Národný žrebčín Topoľčianky, š.p.

THE ARABIAN

The Arabian horse is the most noble, typical and purest representative of a warm-blooded breed of horse. Its origins go back to the oriental horse with short heads whose predecessor was Tarpan. Th e oriental horse originates in the Middle eastern deserts inhabited by the Bedoin Arabs who domesticated its predecessors. Th e beginnings of the Shagya-Arab breed are dated back to the end of the 18th century when new state stud farms were founded in the territories now know as Radautz, Mezohegyes and most of all Bábolna. Austro-Hungarian stud farms and breeding farms cooperated closely with eachother in exchanging breeding stallions and mares, they did this to improve the development of bloodlines and pedigrees. Breeding was conducted on a highly professonal level and thanks to excellent characteristics, mainly endurance, temperament and fertility they were greatly popular and wery interesting for many breeders. Even today the breeding of the Shagya-Arab is not possible to keep on a national level. International cooperation and coordination for future development is important. Th is role was taken on by the International Organization of Breeders of Shagya-Arab horses- Internationale Shagya-Araber Gesellschaft , which was founded in 1983. Th e breeding of the Arabian horse started developing more intensely aft er the founding of the Topoľčianky Stud Farm. Th e breeding foundation of Shagya-Arab in Topoľčianky was formed from 30 mares from Radautz, Bábolna and Dolna Arma. Th e danger of inbreeeding, especially among the Shagya members, predominent in Topoľčianky, was avoided by using Arabian stallions from other quality bloodlines and pedigrees. For this reason the stallions used in this stud farm were. Dahoman, Amurath Shagya, Aghil Aga, Jaszmak, 114 Shagya XXTh e founding herd was created by mares that possessed appearance as well as pedigree qualities. Th ey functioned very well in Topoľčianky and contributed signifi cantly to forming the Arabian herd know as the Topoľčianky type, and this created a genetic pool in Slovakia. In the Topopľčianky type Arabian purebred pedigree there are about 35 to 40 breeding mares, 4 to 5 stallions and 60 to 70 young fi llies and colts. Th e quality of the Topoľčianky purebred Arabians is obvious from the evaluation of the international committees at the Shagya-Arab exhibitions, where they are always awarded top prizes. Not only Arabian purebred horses in Topoľčianky but also Arabian stallions and mares and their descendents sold abroad that are from Topoľčianky are extremely successful. Because of and based on the Topoľčianky Arabian, the breeding of Shagya-Arab in Bohemia and Moravia has also grown respectively