Witez II
Encyclopedia
Witez II was a bay Arabian
stallion
foaled at the Janów Podlaski
stud in Poland. Foaled April 1, 1938, he spent his early years at Janów at a time when Poland was under occupation by Nazi Germany
before ultimately arriving in the United States in 1945, where he lived for the remainder of his life until his death on June 9, 1965. His name came from an archaic Polish
word meaning "chieftain, knight, prince and hero."
by Prince Roman Sanguszko
of the Gumniska stud. Seeking an outcross for his mares, Sanguszko sent Bogdan Zientarski, accompanied by Carl Raswan
, to buy horses from the desert in 1931. Kuhalian-Haifi died in 1935, having only sired 14 foals, of whom Ofir is the best-known. Federacja was a Polish-bred mare with bloodlines tracing to both Polish breeding and that of the Babolna
stud of Hungary.
The 1938 foal
crop was Ofir's first, and contained three colts
that became sires of significance in the Arabian breed: Witez II; Witraz (Ofir x Makata), who was the sire of Bask
; and the noted broodmare sire, Wielki Szlem (Ofir x Elegantka). During World War II, Ofir and Federacja were among the horses of Janów that were taken by the Russians during the Soviet invasion of Poland
. Ofir was later used at the Tersk Stud
in the USSR, where he sired the mare
Mammona, a dam of significance in a number of Russian bloodlines.
when Nazi Germany
invaded Poland
in 1939. With both the Soviet Union and Germany occupying the country, the Janów stud was temporarily evacuated. However, though Janów was on the German side of the Curzon line
, the Russian military nonetheless confiscated most of the mature breeding stock as spoils of war. Witez II, along with the bulk of the young horses, avoided this fate and ultimately was returned to Janów, which was soon under the management of the German military. As young horse, he was put into race training, but because of wartime cancellation of horse racing during the occupation of Poland, he was not taken to the track. Instead, he was put to stud, first at Janów, and then was taken to Hostau in what today is the Czech Republic, where the Nazis had gathered significant bloodstock of all different breeds from across the Third Reich.
General George S. Patton
, of the 2nd U.S. Cavalry Group, was a lifelong horseman who competed in Modern Pentathlon
at the 1912 Olympic Games. He had been tipped off by Alois Podhajsky
of the Spanish Riding School
that a significant number of Lipizzan
s and Thoroughbred
s, as well as Arabian horse
s were at Hostau. When Hostau fell behind Soviet lines, captured German officers, under interrogation by U.S. Army Captain Ferdinand Sperl, reported the location of the stud farm and asked the Americans to rescue the horses before they fell into Soviet hands, because it was feared they would be slaughtered for horsemeat. Patton issued orders, and on April 28, 1945, Colonel Charles H. Reed, Sperl's superior officer, with members of Troops A, C and F of the 2nd Cavalry Regiment, conducted a raid behind Soviet lines and accepted the surrender of the Germans at Hostau. Reed later said that the surrender was "more a fiesta than a military operation, as the German troops drew up an honor guard and saluted the American troops as they came in." Being one of the relatively few horses at Hostau who was broke to ride, Witez II carried a rider throughout the evacuation and came through sound.
in late 1945, and spent the winter at the U.S. Army Remount station at Front Royal, Virginia
. In early 1946, Witez II and the bulk of the imported Arabians were shipped to the Army Remount station at the former W.K. Kellogg
Arabian Ranch in Pomona, California
, where he stood at stud until 1948. In that year, the remount service was put under the authority of the United States Department of Agriculture
, and the horses were sent off for auction.
Witez II was purchased in 1949 by Earle E. and Frances Hurlbutt of the Calarabia Ranch near Calabasas, California
, who owned him for the remainder of his life. Because the remount horses had been shipped to a consolidated site in Oklahoma for sale, Hurlbutt flew to Fort Reno, Oklahoma, specifically to bid on the stallion, and paid $8100 for the horse. Witez II lived on the Hurlbutt ranch for many years, but left California from 1960 to 1964 on a lease to Burr Betts of the Betts Circle 2 Ranch in Parker, Colorado
. He returned to Calarabia for the final year of his life.
