MJT Nevados S sp – The Champion of Champions, good as Polish.

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The breeder of Nevados S, Stanisław Szurik, “Melchior from Liszkowo” for his friends (though he lived in Matyldzino near Mrocza in truth), used to carry out any his undertakings with a suitable flourish. It was much the same when he decided to establish a sports horse stud farm in the newly purchased former state-owned farm in Liszkowo in 90’s. This place was connected with horses already before – the Łobez Stallion’s Depot was located over there for several dozen years. The most of livestock buildings turned into stables quickly where first mares came; they were both of domestic and foreign breeding. The Bavarian mare Nicol (Nimrod B – Romina by Rasputin) born in 1996 was among them. She represents the Holstein family 930 from which the following horses come, among others: the stallions Reichsgraf and Casparino, the jumpers Dega, Vermont Star, Crazy Boy and Caught in Action listed in WBSHF rankings and also the much-deserved dam Cantinera (Terra B). Nicol entered the field performance tests twice – first, off the record at the event organized by SHPKG in Włocławek and two years later at the official event KPZHK in Gliszcz, 2004. She returned from both events with medals and the mark – outstanding! Nicol is the normal tall mare of model exterior 81pb and perfect passableness; Marek Orłoś scored her as 9. She proved not easy in breeding (from among her 7 foals, only 2 were qualified for breeding) but her owner’s patience and expertness of Dr Przemysław Mazurek who carried breeding in Liszkowo allowed getting the satisfying offspring at last.

In 2003, the four years’ Dutch stallion Romualdo became the leading sire in Liszkowo; he was the runner-up of MPMK in show jumping (under Mariusz Buczkowski). During a short pause in training, he mated a dozen or so mares of KPZHK breeders, whereout 4 foals were born in Liszkowo. All of them distinguished themselves in sport and breeding: Quattro sp (out of Quanta by Quamiro) – show jumping (CC class) under Bartłomiej Włodarski, Gracjusz sp (out of Gracenta by Graf Grannus) – show jumping (N class), Romana sp (out of Roma by Rodomo) – the dam of the stallion Roncerto sp (by Concert), the finalist of MPMK under Jacek Zagor and at last Nestia sp (out of Nicol), the dam of our hero. It is worth adding that, among others, Romualdo was the runner up of Indoor Poland’s Cup (under Sławomir Hartman) during his later sports career. Aged 9, he was transferred to Germany. He was placed in front ranks at events in Braunschweig, Kiel and Munich, first under Holger Hetzel and then under Mario Stevens.

From among Romualdo’s offspring, Nestia was distinguished by her subtle beauty and moderate temperament. As two-year-old, she participated in the K-P Breeding Exhibition in Solec Kujawski where she was placed the second in her group. It’s only a pity that the advantages of her pedigree and exterior were not verified later by a performance test She is a faithful dam. Today, she is 15 years old and has a series of very successful foals. The first of them is just MJT Nevados S sp. He was born in 2008 as a result of insemination with frozen semen. It is necessary to indicate that this horse’s talent is not caused by chance aught. Simply, he has a perfect pedigree, the thorough analysis of which is given by Adam W. Jończyk in the magazine ‘Hodowca i Jeździec’ – Autumn 2015. Let’s remember only that a characteristic feature of its origin is elevenfold inbreeding for the epochal leading sire of sports horses, i.e. Polish Anglo-Arab Ramzes.

The sire of MJT Nevados S sp is Calvados Z that obtained his breeding licence after his fantastic performance during the World Young Horses Championships in Lanaken 2006. He became the World Champion of five-year horses under Roelof Brill. In 2007, under Stefan Corten, he was placed 9th and as a seven-year, he was placed 4th, only 0.4 s after the winner! In the next seasons, he started successfully in international competitions under Judy-Ann Melhior and Christian Ahlmann. Unfortunately, aged only 10, he died during the World Cup in Oslo.

In 2009, Nestia was delivered of a filly Nevada S sp., a full Nevados’s sister. The mare, also grey but a little smaller than her famous brother, is now one of the most important dams in her mother stud farm. After weaning, she participated in the K-P Breeding Exhibition in Solec Kujawski where she was placed the fourth in her group. The next Nestea’s daughter was bay Dryad Z by Diamant Z, born in 2011 – unfortunately, she died after her first foal’s birth. Within the period 2012-13, Nestia was covered by Leoville sf twice – the full brothers, Neville S sp and Neville II S sp, were born. They were presented at Kuyavian-Pomeranian breeding exhibition successfully and then tried theirs hand at show jumping. Whereas in the season 2017, the next daughter was born, Nelly Furtado S sp (by Cornet Obolensky bwp). She was sold at an auction to Estonia already before her birth. The Nestia’s son of 2018, the dark bay colt Nottingham S sp (by VDL Glasgow bwp) is the champion of Kuyavian-Pomeranian foal exhibition. His breeder hopes to live to see the next head stallion. However, the colt Notting Hill S sp (by Cornet Obolensky bwp), born in 2019, was sold at the exclusive Belgian foal auction at EUR44,000 – the highest price ever paid for a sports foal of Polish breeding!

