Back in the saddle

The sales revenues of the last auction of Polish Arabian horses held in Janów Podlaski grew by 64 percent compared to last year and exceeded EUR 1.6 (zł.6.25) million. The stud sold 32 horses within the Pride of Poland sale and 13 horses in silent sale. The total number of horses sold last year amounted to 31.

"The prices achieved by the horses sold in the Janów Podlaski, Michałów and Białka studs are among the world's highest. For the last five years the average revenues from the auctions are estimated at EUR 1 (zł.3.91) million," says Stanisław Kowalczyk, president of the Agricultural Property Agency, which supervises the Janów Podlaski stud.

According to Kowalczyk, the growth in sales is due to demand from new markets such as Australia and the Canary Islands, where the largest number of horses were sold this year. Polish investors are becoming more and more active, and there has been a resurgence in interest from American buyers.

Kowalczyk says that after the boom on the American market in the 1980s, it crashed in the 1990s. It revived again thanks to the leasing of Polish horses to the US. "Sire Emanor, which was awarded the National Champion of Poland in 1998, was leased to the States and won the US National Championship the year after. Then it was sold to its leaseholder for $300,000 (zł.917,000). The spectacular success made investors realize that if they wanted to win the most important championships, they needed a horse from Poland," he says.

The first international auction in Janów Podlaski was organized in 1970. Throughout those 36 years, the nearly 200-year-old stud and the ones in Michałów and Białka have sold over 1,200 pure-blood horses including the Polish record sale of sire El Paso for $1 (zł.3.06) million in 1981.