Although not shown a great deal in America, he was 1951 Grand Champion at the Southern California All-Arabian show in Pomona, one of the largest shows of the day, and then Pacific Coast Champion Stallion and overall grand champion in 1953, at the age of 15, winning one of the most prestigious awards for Arabian horses at the time. He sired 223 foal
s, of whom 10 had been born outside the USA prior to his importation. His offspring included 16 national winners in both halter and performance, which was particularly notable because the first U.S. National Championship show was not held until 1958. His daughter Ronteza made a significant mark in open competition, winning the 1961 World Champion Reined Cow Horse at the Cow Palace
in San Francisco, defeating 50 horses of all breeds.
Arabian horse
The Arabian or Arab horse is a breed of horse that originated on the Arabian Peninsula. With a distinctive head shape and high tail carriage, the Arabian is one of the most easily recognizable horse breeds in the world. It is also one of the oldest breeds, with archaeological evidence of horses...
stallion
Stallion (horse)
A stallion is a male horse that has not been gelded .Stallions will follow the conformation and phenotype of their breed, but within that standard, the presence of hormones such as testosterone may give stallions a thicker, "cresty" neck, as well as a somewhat more muscular physique as compared to...
foaled at the Janów Podlaski
Janów Podlaski
Janów Podlaski is a village in Biała Podlaska County, Lublin Voivodeship, in eastern Poland, close to the border with Belarus. It is the seat of the gmina called Gmina Janów Podlaski...
stud in Poland. Foaled April 1, 1938, he spent his early years at Janów at a time when Poland was under occupation by Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
before ultimately arriving in the United States in 1945, where he lived for the remainder of his life until his death on June 9, 1965. His name came from an archaic Polish
Polish language
Polish is a language of the Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages, used throughout Poland and by Polish minorities in other countries...
word meaning "chieftain, knight, prince and hero."
Ancestry
Witez II was by Ofir out of Federacja. Ofir was by the desert-bred stallion Kuhalian-Haifi, foaled in 1923, who was imported from the Jauf region of the Arabian peninsulaArabian Peninsula
The Arabian Peninsula is a land mass situated north-east of Africa. Also known as Arabia or the Arabian subcontinent, it is the world's largest peninsula and covers 3,237,500 km2...
by Prince Roman Sanguszko
Sanguszko
Sanguszko is a Polish-Lithuanian noble family of the Ruthenian Sanguszko is a Polish-Lithuanian noble family of the Ruthenian Sanguszko is a Polish-Lithuanian noble family of the Ruthenian (now Ukrainian stock from the Gediminid dynasty. Like other princely houses of Polish-Lithuanian...
of the Gumniska stud. Seeking an outcross for his mares, Sanguszko sent Bogdan Zientarski, accompanied by Carl Raswan
Carl Raswan
Carl Reinhard Raswan , born Carl Reinhard Schmidt, was one of the greatest connoisseurs and patrons of the asil Arabian horse. He was also a writer and author of numerous books on Arabian horses and the Bedouin people...
, to buy horses from the desert in 1931. Kuhalian-Haifi died in 1935, having only sired 14 foals, of whom Ofir is the best-known. Federacja was a Polish-bred mare with bloodlines tracing to both Polish breeding and that of the Babolna
Bábolna
Bábolna is a town in Komárom-Esztergom county, Hungary.In 1437-1438 there was a peasant revolt.Bábolna also houses the famous riding school, and a world-famous stud farm.-References:...
stud of Hungary.
The 1938 foal
Foal
A foal is an equine, particularly a horse, that is one year old or younger. More specific terms are colt for a male foal and filly for a female foal, but these terms are used until the horse is age three or four. When the foal is nursing from its dam , it may also be called a suckling...
crop was Ofir's first, and contained three colts
Colt (horse)
A colt is a young male horse, under the age of four. The term "colt" is often confused with foal, which refers to a horse of either sex under one year of age....
that became sires of significance in the Arabian breed: Witez II; Witraz (Ofir x Makata), who was the sire of Bask
Bask
Bask, bred at the Albigowa State Stud in Poland and foaled in 1956, was a bay Arabian stallion who was imported into the United States in 1963 by Dr. Eugene LaCroix of Lasma Arabians and became a major sire of significance in the Arabian breed....
