You are invited l Polish Arabian Horse Days 2024

Find your Treasure as both Pride and Prestige return to Poland!

Scheduled for five transformative days each August, Polish Arabian Horse Days is the premier annual celebration of the Arabian Horse in Poland. Beloved and respected as a National Treasure, the Arabian horse is an essential part of Polish identity, nurtured and stewarded by the breeders of Poland for nearly six centuries to a level unequalled outside of the Arabian homeland.

​In 2024, the full schedule returns with great fanfare, encompassing five essential events: the standard-setting Polish National Arabian Horse Show; the marquee Pride of Poland Auction; the aspirational Polish Summer Sale; and the always inspiring breeding parades at the twin pillars of Polish breeding excellence in Janów Podlaski and Michałów Studs.

Please plan to join us for 2024 Polish Arabian Horse Days, scheduled from Friday 9 August through to Tuesday 13 August, to celebrate the Arabian horse with fellow breeders, friends, professionals and enthusiasts from all around the world. The best of the breed and of Poland await – prepare to not only find, but redefine your future, at Polish Arabian Horse Days 2024.

Barok is one of three stallions offered in this year’s Pride of Poland. Credit Stuart Vesty

Pride of Poland
Since 1969, the annual Polish Arabian horse auction has been setting the benchmark for achievement and excellence in the public marketplace. Respected as Polish Prestige for over three decades, the annual auction evolved into Pride of Poland in the new millennium, an apt rebranding that elevated not only the respect and global recognition of the market-leading event, but also the record-setting sales results year after year and decade upon decade.

Zigi Zana is this year’s Pride of Poland cover girl. Credit Stuart Vesty (and lead image)

Astute breeders, owners, trainers and professionals from all around the world seek superior bloodstock from Poland each August, when Pride of Poland offers the best of its aspiring show stars, proven matrons and superlative sires to enhance the next generation of success on the global stage. We are confident you will find so much promise and proven reward from which to choose among the 2024 offering. The future is most assuredly to be written by those with the wisdom and ambition to invest in the future of the breed with the Polish Arabian horse.

For the catalogue, please click here.

Polish Summer Sale
The success of the earliest Polish Prestige auctions in the 1970s raised the awareness of quality bloodstock in Poland for an enthusiastic global audience. The increased demand from breeders and buyers around the globe inevitably resulted in more horses made available from Poland each August, originating first as the annual Silent Sale.

Empower is offered in the Summer Sale. Credit Ewa Imielska-Hebda 

Over the ensuing decades, the Silent Sale developed into a most respectable complimentary sales outlet for Polish Arabian horses, in which eager buyers could find superlative young breeding stock – both mares and stallions – often at more affordable prices. With the rebranding of Pride of Poland in the new millennium, the Silent Sale evolved into the Polish Summer Sale, a stand-alone auction held on the Monday morning after the main event. Filled with quality prospects of all ages and achievements, the Polish Summer Sale has earned a reputation of both unlimited potential and infinite possibility with discerning buyers from around the globe. Discovery and Opportunity await in the Polish Summer Sale.

Polish National Arabian Horse Show
Since 1979, the best representatives of the Polish Arabian breeding programme have been competing for the ultimate honour of Polish National Champion. Many of the world’s most influential and celebrated show horses of the past five decades first made their debut in the outdoor show-ring in Janów Podlaski, before triumphing on the global stage as icons of their respective eras.

Polish National Junior Female Champion Abellia is offered in the Pride of Poland Auction. Credit Stuart Vesty

As the number of horses bred in Poland has risen in the new millennium, especially those owned by private breeders, the programme has expanded to recognise Gold, Silver and Bronze Champions, as well as a full Top Five in six divisions – yearling fillies, yearling colts, junior fillies, junior colts, senior mares and senior stallions. The ultimate honour of Best in Show has been awarded to some of the most iconic show-ring winners in Polish Arabian horse history.

So competitive are the classes for mares and fillies in Poland that often those females who have been awarded highest honours abroad as World, European, All Nations Cup, United States National and Scottsdale Champions, have been unable to best their stablemates at home to claim the ultimate honour of Polish National Gold Champion. Each year, under the bright summer sunshine of Poland in August, the most promising young stars on the rise bring their best to the show-ring alongside the seasoned performers who never fail to raise the standard yet again with perpetually inspiring power, poise and presence, to the delight of everyone fortunate enough to be in attendance.

Offered in the Pride of Poland, Belmari has many titles to his name. Credit Ewa Imielska-Hebda 

Scheduled for three action-packed and enjoyable days, from 9-11 August, the Polish National Arabian Horse Show is sure to deliver once again with memorable moments, unforgettable performances and abundant reward. You will not want to miss a single moment as Polish Arabian horse history is written in real time, and as the legends of tomorrow raise the standard of excellence for the breed worldwide. Celebrate the best of the breed at the Polish National Arabian Horse Show.

For the full schedule, please click here.

