Fryderyk Jurjewicz

The racing organizer in the pre-war Poland. He saved 250 high-bred horses while bringing them back from Odessa to Warsaw.

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He was born on 31 December 1869 in Bershad.

Thanks to his initiative, the significant part of breeding horses (stallions and dams with their youngsters) transported away to Russia during the war have been rescued; he brought 252 horses to Poland while gate-crashing through the difficult area by night to avoid Bolsheviks’ attacks and deliver the horses do the stud farm in Wygoda. After the war, the breeding and racing horses rescued by him became a base of English horse breeding in the independent Poland.

He was a president of the Horse Racing Committee. He was a protector and a honorary member of the Arabian Horse Breeding Association.

ON 02 May 1923, he was honoured with the Commander’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta.

His activity and life was described at the magazine ‘Jeździec i Hodowca’ (Rider & Breeder) No. 9 of 1929 as follows:

“ THE LATE FRYDERYK JURJEWICZ’S ACTIVITY IN THE AREA OF PUBLIC AND NATIONAL HORSE BREEDING.

The late F. Jurjewicz’s activity as a Guide and a Restorer of the national horse breeding lasted almost ten years; as all his actions, it was characterized by purpose awareness, untiring persistence and profound professional knowledge connected with excellent acquaintance of economics and law.

As a director of Z. S. P. and then of the Horse Breeding Dept, he enlivened the Stud Farm and the Stallion’s Depot in Janów; he called into being: National Stallion’s Depot in Bogusławice (1921), National Stallion’s Depot in Łąck (1922), National Thoroughbred Stud in Kozienice (1924), National Stallion’s Depot in Drogomyśl, National Stud in Racot (1928) and started creating National Stallion’s Depot in Białka. Immediately after return from his historical passage from Odessa and when an appropriate organ was created at the Agriculture Ministry to manage horse breeding affairs (June – August 1919) – he organized the Stud Farm in Janów. Wygoda, dead for 5 years, came back to life and started serving the old and new purposes.

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The late F. Jurjewicz addicted also boundless amount of thoughts and work to create National Thoroughbred Stud in Kozienice. While considering that breeding Thoroughbreds is completely different from breeding other horses – because already one and a half years old Thoroughbreds start hard training – the late F. Jurjewicz deemed advisable and necessary to create a special instrument for national breeding Thoroughbreds. Thanks to his iron will, he achieved this result: the stud farm was created within the period of 1922-1924 when the funds he had for disposal decreased in consequence of devaluation and he showed a great fortitude to bear all ills and obstacles resulting from this.

The late F. Jurjewicz put the following task for the stud farm of Kozienice: breeding not only brave horses but also horses of good mass and conformation. He used to say: “Englishmen can take the liberty of breeding only for the class because they have thousands of Thoroughbred mares; while having only several hundred, we must think on a good horse conformation and carefully remove faulty full-bred horses”.

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When the stables in Cracow had been transferred to the military authorities, the late F. Jurjewicz had to create a new Stallion Depot for the western Little Poland. So, a new horse breeding outpost came into being in Drogomyśl: outbuildings were reworked into stables; dwelling houses for grooms were built; after one year of works – 156 stallions were brought to the stables.

The last horse breeding outpost created by the late F. Jurjewicz was National Horse Stud in Racot. Its aim and task placed by Jurjewicz were as follows: breeding the leading sires to be used for production of horses of artillery type while avoiding direct use of cold-blooded horses. The extremely important task is also the very difficult: to maintain appropriate horse size by proper breeding.

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The late F. Jurjewicz’s special care was rescue of Arabian horses breeding that was threatened completely after the war. As I mentioned before, he did his best to develop this breeding department at the Stud Farm of Janów and today it counts about 30 pure-bred Arabian mares, exclusive of part-bred and high-bred horses. Also, he was an initiator and real originator of Arabian horse performance tests arranged in 1927 by Arabian Horse Breeding Association, a honorary member of which he was.

The performance tests must influence the breeding method what left much to be desired as yet and should influence the quantitative development of the Arabian horse breeding. Thereby, the late Fryderyk Jurjewicz initiated creation of a Stud Book for Arabian Horses; its volume I, edited by Dr E. Skorkowski, was released in 1926; its additions were released in the years to come.

Here, we must make mention on the dead’s work as a creator of legal bases for horse breeding and stud books that are the foundation stone of every horse breeding department.

The late F. Jurjewicz, in addition to his work for the horse breeding rebirth, thought on creation of acts, laws and regulations that could provide the best efficiency and continuance.

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The dead’s great merit was creation of the “Act on horse racing” that ensures the due bases for the performance tests and breeding of noble horses in Poland.

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While not rambling the National Stud Farm organization system adopted by Germany, France, Italy, Hungary, etc., the late Jurjewicz used both English “King’s Premiums” for the broadest horse breeding and German “Erhaltungs Pramie” for Huzuł horse breeding in the distant Carpathians – with the excellent result.

Thanks to his unexampled diligence, he was able to prepare a series of extremely instructive statistics concerning breeding and racing technique that was the irrefutable argument collection for his work.

The late F. Jurjewicz cooperated actively with breeders, gave them his advices and remarks as well as he was interested in any domestic breeding departments and in economic side of breeding. When working with the Army, he tried to reconcile the interest of manufacturers and the consumer (the Army) and strived for honest prices to be obtained by the breeders to make possible the horse breeding.

When anybody of us reported headways at any breeder or National Stud Farm – his eyes’ severe look became more gentle and polished. I saw him with such a radiant brightness in his eyes for the last time in December this year and I want retain this picture for ever.

Read more … (click to go to the Polish Digital Equestrian Library)

Author: Stanisław Szuch