; and the noted broodmare sire, Wielki Szlem (Ofir x Elegantka). During World War II, Ofir and Federacja were among the horses of Janów that were taken by the Russians during the Soviet invasion of Poland
Soviet invasion of Poland (1939)
The 1939 Soviet invasion of Poland was a Soviet military operation that started without a formal declaration of war on 17 September 1939, during the early stages of World War II. Sixteen days after Nazi Germany invaded Poland from the west, the Soviet Union did so from the east...
. Ofir was later used at the Tersk Stud
Tersk Stud
The Tersk Stud was officially established on February 11, 1921, on the orders of Marshal Semyon Budyonny. The breeding farm was used to restore the Russian horse population, which suffered heavy losses during the Russian Revolution.- Early history :...
in the USSR, where he sired the mare
Mare (horse)
A mare is an adult female horse or other equine.In most cases, a mare is a female horse over the age of three, and a filly is a female horse age three and younger. However, in Thoroughbred horse racing, a mare is defined as a female horse more than four years old; in harness racing a mare is a...
Mammona, a dam of significance in a number of Russian bloodlines.
Early years
Witez II was only a yearlingYearling (horse)
A yearling is a young horse of either sex that is between one and two years old. Yearlings are comparable in development to a very early adolescent, they are not fully mature physically, and while they may be in the earliest stages of sexual maturity, they are considered too young to be breeding...
when Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
invaded Poland
Invasion of Poland (1939)
The Invasion of Poland, also known as the September Campaign or 1939 Defensive War in Poland and the Poland Campaign in Germany, was an invasion of Poland by Germany, the Soviet Union, and a small Slovak contingent that marked the start of World War II in Europe...
in 1939. With both the Soviet Union and Germany occupying the country, the Janów stud was temporarily evacuated. However, though Janów was on the German side of the Curzon line
Curzon Line
The Curzon Line was put forward by the Allied Supreme Council after World War I as a demarcation line between the Second Polish Republic and Bolshevik Russia and was supposed to serve as the basis for a future border. In the wake of World War I, which catalysed the Russian Revolution of 1917, the...
, the Russian military nonetheless confiscated most of the mature breeding stock as spoils of war. Witez II, along with the bulk of the young horses, avoided this fate and ultimately was returned to Janów, which was soon under the management of the German military. As young horse, he was put into race training, but because of wartime cancellation of horse racing during the occupation of Poland, he was not taken to the track. Instead, he was put to stud, first at Janów, and then was taken to Hostau in what today is the Czech Republic, where the Nazis had gathered significant bloodstock of all different breeds from across the Third Reich.
General George S. Patton
George S. Patton
George Smith Patton, Jr. was a United States Army officer best known for his leadership while commanding corps and armies as a general during World War II. He was also well known for his eccentricity and controversial outspokenness.Patton was commissioned in the U.S. Army after his graduation from...
, of the 2nd U.S. Cavalry Group, was a lifelong horseman who competed in Modern Pentathlon
Modern pentathlon
The modern pentathlon is a sports contest that includes five events: pistol shooting, épée fencing, 200 m freestyle swimming, show jumping, and a 3 km cross-country run...
at the 1912 Olympic Games. He had been tipped off by Alois Podhajsky
Alois Podhajsky
Colonel Alois Podhajsky was the director of the Spanish Riding School in Vienna, Austria as well as an Olympic medal-winner in dressage, riding instructor, and writer.-Career:...
of the Spanish Riding School
Spanish Riding School
The Spanish Riding School of Vienna, Austria, is a traditional riding school for Lipizzan horses, which perform in the Winter Riding School in the Hofburg...
that a significant number of Lipizzan
Lipizzan
The Lipizzan or Lipizzaner , is a breed of horse closely associated with the Spanish Riding School of Vienna, Austria, where the finest representatives demonstrate the haute école or "high school" movements of classical dressage, including the highly controlled, stylized jumps and other movements...
s and Thoroughbred
Thoroughbred
The Thoroughbred is a horse breed best known for its use in horse racing. Although the word thoroughbred is sometimes used to refer to any breed of purebred horse, it technically refers only to the Thoroughbred breed...
s, as well as Arabian horse
Arabian horse
The Arabian or Arab horse is a breed of horse that originated on the Arabian Peninsula. With a distinctive head shape and high tail carriage, the Arabian is one of the most easily recognizable horse breeds in the world. It is also one of the oldest breeds, with archaeological evidence of horses...
