*GWALIOR

The Gladys Brown Edwards painting of *Gwalior (*Nabor x Gwadiana)

Today is *Gwalior's birthday. He was born on February 19, 1961. If the lifespan of horses was as long-lived as a human's life, *Gwalior would be 61 years old today. Bred by Michalów Stud of Poland and like *Aramus, Espartero, Dardir, Gwiazdor and Faraon, *Gwalior was considered to be one of *Nabor's best sons. His dam was the mare, Gwadiana, an Amurath Sahib daughter  out of the Janow Podlaski-bred mare, Gwara, by Wielki Szlem, an important broodmatron within the Klemensow breeding program.  

To better understand *Gwalior, one needs to also understand the efforts of two men in particular, who exercised a  significant impact upon the breeding program which resulted in his creation.  After WWII, Dr. Edward Skorkowski was part of a horse breeding  committee, whose main focus was to evaluate the horses remaining in Poland. The doctor separated the horses by genotype and phenotype, sending the horses he designated as Saqlawi, to Klemensow, a stud farm founded in 1947. Less than 5 years later, Dr. Ignacy Jaworowski was appointed Director and moved the stud farm from the estate previously owned by the Zamojski family, to a new location.  However, the breeding philosophy for which Klemensow was recognized for, did not change. Michalów was committed to perpetuating the excellence that Klemensow had achieved and focused on breeding a Saqlawi-type horse, much like *Gwalior. So, one can say that *Gwalior was a result of the shared vision between these two men: Dr. Skorkowski and Dr. Jaworowski.

*Gwalior was imported to America in 1966 by Lasma Arabians. Strikingly beautiful, *Gwalior was pure-in-strain Saqlawi, as the tail female line of both his sire and dam trace back to Saqlawi mares, as designated by Dr. Skorkowski. An accomplished show horse with an overwhelming amount of appeal, *Gwalior was named the Scottsdale Champion Stallion in 1967, a year after his importation. *Gwalior repeated that win in 1968 and then again, in 1969; which also happens to be the year in which *Gwalior became a US Reserve National Champion Stallion for the very first time. It was a spectacularly large class, with 64 other stallions competing for the title. In the top ten were the straight Egyptian stallions: *Ansata Ibn Halima, a 1966 and 1967 US Top Ten stallion and his son, Ansata Ibn Sudan (out of *Ansata Bint Mabrouka).  In 1970, *Gwalior would return to the US National stage, once again earning the Reserve National Champion title. However, the story gets even more exciting the following year, as both Ansata Ibn Sudan and *Gwalior returned to the US National Show arena, ready to do battle  and emerge victorious, as national champions. For *Gwalior, fresh off his Canadian National Champion Stallion win, it was his chance, possibly his last, to finally claim what he believed was rightfully his, the elusive National Champion Stallion title. Ansata Ibn Sudan, on the other hand, having previously campaigned for the title in 1969, would further establish *Ansata Ibn Halima as a sire of champions. Among the 83 stallions competing in the class were the paternal siblings, *Ibn Moniet el Nefous and *Refky, both horses sired by *Morafic. When the cheers and the ring dust settled, Ansata Ibn Sudan emerged as the Champion Stallion, while *Gwalior added the first of what would be two Reserve National Championships earned that year. *Gwalior, as a highly favored and much admired representative of the breed standard, is part of a very select group of horses, that is, individuals who win National titles in both halter and performance. *Gwalior was also named a US Reserve National Champion Park Horse in 1971. *Gwalior would move from the spotlight of the arena to that of the breeding shed. Over the course of his breeding career, he would sire 287 foals, proving the accuracy of the program created by Dr. Edward Skorkowski and Dr. Ignacy Jaworowski to breed an authentic horse, sound of body, mind and spirit, while furthering the influence of the Polish Arabian horse.