Skowronek (horse)
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Skowronek (a name meaning ''
lark Larks are passerine birds of the family Alaudidae. Larks have a cosmopolitan distribution with the largest number of species occurring in Africa. Only a single species, the horned lark, occurs in North America, and only Horsfield's bush lark occ ...
'' or ''
skylark ''Alauda'' is a genus of larks found across much of Europe, Asia and in the mountains of north Africa, and one of the species (the Raso lark) endemic to the islet of Raso in the Cape Verde Islands Cape Verde or Cabo Verde, officially ...
'' in
Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Polish people, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken * Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin ...
) was an
Arabian The Arabian Peninsula (, , or , , ) or Arabia, is a peninsula in West Asia, situated north-east of Africa on the Arabian plate. At , comparable in size to India, the Arabian Peninsula is the largest peninsula in the world. Geographically, the ...
stallion A stallion is an adult male horse that has not been gelded ( castrated). Stallions follow the conformation and phenotype of their breed, but within that standard, the presence of hormones such as testosterone may give stallions a thicker, "cre ...
foaled in 1908 or 1909. He was bred by Count Józef
Potocki The House of Potocki (; plural: Potoccy, male: Potocki, feminine: Potocka) was a prominent Polish noble family in the Kingdom of Poland and magnates of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. The Potocki family is one of the wealthiest and ...
who owned the Antoniny Stud in
Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...
. He was imported to
England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...
as a young horse. Upon purchase by
Lady Wentworth Judith Anne Dorothea Blunt-Lytton, 16th Baroness Wentworth (6 February 1873 – 8 August 1957), also known as Lady Wentworth, was a British peeress, Arabian horse breeder and real tennis player. As the owner of the Crabbet Arabian Stud from 191 ...
, Skowronek became a foundation stallion at Lady Wentworth's
Crabbet Arabian Stud The Crabbet Arabian Stud, also known as the Crabbet Park Stud, was an English horse breeding farm that ran from 1878 to 1972. Its founder owners, husband and wife team Wilfrid Scawen Blunt and Lady Anne Blunt, decided while travelling in the Mi ...
. He was most often crossed on
mare A mare is an adult female horse or other equidae, equine. In most cases, a mare is a female horse over the age of three, and a filly is a female horse three and younger. In Thoroughbred horse racing, a mare is defined as a female horse more th ...
s who were daughters or granddaughters of the stallion
Mesaoud Mesaoud, an Arabian stallion, foaled 1887, was one of the foundation sires of the Crabbet Arabian Stud in England. Bred in Egypt by Ali Pasha Sherif, he was imported to England by Wilfred and Lady Anne Blunt in 1891. He belongs to the Saklawi blo ...
, another foundation stallion for Crabbet, who had been bred by
Ali Pasha Sherif Ali Pasha Mohamed Sherif (1834 – February 26, 1897) (alt spelling, from French Ali Pacha Chérif) was an Albanian-Egyptian government official and a renowned breeder of Arabian horses during the late 19th century. Family background Born in ...
and imported from
Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...
to England by Lady Wentworth's parents,
Wilfrid Wilfrid ( – 709 or 710) was an English bishop and saint. Born a Northumbrian noble, he entered religious life as a teenager and studied at Lindisfarne, at Canterbury, in Francia, and at Rome; he returned to Northumbria in about 660, and beca ...
and
Lady Anne Blunt Anne Isabella Noel Blunt, 15th Baroness Wentworth (née King, later King-Noel; 22 September 1837 – 15 December 1917), known for most of her life as Lady Anne Blunt, along with her husband the poet Wilfrid Blunt, was co-founder of the Crabbe ...
. Skowronek was a
gray Grey (more frequent in British English) or gray (more frequent in American English) is an intermediate color between black and white. It is a neutral or achromatic color, meaning that it has no chroma. It is the color of a cloud-covered s ...
stallion, on the small side, noted for his outstanding Arabian type, particularly his fine head and overall correct conformation.Edwards, p. 214 Lady Wentworth preferred to breed taller Arabians, but also wanted to preserve Arabian type and beauty, and Skowronek helped her accomplish this goal.


Life

Skowronek was imported to England in 1913. The English painter
Walter Winans Walter may refer to: People and fictional characters * Walter (name), including a list of people and fictional and mythical characters with the given name or surname * Little Walter, American blues harmonica player Marion Walter Jacobs (1930–19 ...
bought Skowronek from Count Josef Potocki's Antoniny Stud in Poland. Winas had originally gone to Poland to hunt game at Count Potocki's private animal park, Piławin, located north of Antoniny, where he became enamored of Potocki's horses and upon the Count's recommendation, purchased Skowronek for £150. Winans used him as a model for several bronzes, then sold Skowronek to Mr. Webb Wares, "who rode him as a
hack Hack may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Games * Hack (Unix video game), ''Hack'' (Unix video game), a 1984 roguelike video game * .hack (video game series), ''.hack'' (video game series), a series of video games by the multimedia fran ...
," and eventually sold him to H.V. Musgrave Clark, where he was shown and used at stud for the first time, coming to the attention of Lady Wentworth. Lady Wentworth bought Skowronek under circumstances that remain a bit confusing even today. Clark believed he was selling the horse to an American exporter, but at the last minute, the export was cancelled and Lady Wentworth turned out to be the owner of Skowronek. Clark was a rival Arabian breeder, and Lady Wentworth may have used the agent as a front; concerned that if Clark had known she was interested, he may have increased the price or refused to sell the horse at all. Clark was not happy with the result, and the two breeders had a somewhat cool relationship thereafter. Skowronek became well-known in England. Lady Wentworth later bragged that she once received a cable "from the Antipodes" addressed to "Skowronek, England."Wentworth, p. 307 There was an unsubstantiated report that she turned down an offer of $250,000 from the
Tersk Stud The Tersk Stud is a horse stud farm, and it was used to restore the Russian horse population, which suffered heavy losses during the 1917-1923 Revolution. It was officially established on 11 February 1921, on the orders of Marshal Semyon Budyonn ...
in the
Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
. The outcross of the original Crabbet stock with Skowronek was extremely successful, and Skowronek's offspring not only sold throughout England but were exported to Australia, Brazil, Egypt, Hungary, Spain, the Soviet Union, the United States. Skowronek died in February 1930 at the age of 22. Lady Wentworth donated the stallion's skull and hide to the British Museum in London. She stated that "three experts" attended his necropsy and she stated that he had 17 pairs of ribs, five lumbar vertebrae and 16 tail vertebrae.