s were at Hostau. When Hostau fell behind Soviet lines, captured German officers, under interrogation by U.S. Army Captain Ferdinand Sperl, reported the location of the stud farm and asked the Americans to rescue the horses before they fell into Soviet hands, because it was feared they would be slaughtered for horsemeat. Patton issued orders, and on April 28, 1945, Colonel Charles H. Reed, Sperl's superior officer, with members of Troops A, C and F of the 2nd Cavalry Regiment, conducted a raid behind Soviet lines and accepted the surrender of the Germans at Hostau. Reed later said that the surrender was "more a fiesta than a military operation, as the German troops drew up an honor guard and saluted the American troops as they came in." Being one of the relatively few horses at Hostau who was broke to ride, Witez II carried a rider throughout the evacuation and came through sound.
Life in America
At the end of the war, Witez II and other horses captured from the Nazis were shipped to the United States, much to the dismay of the Poles, who had hoped to recover the horses they had lost. The journey by ship from Europe to America was quite rough, but the horses arrived safely in Newport News, VirginiaNewport News, Virginia
Newport News is an independent city located in the Hampton Roads metropolitan area of Virginia. It is at the southeastern end of the Virginia Peninsula, on the north shore of the James River extending southeast from Skiffe's Creek along many miles of waterfront to the river's mouth at Newport News...
in late 1945, and spent the winter at the U.S. Army Remount station at Front Royal, Virginia
Front Royal, Virginia
Front Royal is a town in Warren County, Virginia, United States. The population was 13,589 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Warren County.-Geography:Front Royal is roughly west of Washington, D.C....
. In early 1946, Witez II and the bulk of the imported Arabians were shipped to the Army Remount station at the former W.K. Kellogg
Will Keith Kellogg
Will Keith Kellogg, generally referred to as W.K. Kellogg was an American industrialist in food manufacturing, best known as the founder of the Kellogg Company, which to this day produces a wide variety of popular breakfast cereals...
Arabian Ranch in Pomona, California
Pomona, California
-2010:The 2010 United States Census reported that Pomona had a population of 149,058, a slight decline from the 2000 census population. The population density was 6,491.2 people per square mile...
, where he stood at stud until 1948. In that year, the remount service was put under the authority of the United States Department of Agriculture
United States Department of Agriculture
The United States Department of Agriculture is the United States federal executive department responsible for developing and executing U.S. federal government policy on farming, agriculture, and food...
, and the horses were sent off for auction.
Witez II was purchased in 1949 by Earle E. and Frances Hurlbutt of the Calarabia Ranch near Calabasas, California
Calabasas, California
Calabasas is an affluent city in Los Angeles County, California in the western United States. It is located in the hills in the southwestern San Fernando Valley and the Santa Monica Mountains between Woodland Hills, Agoura Hills, West Hills, and Malibu, California. As of the 2010 census, the city...
, who owned him for the remainder of his life. Because the remount horses had been shipped to a consolidated site in Oklahoma for sale, Hurlbutt flew to Fort Reno, Oklahoma, specifically to bid on the stallion, and paid $8100 for the horse. Witez II lived on the Hurlbutt ranch for many years, but left California from 1960 to 1964 on a lease to Burr Betts of the Betts Circle 2 Ranch in Parker, Colorado
Colorado
Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...
. He returned to Calarabia for the final year of his life.
Although not shown a great deal in America, he was 1951 Grand Champion at the Southern California All-Arabian show in Pomona, one of the largest shows of the day, and then Pacific Coast Champion Stallion and overall grand champion in 1953, at the age of 15, winning one of the most prestigious awards for Arabian horses at the time. He sired 223 foal
Foal
A foal is an equine, particularly a horse, that is one year old or younger. More specific terms are colt for a male foal and filly for a female foal, but these terms are used until the horse is age three or four. When the foal is nursing from its dam , it may also be called a suckling...
s, of whom 10 had been born outside the USA prior to his importation. His offspring included 16 national winners in both halter and performance, which was particularly notable because the first U.S. National Championship show was not held until 1958. His daughter Ronteza made a significant mark in open competition, winning the 1961 World Champion Reined Cow Horse at the Cow Palace
Cow Palace
Cow Palace is an indoor arena, in Daly City, California, situated on the city's border with neighboring San Francisco, notable as a sporting arena.-History:...
in San Francisco, defeating 50 horses of all breeds.