglo-Norman. The director of the Deux Ponts stud
farm described him as an ugly foal. Austrian armored cavalry took
him and other horses from the Rosieres stud farm in France to
Austria. He ended up in Mezöhegyes, where people were critical
of his conformation.
(Breeding is not an exact science. They had the gut feeling that
they needed this Norman blood. It took several generations of
experimenting, and Arab blood, to develop today’s handsome
Nonius.)
As a founding stallion of a line he is called Nonius Senior. From
1816 on he bred mainly Spanish and Neapolitan mares. An experiment
failed when he bred his daughters and this produced 33 foals.
Only two mares became breeding quality and one became a main stallion.
11 died. The pairing with Spanish - Neapolitan mares was a success:
He produced 79 stallions and 122 mares.
After 1865 they added Arab and Thoroughbred stallions on Nonius
mares.
FELVER
Felver is such a handy word: Teliver in Hungarian is a full blood=
purebred horse, Thoroughbred. A horse which is half Thoroughbred
is a half-bred: felver. . To produce a felver you take a mare
you have and use a Thoroughbred stallion. On the progeny you use
another Thoroughbred or Felver stallion. This was done around
1900 in Mezöhegyes, Kisber and other farms. (Because the
Trakhener horses were similarly bred, they are also sometimes
referred to as “felver”.) If you read books on horse
breeds published in English during this time period, you will
find reference to the “Hungarian Halfbred” –
the Felver. A “Kisber Felver” then is a horse of this
breeding from the Kisber stud farm.
The Thoroughbred stallions were carefully chosen for size, conformation
and quiet temperament. When the progeny got too great a percentage
of Thoroughbred blood, the Army was pleading for quieter remounts
- as we will see in the case of Kisber.
FURIOSO NORTHSTAR
The Thoroughbred Furioso was born on the farm of Count György
Karolyi in 1836. North Star was born in England in 1844. While
other Thoroughbreds were also used, these two stallions exercised
an important influence on the Furioso- North Star line. Because
of the generations of Thoroughbred crosses, the Furioso horses
were a type of Felver.
The mares used had more or less Arab and Nonius blood, which has
influenced the size and elegance of the progeny. Most Furioso
Northstars are dark brown and sixteen hands or bigger.
GIDRAN
In 1817 Mezöhegyes sent a mixed group of mares to Babolna
to be bred by a chestnut original Arabian stallion. This resulted
in the production of six chief stallions for Mezöhegyes.
All living Gidrans today are chestnuts and descendents of Gidran
II whose dam was Spanish. They excel in jumping.
BABOLNA’S
ARABS
In 1789 the Austrian government purchased an estate to be used
as a resting place for animals driven to Vienna. Soon breeding
was started. Since 1816, only Arab mares were used. The first
Arab stallions came from Rosiere, France with Nonius Senior. Siglavi
4 was purchased in Istambul.
Between 1836 and 1901 seven expeditions were organized which brought
about 150 Arabs to Babolna.
The Bruderman expedition (1865-67) spent a year in Syria, Palestine
and in the desert and purchased 14 stallions and 32 mares.
They also brought a groom along who did not wanted to be separated
from his horse. His name was Fedlallah el Heddad. He started as
a rider- groom in Babolna. From 1899 to 1913 Colonel Michael el
Heddad was the commander of Babolna. He conducted three highly
successful expeditions to buy Arabs. To know the language helps.
When the Hungarian Ministry of Agriculture took over the breeding
farms under Ferenc Kozma in 1867 more consistent practices were
introduced. At the World Exposition in Paris in 1900 Babolna and
several of its horses were given Grand Championships and Gold
Medals.
In 1932 a great hyppologue, General Tibor de Pettko-Szandtner
became the commander. He also promoted the popularity of the Babolna’s
Shagya Arabs by competing internationally with pairs and teams.
KISBER
(The Kisber page is at
www.kisbergidran.hu)
Count Kazmer Batthany's estate was confiscated for participating
in the 1848 revolution and in 1853 it became an imperial stud
farm.
As breeding had to serve the needs of the army, and the cavalry
needed fast and strong remounts, Thoroughbred stallions were used
to produce Felvers. By 1940 the army requested quieter horses
and two Trakehner stallions - Format who became in Hungary Formas,
and Goldlack who became Szeplak - were exchanged for two Furioso
Northstar stallions. They had considerable influence on size and
temperament.
(When the HHAA exchanged semen with the Kisber Association we
received Szeplak XVIII ‘s semen. Our members have several
Szeplak XVIII foals.)
Let us to explain the way horses are named in Hungarian government
stud farms. A mare or stallion at birth receives the father’s
name and an Arab numeral indicating it to be the first, second,
etc. foal of the stallion. A mare or gelding keeps this name.
A young stallion was usually assigned to a rural breeding station
manned by a stud service soldier, or to a reliable farmer to breed
local mares. When his get, at age three or four, has shown outstanding
qualities of conformation, speed, endurance etc. he was promoted
to be a Chief Stallion and was given a roman numeral after his
name. Frequently he was assigned to a stud farm.
Thus Szeplak XVIII is the son of Szeplak VII, who is the son of
Szeplak I, who is the son of Szeplak Senior (Goldlack), who came
from Trakehnen. A new Chief Stallion from this line will get the
next roman number. He may not be Szeplak XVIII’s son. The
Szeplaks with numbers between VII and XVIII are brothers, uncles
or cousins of Szeplak XVIII.
The same numbering system is used in Babolna. Thus when the famous
stallion Amor came from Switzerland to breed mares in Babolna
he had the name Gazal XII.)
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