OFIR - "REGENERATOR OF THE BREED"
COPYRIGHT © 1997 BY ANNA FREEMAN
KUHAILAN HAIFI
In 1930 Prince Roman Sanguszko organized an expedition
to Arabia in order to add new blood to his Stud. Four desertbred Arabian
stallions were among the horses brought back to Poland in 1931. One of
those stallions was Kuhailan Haifi. A blood bay with a bright star in his
forehead, Kuhailan Haifi was bred by Khalef el Aouad in Arabia, and foaled
in 1924.
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KUHAILAN HAIFI DB
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Prince Sanguszko's agent was Mr. Zientarski
and he told of the first time he saw Kuhailan Haifi. "During a three day
stay at Abu Draatha I noticed some bay Kuhailat fillies, very equal in
type and beautiful indeed. They were sired by a bay stallion, belonging
to the Ruala Bedouins in the neighborhood of Jauf...finally they lead in
the bay Kuhailan Haifi. It is just the horse I am seeking. Not large, dry,
on splendid legs, no trace of cow-hocks. A long neck, a noble head not
very small, with distended thin, movable nostrils, a splendid high-carried
tail...late in the night the stallion was bought and delivery arranged."
Kuhailan Haifi was the best stallion obtained
by Prince Sanguszko. Purchased at Jauf, he was truly in the desert,
not in outlying regions. Kuhailan Haifi lived but two years after arriving
in Poland. He died after siring only 14 foals, the last born in 1935, and
only one that year. Of these foals, only five were colts. |
OFIR
Ofir was Kuhailan Haifi's most noted son and is
given most of the credit for carrying on the Kuhailan Haifi sire line.
Ofir was bred at Janow Podlaski State Stud in Poland, and foaled in 1933,
in Kuhailan Haifi's first crop. Ofir's dam was Dziwa by Abu Mlech and traces
in tail female to the desertbred Sahara, imported in 1845. Hailed as the
"Regenerator of the Breed", Ofir proved to be just that.
Ofir was the chief stallion at Janow Podlaski
until he was captured by the Russians in 1939, and sent to Tersk in Russia.
While he was in Poland, Ofir sired only twenty-one foals, plus one exported
in utero to the United States. The Ofir sons which were most important
in establishing the Ofir Dynasty were all born in 1938. These stallions
are known as the 3-W's; Wielki Szlem, *Witez II and Witraz.
Another "W" son was Wyrwidab, also born in
1938, was renamed "Wind" in Germany where he has had great influence upon
the German Arabian breeding programs.
In 1939, Ofir was one of the "war booty" group
taken from Poland to Russia. In the Russian Stud Book, Ofir is listed as
the sire of 64 foals. Ofir's sons did not do well in Russia but his daughters
did. Of the 33 Russian bred Ofir daughters, 21 became broodmares. The most
important Ofir daughter was Mammona, foaled at Janow Podlaski, in 1939.
As a suckling foal, Mammona walked 1,000 miles
from Janow Podlaski to Tersk with her dam. Several months after arriving
at Tersk, all the horses had to be moved to the East into Asia to
avoid the Nazi Army. Many of the Thoroughbred and half-blood horses evacuated
in this 2,000 mile march were not equal to the journey. NONE of the Arabians
died. The tiny purebred Arabian filly, Mammona, survived this trip.
Mammona represents the common tail female line
in the first group of Russian stallions imported to America; *Muscat, *Nariadni,
*Napitok, *Nanam, *Ptersk and Marsianin.
Mammona is not the only Ofir daughter to have
importance in American bloodlines. The Ofir daughter *Wierna and two of
her daughters, *Werra and *Wierka were among the horses imported as "Spoils
of War" by the United States Army in 1945 and all three have established
family lines of their own.
The real impact of the bloodline of Ofir, took
on a life of it's own with the importation to the United States of his
grandson, *Bask (Witraz x Balalajka). When *Bask was bred to domestic mares,
many with *Witez II as a sire or grandsire, the results were phenomenal.
With the importation of sons and daughters
of Wielki Szlem and Witraz from Poland and the acceptance of the Russian
bred Ofir sons, daughters and grandget, the spotlight was again on this
amazing "Son of Poland". Ofir has had, and will continue to have, more
importance in worldwide Arabian breeding than even Skowronek, the other
famous "Polish Son". Poland has indeed proven to be the Fountainhead of
the Arabian Horse. |