Nevados, as a foal, was much the same as his dam. Was so noble and delicate that he didn’t look like a future stallion. But his brave sire’s genes prevailed quickly. Already as a yearling, he gathered a mass, a male appearance and… he started pestering the grooms. Although, he showed his advantages already as a two-year-old while he was placed the second in his age group (from among 11 horses) at the Kuyavian-Pomeranian breeding exhibition in Jarużyn and also the second (from among 17 horses) at the free jumping competition, he (with a group of horses from the same stable) was however quickly transferred to Marek Romanowski’s stable in Wozławki due to difficulties in training. However, even his experienced team could not master the defiant colt. Only stay at Jacek Zagor’s stable caused that Nevados started transforming his huge capabilities into effective work. His marks at qualification competitions for MPMK in 2012 were good (7.9-7.8 scores) but not staggering. His form explosion was at the optimum moment, just at finals in Gajewniki. His marks 9.2 and 8.8 were not only the best in the competitions but also, they belonged to the highest in this event history. He won with a huge superiority over the domestic and foreign competition. What’s interesting, it was also the first champion title in the young horses’ category for Jacek Zagor. Before the finals, the owner of Nevados was changed once again. The purchaser was Mr Rafał Jerzy from Bydgoszcz that used to train horse-riding as a junior and now he is a gentleman rider and a sponsor of horse-riding; he is also passionately fond of racehorses. He was disappointed with results of his large group of young German horses so he followed a rider’s advice and bought the domestic Nevados that returned the best he could indeed. The pair Nevados-Zagor repeated their success at MPMK also in 2013 – then they won all competitions with style evaluation in which they started!

When we wrote our first text on Nevados in August 2012 (Koń Polski 9/2012), this was the eyewitness account of decoration at MPMK-B in Gajewniki – Jacek Zagor’s radiant face, Rafał Jerzy’s smile and a breeder Staś Szurik’s tears of joy. I think we all knew that a great diamond was shown to the world, however nobody knew how splendid brilliant would appear after grinding. MJT Nevados S took a next quantum jump on this fascinating road in 2015 while winning Jumping World Championship of seven years old horses in Lanaken, Belgium, under Gregory Wathelet.

At that time, it seemed to be the top success of Polish breeding for many years. But seasons 2018-2019 were even more successful. After wins in Paris, Waregem, Liege and Prague, Nevados won the title of the Team Champion of Europe. What aim else can MJT Nevados S and his team have after such successes? After all, the Olympic Games in a year… At the same time, his offspring started moving up in the world. His daughter Donna Neva S (Daria Kobiernik) became the best of four years’ at the Young Horses Championship of Poland. His next daughter, Capella sp was the champion at Polish Sports Horse Days. Nevados’s sons were not worse. Fabregas S sp became the best stallion of Polish breeding at the Field Performance Test; Why Not wlkp – the Great Poland Horse Champion; and Celynos sp – the North Poland Champion in free jumping. While taking into account that all of these horses represent the first two age groups (very few) of Nevados’s lineage, we can speak courageously this is a stallion of huge pre-potency as regards sports features and he follows Ramzes to join the legends of the worldwide breeding, but it is necessary to make it possible for him. Unfortunately, the rules of Nevados matings, extremely unfriendly for Polish breeders, caused that his use in breeding decreased in subsequent years (2015: 9 foals, 2016: 6 foals, 2017: 4 foals, 2018: 2 foals, 2019: 1 foal and also only 1 foal is foreseen for 2020). This happens, unfortunately, to the prejudice of all parties concerned…

It is not a secret that lately, many Polish breeders register their foals in foreign federations. The effect is such that Poles pay for passports and pay fees in the interest of, e.g. German federation and then maintain and promote horses with German passports; if they reach a suitable sports level, they award points in the interest of German breeding. This is something like Podolski’s case. He was born in Poland but played for Germany, so he is German for all in the world except us, insiders. Even if the lobby of breeders of horses born in Poland but with foreign passports is stronger and stronger, these horses will never listen to Polish national anthem like it was in case of Nevados in Lanaken… They will listen to a quite different national anthem… Do Polish breeders want this surely? And are they awake to this certainly?

Recently, we celebrated the jubilee of 120th anniversary of the organized horse breeding at our country. It is worth bearing in mind that our ancestors established the first federations “to improve horse breeding” and also to face the German idea “Drang nach Ost”. Today, we must equal this challenge as well, in different realities and with different means!

Author: Tomasz Bagniewski