State Stud Breeding Parades
The distinct privilege of discovering more about the breeding programmes at the world-renowned State Studs of Poland has long been one of the most anticipated and rewarding highlights of Polish Arabian Horse Days. Documented in the historical record since the 15^th century, the Arabian horse has thrived on Polish soil with unrivalled acclaim and unparalleled success under the masterful stewardship of generations of dedicated and visionary horsemen and horsewoman longer than anywhere else outside the Arabian homeland. The royal and aristocratic studs of the 18^th, 19^th and early 20^th centuries situated in Polish territory, whose foundation breeding material can all be traced directly back to greatest bloodstock from the desert, are still recognised and respected as the source of nearly every great population of horses in the modern breed, including Crabbet, Spanish, American and Russian.

Diodora is offered in the Pride of Poland. Credit Patrycja Makowska

Once again, the jewels of Polish Arabian horse breeding – Janów Podlaski Stud on 12 August and Michałów Stud on 13 August – will welcome guests with a generous lunch prior to showcasing an in-depth presentation of their celebrated breeding programmes. Prepare to be enlightened, enriched and inspired as generations of excellence – aspiring youngstock, proven performers and living legends – are presented in family groups with informative commentary by the master breeders themselves. Your favourites, those you have long admired and those yet undiscovered, are certain to be found among the dozens of horses presented – you will not want to miss a single transcendent moment.

Psyche Apsara is offered in the Pride of Poland. 

Participation in the State Stud Breeding Parades is included with every Polish Arabian Horse Days VIP package. Visits are also open to the general public with RSVP recommended to ensure availability. We look forward to welcoming you to the most hallowed addresses in Poland – the State Studs of Janów Podlaski and Michałów – as the universally admired Polish Arabian breeding programme is brought to life for the enrichment of the Arabian breed worldwide.

For the full schedule, please click here.

Janów Podlaski Stud
The origins of Janów Podlaski Stud as a breeding centre of monumental importance began more than two centuries ago when Czar Alexander I established an imperial stud farm in Polish territory along the banks of the Bug River in the village of the same name. Almost exactly one century later, when the Republic of Poland emerged from ruins of World War I in 1918, Janów Podlaski Stud became the premier source of Arabian bloodstock for the country, gathering together the best horses and bloodlines from the famed aristocratic studs of the 18^th and 19^th centuries that had been destroyed or liquidated during the devastation of war and revolution.

Alexandra, bred and owned by Janów Podlaski Stud, is offered in the Pride of Poland. Credit Stuart Vesty

Today, Janów Podlaski remains the epicentre of the Polish Arabian horse industry, with bloodstock that has positively and profoundly influenced not only every breeding programme in Poland, but also, unequivocally, the progress, expansion and success of Arabian breeding worldwide. Universally admired amongst the global Arabian community as the Mecca to which pilgrims return annually to experience the best of Poland and her beloved Arabian horse, Janów Podlaski continues to be a source of excellence for the breed, perpetually raising the standard with modern-day icons of global acclaim.

We invite you to share with us as the past, present and future come to life during the Janów Podlaski breeding parade. Rest assured, your perspective on, and appreciation for, Poland will forever be transformed.

For more information on Janów Podlaski Stud, please click here. 

Michałów Stud
The world renowned breeding programme at Michałów Stud recently celebrated 70 exceptional years of trailblazing achievement in 2023. Established post World War II as one of three Polish State Studs dedicated solely to breeding purebred Arabian horses, Michałów inherited the breeding herd from nearby Klemensów est. 1947, whose bloodstock had been comprised primarily of Arabian horses rescued from the war of Saklawi type, who were principally grey or chestnut in colour. To the good fortune of both Michałów and the future of the Arabian breed worldwide, the original breeding director at Klemensów – a young, ambitious Ignacy Jaworowski – made the move with the horses and was elevated to the position of Stud Director at what would become his final home for the next 51 years. As a result of his incomparable guidance and extraordinary breeding genius, the breeding herd at Michałów evolved from modest beginnings to become the most famous, accomplished and esteemed breeding programme in the world by the end of the 20^th century.

Diara, bred and owned by Michałów Stud, is in the Pride of Poland Auction. Credit Stuart Vesty

Today, Michałów still remains the brightest beacon of the Polish Arabian horse industry, with homebred representatives still dominating elite show-rings internationally as well as persistently producing the most recent generations of excellence for the leading programmes on every continent worldwide. Still home to dozens of iconic international champions and legendary breeding horses, Michałów is a must-visit destination for international breeders, owners, enthusiasts and professionals, where the positive trajectory of the future of the Arabian breed is being created in real-time from the standard-raising triumphs and uncompromising excellence that defined the past and invigorates the present.

As the only stand-alone destination on the five-day Polish Arabian Horse Days itinerary, the Michałów Stud visit and Breeding Parade is a welcome change of pace and venue in the beating heart of Old Poland, not far from the country’s original capital in Kraków – the famed royal seat and City of Kings. Modern highway access has made the trip to Michałów from Warsaw quick and efficient, with transportation included for all VIP guests wishing to extend their stay and experience Poland in full. The legends of Michałów – both living and in-the-making – await. You will not want to miss a single inspiring moment.

For more information on Michałów Stud, please click here. 

Esmora and El Bruno are in the Pride of Poland Auction. Credit Stuart Vesty

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