(Picture of McGraw SC, pre his farrier appt tomorrow....)
When I was younger I became obsessed with Polish horses, and to be fair I'm still partial to them in my lines and there's quite a bit of them in the mares I currently have. There will always be some part of me that sees polish lines and gets excited. So why did I change my mind about focusing on Polish horses.... well, a couple reasons really.
All Arabians came from the desert and through selective breeding of the different strains, types were created. You can learn about family strains and types all throughout the internet. Polish is a particular type of Arabian, most of which I've found to be of Kuhaylan or Seglawi strains. Years down the road when I had a chance to mature into my dream, I realized that even labels and types can be misleading. So I gave up the idea of breeding pure in strain, or pure polish, straight anythings and focused on the program as a whole, not just the names and history.
Which leads me to the second reason why I gave up pure/straight breeding. Back in the 70s when Arabians were being imported into the US, the big name breeders created their own "types" of Arabians. People like Davenport and Babson, and the CMK. These days even some of the most successful breeding operations wouldn't be given the honor to create a type despite the amount of time and energy goes into a program. Don't get me wrong. Some of these breeders create amazing stock but when you ask anyone about bloodlines they will pop off with "Domestic" or any combination of any of the other types out there.
In my limited opinion, I don't think that pure/straight lines sell for significantly more than a Domestic horse. That is my opinion based on ads and publicly shown information. So I stopped making it a focus. I still do look at Pure Polish stallions to breed to the Pure Polish mares. I do this more for the preservation of that line in the Pure Polish world because I do know there are those out there who do focus and are interested in preserving lines in the type. Its just really hard for me to justify breeding to a stallion just off the basis that he is Pure Polish when a different stallion would cross better with a mare. We live in a world where you can't be creating surplus horses just because, so I try to be very thoughtful about ever single I create.
Which brings me to my self plugs.
We still have our waiting lists. Waiting lists can be horse specific. Want a foal from McGraw? Get on that list. Want a foal from Saphira? Or want a pure polish foal from Pumpkin? We can make notes on what you're looking for and work with you.
We will at some point be opening a "build a foal" program. Pick the mare and fill out a contract to lease her for an on site breeding lease. Pick the stallion and pay for associated breeding costs.
And if you've made it to the bottom of this post, I thank you.
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