Having bought the bay tobiano stallion Centyfor in September 1993, we decided to visit Poland, and in November that year we purchased Gepard who had just turned four years old. He was an extremely attractive stallion and a very good mover with three very good paces and an exceptional walk. He was successfully graded with CHAPS (UK) in September 1994.

We were never able to fully realise this outstanding athletes' potential. Tragically he was put down in August 1996, however we had been lucky enough to freeze enough semen to realise his potential through his offspring. We have already bred him to three of our six foundation mares and produced three fabulous coloured daughters - Giselle Gazelle, Golly Gosh and Georgia Maine. In turn these "G" line coloured fillies will be crossed with the best Thoroughbred or Warmblood stallions to produce exceptional coloured dressage and sporthorses.

Gepard's grand sire the Thoroughbred Labirynt was ridden by Marek Orlos.
Winnings:

Gepard's dam Galicja: a minimally marked quality bay tobiano mare, with good movement, a forward thinking attitude and a sweet nature. She showjumped successfully to 1.30m level and in 1997 was put back in to foal and has produced a tobiano colt Rekord. Galicja's dam Galka was sold to Alice Kurz in Germany.

Galka (photo with her colt Gamma when she was in the ownership of Alice Kurz). She wrote to the Janow Poldaski Stud for information on her - she received the following letter:

TRANSLATION OF A LETTER FROM JANOW PODLASKI to Mrs Alice Kurz, Germany

Dear Madam
I received your letter dated 21 February on 7 March. It made me quite embarrassed as for shortage of breeding documentation I am not able to answer your questions properly. However I will try to tell you something about the horses you are interested in.

Between the World Wars there were quite a few skewbald horses in Poland. During the occupation horses of that colour were gathered by the Germans and a stud was set up for them in former East Prussia (what is today called the Mazurian region). After the war very few skewbalds remained in Poland. In early 60s I decided to rebuild skewbald stock at janow Podlaski. I found several mares at small horse breeding farms in the South and in the East of Poland. Most breeding paperwork was destroyed during the war, people did not care too much for pedigrees, so while purchasing horses for Janow Stud I took into account only their colour and conformation. I chose mares with nice colour and generally good looking (sport horse type). In this way mare LALKA, among others, found her way to Janow. She was well above 10 years of age when purchased, nicely coloured, bay-skewbald, not too big (150 cm to the withers), with light bone, pretty head.

At one of stallions' stations I found a sire for these mares, bay-skewbald MARKIZ, son of RONT by RUMIAN. The latter was half-brother (by the same father) to famous RAMZES, sire of many renowned sport horses in Germany. RONT's mother was an East Prussian mare. The mother of MARKIZ was MARKIZA, daughter of East Prussian bay-skewbald stallion CORNELIUS born probably in Trakehnen during World War II. His mother CORNELIA, a very beautiful mare born in Trakehnen (so it seems to me) in 1936, was evacuated to Germany and later returned to Poland together with Polish horses recovered after the war. In Poland she produced a number of excellent horses. mostly skewbald. Herself CORNELIA was good looking, approx 158 cm to the withers, a good sport horse. After the war the father of CORNELIUS, POLARSTERN was for a long time a chief sire (Hauptbeschaeler) at Liski Stud where trakehner-origin horses are still being bred. Unfortunately MARKIZA's mother, IWONKA, had no breeding documentation but because she was used in elite breeding programme at Nowe jankowice Stud (near Grudziadz) there is no doubt she was a correct warmblood type mare.

LALKA was a good driving horse at Janow, she had 3 foals before she died. her daughter GALKA had one bay colt at Janow which was eliminated from breeding. Her daughter GALICJA, bay-skewbald, was a brood mare at Janow and had a filly GALILEA by MARKIZ (bay, without markings) which still stays at our stud.

In 1983 GALKA and her skewbald colt were sold to Germany to Mr Kari-August Bellmann who bought another skewbald mare with a foal at the same time. Mr Bellmann who lives near Hamburg is a regular importer of Polish horses. He says he sold both mares to a breeder on the isle of Sylt (German-Danish border). One of the foals - 1 do not know which one - got killed there. I do not know anything else about the 2 mares. GALKA was a very good driving horse. Unfortunately I have no photos of these horses. If we have any brochures here, they are only for pure-bred Arabians - we publish a sale catalogue every year. I saw MARKIZ just one week ago at a stallions' station south of Lublin (Bialka), he is over 20 years old now but still looks and feels all right. I wish you satisfaction and success in breeding coloured horses that I am so much fond of myself - we now have some 20 skewbald mares and foals at different age at Janow.

Andrzej Krzstalowicz
Director of Janow Podlaski Stud

Gepard's sire Garland was very tall 1.75m (17.2hh). Mr Ryszard Witoszinski who bred him was kind enough to send me photos and details of his bloodline. Garland was gelded when it was found that he had a low fertility rate and was sold. However, Mr Witoszinski says that the horse had a very kind disposition and was well put together.

It is possible that Garsonka, dam of Garland, threw size in her offspring as another son, the bay Gardon was also 1.76m (over 17.2hh). She herself stood 1.66m (16.11/2hh) with 9" bone, and she produced 8 foals in 10 years. The only coloured ones are listed below: