On 22-23 July, for the fourth time, Arabian horse lovers came to Sopot – a city located by the Polish seaside – to admire the most beautiful Arabian horses entered into the Sopot Arabian Horse Show. For some time now, the weather has been exceptionally unfavourable to the participants of the championships organised in Poland, and streams of water have poured down from the sky during practically all of them. It was no different in Sopot. Nevertheless, even the oppressive weather did not prevent the organisers from creating a show at the highest European level and, despite the bad weather, the atmosphere was pleasant and warm.
This year, there were surprisingly few horses entered – only 53 in the mare and stallion classes, and four in the gelding class. Bearing in mind the numbers at other Polish shows, let’s hope that this is a temporary decrease and next year there will be many more horses here.
The show was judged by Marianne Tengstedt, Janice McCrea, Mohamen Zaghoul Omar, Chris Lowe, and Elisa Grassi. The ringmaster was Gerard Oben.
Considering the number of entered horses, some of the classes were very sparsely populated, and as a result, the Sunday championships were largely a repeat of Saturday, although there were some surprises.
D Ghamrah
First was the Yearling Filly Championship, held on Sunday afternoon, albeit with some delay. Here, both the audience and the judges had no doubt about the winner and the first gold medal of the day was unanimous. The prize went to the beautiful Menton Champion, D Ghamrah (D Shakhat x D Ghaliah by FA el Rasheem), bred and owned by Dubai Arabian Horse Stud. She also won her class, earning the second highest score of the show with 92.15 points. Silver went to CBA Isaura (CBA Illias x CBA Ilonah el Haleem by Haleem al Safi), an eye-catcher and known from the foal classes last year. Bronze medal went to the winner of the first yearling filly class, Magical Duchess AF (SMA Magic One x Duchess Amaiyya DMC by Aja Angelo) from Afifi Arabians.
CBA Isaura
Magical Duchess AF
Majd al Jood
In the Yearling Colt Championship, the Gold medal was again unanimous. It went to the winner of the first section, Majd al Jood (AJ Mardan x Elle Marin by Ajman Moniscione), who scored 91 points in his class. Right behind him in Bronze, advancing from the third place in the class, was the delicate grey beauty Gladius SA (Dominic M x Ginessa by Shanghai EA), bred and owned by Waldemar Bąk. He was presented by Marek Demczuk, who would shortly receive the Bet Handler Award. Bronze went to Tebiano (Haash OSB x Tacjana by Ascott DD), presented in Białka and Tarnów, coming from the Janów Podlaski Stud.
Gladius SA
Tebiano
D Leen
The Junior Female Championship saw a fight for the podium between two greys bred by Dubai Arabian Horse Stud – D Leen (D Seraj x D Maha by Eden C), owned by Lubochnia Arabians from Poland, and D Henneyyah (D Shagranx D Haneen by FA el Rasheem), owned by Al Jood Stud from Qatar. It would be D Leen who took Gold while D Henneyyah left Sopot with Silver. Bronze went to the well-deserved Espajlita M (AJ Elaf x Espaja by Aja Justified), bred and owned by M Arabians by Piotr Podgórny. Espajlita M was also chosen the Best Polish Horse of the Show and her breeders and owners received a special prize – VIP invitations to the December World Championships in Qatar, including flights and accommodation. Congratulations!
D Henneyyah
Espajlita M
Hafeet
There was a clear favourite from the beginning for the Junior Male Championship. Not only did this colt take the Gold title, but he also earned the highest score in the show, with 92.2 points. This was the fantastic-moving Hafeet (Ajman Moniscione x El Omarissa by El Omari), bred by TM Arabians and owned by Meshal Almesbah and Mohammad Alshammari from Kuwait. Right behind him in Silver was Fajer AA (Shanghai EA x Fadwa AA by Fadi al Shaqab), the winner of the first series A of the junior colt class, who has his own group of fans. Bronze went to the bay D Wannas (FA El Rasheem x D Sayeda), known from rings from previous seasons, another horse bred by Dubai Arabian Horse Stud and owned by Al Jood Stud from Qatar.
Fajer AA
D Wannas
D Dawaly
The Senior Female Championships brought a second Gold medal to Lubochnia Arabians, who decided to show their horses in Poland for the first time. They took the title with the Dubai Arabian Horse Stud-bred D Dawaly (FA el Rasheem x D Danat by SG Labib). The Silver medal went to the well-deserved show-ring regular, the phenomenal winner of the second mare class, Venice MI (Allegiance MI x Valentine MI by DA Valentino) bred by Mulawa Arabian Stud from Australia and owned by Albakhet Stud. Taking the Bronze was the maternal half-sister of multiple champion Empirial Babel (Ghaith Al Zobair x Eden Beauty KA by QR Marc), Enara Babel (by Fuerte by Shanghai EA out of Frymuszka), bred and owned by Babel Arabian Horse Stud in Poland.
Venice MI
Enara Babel
Rajeh al Adwan
The Senior Male Championship saw unanimous Gold and Best in Show awarded to the exotic grey beauty Rajeh al Adwan (Asfoor al Adwan x Wadha al Adwan by Fayad Alfayyad), bred and owned by Al Adwan Stud from Kuwait. Silver went to the beautifully maturing stallion Erantis (Ascot DD x Eugara by Om el Bellissimo). Well known from the show-rings, Erantis is bred and owned by Janów Podlaski Stud. The Bronze went to Ismer Stud’s slightly rebellious winner of the second stallion class, IS Exxpu (QR Marc x IS Exelsia by Madkours Impuls).
Erantis
IS Exxpu (and cover image)
There were two more championships to come, the first of which was the Gelding Championship, with four horses entered. Gold went to a horse of Polish breeding Wahaj AT (Morion x Wieża Róż by Ekstern), bred and owned by Al Thumama Stud. Silver went to Wonder KL (Aja Angelo x Wieża Nimf by Kahil al Shaqab), known from the show in Tarnów in early July. Bred at Klikowa Stud, he is owned by Domninka Zaucha. Bronze went to Aquamarine SW (EKS Farajj x Anawera by Piaff), owned by Daria Lenik.
Wahaj AT
The final championship at this year’s edition of the Sopot Arabian Horse Show was for Amateur Handlers, organised under the patronage of Bogdan Maślanka. Gold went to a guest from Germany, Noah Ismer, with the mare IS Pialuna (Ascot DD x IS Piniata by Pallaton K). Taking Silver was someone known to all of us in Poland, being an employee of Michałów Stud. This was Grzegorz Pajączkowski with the mare Pustynna Lilia (Zloty Medal x Pustynna Kalia by Esparto). Bronze went to Marta Kulczyńska, presenting the mare Wieża Uczuć (Medalion x Wieża Bajek by Abha Qatar), also from Michałów.
Noah Ismer with IS Pialuna
There were cash prizes for participants in both the gelding and amateur championships, which was a nice touch as well as being a great incentive for participants to sign up for these competitions.
Best Handler – Marek Demczuk
The Sopot Arabian Horse Show is currently the only show organised in Poland where we had the opportunity to admire horses from other countries, including through advertisements and videos. We are happy to see these numbers of high-quality horses from abroad, and thus the increasingly higher quality of Polish horses entered in this show. And despite the adopted formula, the Breeders Show, we are dealing with a first-rate event with generous sponsors, beautiful horses and a large audience. Let’s hope next year will be even better – and that the weather is finally good!
For more show reports, click here.
For more articles from Patrycja Makowska, click here.
