By Agata Grosicka
Photography: Katarzyna Broda, Katarzyna Boryna
The Polish Association of Young Horses this year organized their various championships in one location and at the same time. On this occasion, from September 20-23, Strzegom in the Lower Silesian region of Poland hosted all three Olympic disciplines: dressage, eventing and showjumping.
As it happened, this idea was an extremely successful initiative, gathering all the riders in one place and providing opportunities to socialize as well as showing the status of sport horse breeding in Poland.
Which discipline is more advanced in terms of breeding, and which horses are be more capable of competing at an international level? Questions that are complex and not necessarily with easy-to-define answers, so we will look at each of the three disciplines separately.
Age-group categories in dressage
These horses competed in three age-groups: four-, five-, and six-year-olds, divided into Polish-bred horses and those with foreign passports. Interestingly, although one may have expected complete dominance from German- or Dutch0bred horses – which seems an obvious rule in the dressage world – some of the results were quite surprising.
In the four-year-old category, the winning Polish-bred horse was Karamba SP (Cardamom SP - Cerkwica SP x My Will [KWPN]), bred by Zbigniew Fialkowski, owned and ridden by Karolina Mazurek, with the final score of 8.20. In the ‘foreign horse’ category, the Oldenburg stallion Daily Deal Junior OLD (Daily Day West - Rascala H OLD x Fürst Heinrich), bred by Witold Pietrzyk and ridden by Gabriela Jaworska-Mazur scored 8.30 points... So we could say that the level of performance for these two winners was very similar. However, with horses so young and equally talented, anything can happen on their way to Grand Prix level, so let’s hope for the best.
Five-year-olds
The winner of the Polish-bred category was a Trakehner stallion called All in One (All Inclusive - Alana [Trak] x Agar [Wlkp]) bred by Monika Machlowicz-Wojsiat, ridden by Aleksandra Szulc who recorded a final score of 7.58. The foreign category was taken by storm by the beautiful Danish Warmblood stallion Heiline’s Zanzier (Blue Hors Zack - Danceline TS [Hann] x De Niro [Hann]), owned by MM Brothers and ridden by Jan Gawecki representing Cichon Dressage with the total score of 9.26 points. Interestingly, this charismatic chestnut, licensed in Poland as well as Denmark, (where he is represented by Helgstrand Dressage), has already had his ups and downs. Two months ago the same couple competed in the Ermelo WBCYH and did not perform the way they would have wished. However the score achieved in Strzegom proves that Zanzier has great potential to become a Grand Prix horse on an international level, but simply needs time and patience to take his great gaits and movements in the right direction. In this category, gaits and swing took over from precision and submission...
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