Skowronek (horse)

Skowronek
Sire	Ibrahim
Dam	Jaskoulka
Sex	Stallion
Foaled	1909
Country	Foaled Poland, imported to England
Color	Gray
Breeder	Count Jozef Potocki
Owner	Lady Wentworth

Skowronek (a name meaning lark or skylark in Polish) was a stallion foaled in 1909. He was bred by Count Józef Potocki who owned the Antoniny Stud in Poland. He was imported to England as a young horse. Upon purchase by Lady Wentworth, Skowronek became a foundation stallion at Lady Wentworth's famed Crabbet Arabian Stud. He was most often crossed on mares who were daughters or granddaughters of the stallion Mesaoud, another foundation stallion for Crabbet, who had been bred by Ali Pasha Sherif and imported from Egypt to England by Lady Wentworth's parents, Wilfrid and Lady Anne Blunt.

Skowronek was a gray stallion, on the small side, noted for his outstanding Arabian type, particularly his fine head and overall correct conformation. Lady Wentworth preferred to breed taller horses, but also wanted to preserve Arabian type and beauty, and Skowronek helped her accomplish this goal.

Early background

The English painter Walter Winans bought Skowronek from Count Josef Potocki's Antoniny Stud. Winas had originally gone to Poland to hunt game at Count Potocki's private animal park, Piławin, located north of Antoniny, where he spotted the gray stallion and purchased him for £150. Winans rode the stallion and used him as a model for several bronzes, then sold Skowronek to Mr. Webb Wares, "who rode him as a hack," 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 the 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 suddenly was 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 after she purchased the stallion.

Skowronek died in February 1930 at the age of 22. Lady Wentworth donated the stallion's skeleton (showing 17 pairs of ribs and five lumbar vertebrae) to the British Museum in London.

Questionable Ancestors

FISCLAIMER: THE FOLLOWING IS SPECULATION, NOT BASED ON FACTUAL EVIDENCE.

Zboj, a Turcoman battlefield stray, found by Russian soldiers fighting against the Ottoman Army. Purchased in the western Ukrainian city of Dubno. Imported to Slawuta, Poland in 1813. A first hand account from Zboj’s owner Prince Wladyslaw Sanguszko written in 1850 describing the horse and it’s origin is as follows: “The descent of Zboj was absolutely unknown since the Turk who rode him was killed in battle and the horse was caught by Russian soldiers. However, there was not a leisure doubt for connoisseurs: he was a Turcoman horse of the best strain, born in Asia Minor.”

Szumka I, a black stallion foaled in 1805 at Slawuta. Sired by a horse named "Gnaidy" which means the color "Bay" in Polish who was imported to Slawuta in 1793. Out of a mare named Polka born 1800 at Slawuta. Szumka I does not trace to any horses bred by the bedouin tribes of Desert Arabia. Lady Anne Blunt comments about the origin of Szumka I in her journals.

Szumka II, a black stallion foaled in 1824 at Slawuta. Sired by a horse named Hajlan imported Slawuta 1818. Out of a dark bay mare named Polka born 1808 who in turn was sired by Gniady out of another Polka, born 1800 at Slawuta. Szumka II does not trace to any horses bred by the bedouin tribes of Desert Arabia. Lady Anne Blunt also comments about the origin of Szumka II in her journals.

Polka, born 1800 at Slawuta; Polka, born 1808 at Slawuta; Sawicka, born 1810 at Slawuta; Kwiatka, born 1810 at Slawuta; Kobyla, born 1805 at Slawuta; Szweykowska, born 1800 at Slawuta; Demianka, born 1819 at Slawuta; Woloszka, born 1810 at Slawuta; Anielka, born 1811 at Slawuta; Milordka, born 1810 at Slawuta; Iliniecka, born 1815 at Slawuta. According to Dr. Edward Skorkowski, the first Secretary of the Arab Horse Breeding Society of Poland, these mares were locally bred Tarpan-type mares (so called Polish mares) that were repeatedly mated to Oriental stallions, some Arabian, some not. This information is consistent with a letter by Prince Roman Sanguszko published in 1900. In his letter, Sanguszko details the history of his family’s horses including use of local non Arabian European mares. “We have been breeding the Arabian horse exclusively for a long time, without any infusion of alien blood (excepting local mares). For more than several centuries, all the stallions and some of the mares have been brought directly from Arabia; our horses are two-thirds to four-fifths pure Arabians. This can be seen from the stud books, which have been kept since 1824, and from written documents which go back even further.”

Comments on Ancestors by Lady Anne Blunt

Lady Anne Blunt and her husband Wilfred visited the Potocki stud in Antonin, Russia in September and October 1884, 25 years before Skowronek was born. She observed and noted Skowronek's granddam Epopeja in her journals during her visit. She raises issues of the purity of every horse she saw there except for Pharaoh, who she sold to Antonin. Below are her journal entries for the relevant dates.

September 28, 1884: “…by Shumka II (Szumka II) out of Beyanka, Shumka II by Kheylan out of ‘Polka.’ Here the pedigree is lost to view, the previous part being in older book kept under lock and key by Countess Potocka. Polka sounds like a Polish mare and Shumka II (Szumka II) is a doubtful sire. The Shumkas, (Szumkas) and the Kerukh Khan strain added to the Engl. Crosses of John Bull and Anna form a considerable stain in the pedigrees we have looked through.”

September 28, 1884: “The details given above of some of the pedigrees were written down while listening to Wilfred’s questioning Count Potocki about them looking over the Antonin Stud book in the evening. They were difficult to make out as Ct. P was translating from the Polish in which they are kept. But enough was clear to show that there is not one without a flaw – and this is even if we assume all the imported horses to have been right. But hardly anything is known of most of these, the best attested in Wilfred’s opinion is ‘Hamdani.’”

October 1, 1884: “The intendant caissier and the director of the Stud dined, looking over the Stud Book found that hardly any one of the mares but has a cross in her pedigree – it would therefore be absurd to us to buy anything now; perhaps later on if one of the finest were for sale one might buy her as a specimen, but a colt from any of these would not be valid for breeding. Palatine is the same, here is the flaw in his descent from Shumka II (Szumka II) if not otherwise. In fact, Pharaoh seems to be the only actually pure bred Arab here.”

Descendants

Famous Skowronek get included his sons Raffles, purchased by the American breeder Roger Selby, and the stallions Raswan and Raseyn, exported to the W.K.Kellogg Arabian Stud in the United States. Another son, Naseem, often said to be Skowronek's finest offspring, was exported to the Tersk Stud in the Soviet Union, where descendants Negatiw and Naborr were foaled. Five of his daughters including Reyna and Jalila were sold to the stud of the Duke of Veragua in Spain, where Jalila became the dam of the famed sire Nana Sahib.

See also

• Arabian horse
• Crabbet Arabian Stud
• Judith Blunt-Lytton, 16th Baroness Wentworth
• Walter Winans