Pedigree controversy

There was some controversy attached to Skowronek's pedigree, even in his lifetime. Lady Wentworth herself was satisfied that Skowronek was a purebred (or asil) Arabian.Wentworth, p. 307 Some Arabian enthusiasts questioned if Skowronek was, in fact, a purebred for two reasons: First, his sire Ibrahim was desert-bred and imported to Poland via Turkey, but because of this route of importation, some claimed the stallion was actually a
Turkoman horse The Turkoman horse, or Turkmene, is an Oriental horse breed from the steppes of Central Asia. It influenced many modern horse breeds, including the Thoroughbred horse. Modern descendants include the Akhal-Teke, the Iomud, the Goklan and Nokhor ...
. Lady Wentworth noted that Count Potocki registered Ibrahim as a "Kehilan Ajuz", thus acknowledging his purebred ancestry. Second, the Poles also crossed Arabian stallions on
Thoroughbred The Thoroughbred is a list of horse breeds, horse breed developed for Thoroughbred racing, horse racing. Although the word ''thoroughbred'' is sometimes used to refer to any breed of purebred horse, it technically refers only to the Thorough ...
and other non-Arabian mares, leading some researchers to question the accuracy of the stud books. Further confusion emerged because some European breeders commonly referred to horses by the location they were foaled, rather than by pedigree, and hence the occasional Potocki quote describing the horses at his stud as not "desert-bred" which may have referred to being foaled in Poland. Wentworth commented on this, stating, "Confusing locality of birth with blood of origin is indeed a favourite error..." Skowronek's dam Jaskoulka, (variously known as Jakolka, Yascoulka or Yaskolka; from Polish ''jaskółka'', "
swallow The swallows, martins, and saw-wings, or Hirundinidae are a family of passerine songbirds found around the world on all continents, including occasionally in Antarctica. Highly adapted to aerial feeding, they have a distinctive appearance. The ...
"), was a Polish-bred purebred Arabian. The Poles had bred Arabians for centuries and kept careful pedigree records dating to at least 1800.Edwards, p. 216 Jaskoulka's pedigree shows that her sire was Rymnik and her dam was Epopeja (also spelled Epopeia or Epopya). The Bedouin tribe that produced the desert-bred Ibrahim was also identified, along with the strain name of his sire and dam. Nonetheless, due to this controversy, some private breeders' organizations, such as Al Khamsa, exclude descendants of Skowronek.


Descendants

Skowronek produced 46
foal A foal is an equine up to one year old; this term is used mainly for horses, but can be used for donkeys. More specific terms are colt (horse), colt for a male foal and filly for a female foal, and are used until the horse is three or four. Whe ...
s–23 colts and 23
fillies A filly is a female horse that is too young to be called a mare. There are two specific definitions in use: *In most cases, a ''filly'' is a female horse under four years old. *In some nations, such as the United Kingdom and the United States, th ...
. 39 of these were named, and 27 appear in American Arabian pedigrees. Famous Skowronek offspring included his sons Raffles, purchased by the American breeder Roger Selby,Edwards, pp. 81–83 and the stallions Raswan and
Raseyn Raseyn (1923–1959) was an Arabian stallion foaled in 1923 and bred by Lady Wentworth of the Crabbet Arabian Stud. After being imported into the United States by W.K. Kellogg in 1926. He was part of a large shipment of horses that Carl Sch ...
, exported to the W.K.Kellogg Arabian Stud in the
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. Another son, Naseem, often said to be Skowronek's finest offspring, was exported to the
Tersk Stud The Tersk Stud is a horse stud farm, and it was used to restore the Russian horse population, which suffered heavy losses during the 1917-1923 Revolution. It was officially established on 11 February 1921, on the orders of Marshal Semyon Budyonn ...
in the
Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
, where descendants Negatiw and
Naborr Naborr (April 3, 1950 – November 9, 1977), originally named Nabor, was a gray Arabian stallion foaled in Russia at the Tersk Stud. He was sired by Negatiw, a Russian-bred stallion with Crabbet ancestry, out of the Polish-bred mare Lagodna. ...
were foaled.Edwards, pp. 217-218 Four of his daughters, including Reyna and Jalila, were sold to the stud of the
Duke of Veragua The Duchy of Veragua () is a hereditary title in the Peerage of Spain. It was also a Spanish hereditary domain created in 1537 in the reign of King Charles I in a small section of the territory of Veragua (''Gobernación de Veragua'', which h ...
in
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.Archer, p. 182


Pedigree

* General Stud Book states 1909, Potocki pedigree states 1908 ** "d.b." denotes "desert bred," indicating Middle East origin and no further named ancestors in the pedigree. Ibrahim was imported to Poland by Potocki, who had pedigree records stating Ibrahim's sire was named "Heijer" and his dam, "Lafitte." However other sources state the sire's name was "Hejar". The dam was unnamed, but possibly of the Seglawi-Faliti strain.


References


Sources

* * * {{Short description, 20th-century Arabian stallion Individual Arabian and part-Arabian horses Individual male horses