Yesterday the photos of horses that have been qualified for the main Pride of Poland 2017 Sale (Janów Podlaski, 13th of August) have come to an end. Their author is Glenn Jacobs, currently one of the best photographers of Arabian horses in the world, chosen 2016 Photographer of the Year in a contest organized by Arabian Horse Times (the results were announced in March of 2017). The photo sessions first took place at Michałów (5-7th of May), then at Białka (7th of May) and later at Janów (8-9th of May) and at Chrcynno-Palace Stud (10th of May). The photo sessions of horses offered at the Summer Sale (14th of August) are still in progress. These are done by Sylwia Iłenda and Ewa Imielska-Hebda – both created the photos for the auction catalogue in 2016.
Responsible for the promotion of the 2017 Pride of Poland abroad is Simone Leo of the Italian Tutto Arabi magazine, while its publishing company Alim Editrice is producing the auction catalogue. “It is a big pleasure to be here for Tutto Arabi. We are proud to be part of the Pride of Poland. We are very happy that they decided to give us the promotion. After tough negotiations we managed to enlist Glenn Jacobs and Arabian Essence as our partners to have a global connection”, says Leo. And adds that the photo session in Poland was demanding experience for him: “It was also a big task, as everything needs to be in order, the horses, handlers, to let the photographer freely do his job well, despite the weather conditions.”
Indeed, the authors of the photo session and videos struggled with the weather throughout their entire stay in Poland. “We started off very badly actually because it was raining, it was overcast, no colors. But now finally we have some sunshine, so hopefully for the rest of the time we will have the same to work with”, said Glenn Jacobs on the second day of the shoot. Unfortunately, the weather was not kind for the stud staffs, which required an additional effort from the photographer, normally working in Qatar. “For me the light is very important”, he explained. “I think it is a combination of light and the background and the horse of course. The horse needs to have expression. This is the most important I think.”
“Every day we had all the conditions possible”, recounts Simone Leo. “Sun, rain, snow, wind, very, very cold sometimes.”
“We have a very late Spring, which makes the coat of the horses a little bit too long”, adds trainer at Michałów Stud Mariusz Liśkiewicz, for whom this is already the 24th photo session for the auction. “They will definitely be perfect shape for the August sale. The change of course concerns only the appearance itself, because the horses do not change, but we will be working on their form and even better condition.”
The Italian team was impressed with the professionalism of the staff in all the studs: “We found very good people, great directors, well prepared handlers and all the people were very kind with us. They did a wonderful job, managing all our requests. They helped us to do a great job and I want to thank them all!”, says Leo.
Hanna Sztuka, director of breeding at Michałów Stud, confirms that the cooperation was smooth: “Working with Glenn is pure pleasure. We are very satisfied with the achieved results and I hope that our clients will also be pleased with the catalogue. We very much wanted this catalogue to be unique, that’s why for the first time in the history of the Janów auctions one of the studs took on the burden of promoting, organizing the session and all other things regarding the catalogue on themselves. And second, we have a special occasion, the 200 year anniversary of Janów Podlaski Stud, which allows us to look at a different way at the entire Polish breeding. This is a great opportunity for promotion.”
“This year’s offer from Michałów is very well-balanced”, assesses Hanna Sztuka. “We are not preparing any extravagance, just very good, solid broodmares, mainly by Polish sires.”
“We are offering, among others, daughters of Ekstern and mares bred to Ekstern, probably one of the best in the world and very popular, which we are now promoting. He will be the patron of 2018 at Michałów Stud, when the stud will be celebrating its 65 year anniversary”, informs the President of Michałów, Maciej Paweł Grzechnik.
The number one from Michałów’s offer appears to be Laranda (Ekstern – Larissa/Eukaliptus), with numerous show successes, the dam of several outstanding produce (Latona by El Nabila B, Larando by QR Marc). In turn Białka believes that the driving force of their offer will be Egita (Piaff – Egira/Emigrant), though of course no one can predict the preferences of the clients. “In previous years we sold several significant mares, this year we didn’t want to offer our most known stars”, emphasized Renata Kurzyńska, the main breeding specialist at Białka.
Simone Leo concludes: “This year the offer has many interesting mares. We do not have super stars like Kwestura, but the success of the auction is not always dependable on a superstar. Probably we will have high prices for a few top mares but we are convinced that the average of the offer is good. The state studs are offering very good pedigrees, some private breeders as Chrcynno-Palace and Falborek put top horses too.”
Five private bred horses have been qualified for the main sale. The final classification of horses entered for the Pride of Poland (13.08) and Summer Sale (14.08) will be known next week. The catalogue will be published in print by the end of June.
Photo gallery from Glenn Jacobs’ photo session in Michałów, by Tomasz Ozdoba
Read more:
Glenn Jacobs will photograph the horses for the 2017 Pride of Poland catalogue
Tutto Arabi will promote the 2017 Pride of Poland auction
List of horses for the Pride of Poland 2017 already published
