Moments in Time
ForgottenH ero B Y
B E T T Y
F I N K E
In four decades, you see a lot of horses: some great ones, many good ones, a whole lot of average ones, and — well, never mind the rest. It takes all kinds to make a world. They
to handle and quite Looking through old come and they go. Some of them leave their mark, but it is aggressive, but a solution photos in preparation for for that problem was easily this month’s contribution, by no means always the right ones that do. More often than found, or rather, two I found this shot which I not, it’s all down to circumstances. Even a horse that was solutions: he was allowed took in 1981. The horse is famous in his time might still somehow miss leaving his to run with his mares, and Neron, a purebred stallion he was put to work. Neron foaled in 1967 at Tersk and imprint on the breed, his name eventually remembered only became the competition owned for most of his life by those who knew him. horse for his owner’s by a small German breeder, daughter Sylvia, who was Ingolf Peitgen, who had just nine years old at the found him in Holland time he joined the family. Betty, Sylvia’s two years younger sister, where he had really been looking for a mare to buy. During the competed on Kosima, the family’s Shagya-Arabian mare and 1960s and early 1970s, many Russian horses came to Western Neron’s lifelong companion as well as dam of many of his foals. Europe via the Netherlands, including several stallions that After winning his stallion performance test in 1974 (this ended up in Germany and were licensed for breeding. Few was in the days of the 100-day performance test, the same the of them left anything of note, at least not in pure Arabian warmblood stallions had to pass), Neron was an active sports breeding, though at least one of them became a very influential horse for many years. He was hunted regularly, and competed sire of riding ponies. This was some years before Russian bloodlines became popular, before the Tersk auctions, and before in eventing, show jumping, and dressage. Against warmblood horses, of course! Between them, Neron, Kosima and the Aswan. We’re talking old Russian breeding here. Peitgen girls demonstrated what Arabians can do. Neron Neron’s sire was the Priboj son Sport, holder of five speed represented the breed on numerous occasions throughout the records in the Soviet Union and, according to one source, years, including Equitana, the world equestrian trade fair. When winner of a four kilometer steeplechase against other breeds. the very first international Arabian show was held at Aachen in His dam Nitochka was a full sister to the famous Negatiw, and 1979, Neron was there, winning the jumping contest. If you her other produce include the Tersk chief sire Naslednik and the lived in Germany in the 1980s and had anything to do with important broodmares Nalpa, Napersnitsa, and Nit. Neron had Arabians, you knew his name. He was a star. inherited some of his dam’s good looks — he was not so much And yet, most of today’s breeders have never heard of him, pretty as ruggedly handsome — and all of his sire’s athletic and you will have a hard time finding any purebred descendants. ability. When Ingolf Peitgen bought him, he was difficult 98 b ARABIAN HORSE WORLD b OCTOBER 2016
Neron (Sport x Nitochka) showing off in front of Kosima’s stable.
What happened? Well, he simply wasn’t used, at least not by purebred breeders. He sired a total of 12 purebred foals, of which just one son and two daughters may have living descendants. His owner had no purebred mares himself, only the Shagya-Arabian Kosima. Neron was used by several Shagya-Arabian breeders of note, and he had four licensed Shagya-Arabian sons, one of them ranked “Elite.” He also sired an “Elite” Shagya-Arabian mare who is herself the dam of an “Elite” Shagya stallion. But breeders of purebred Arabians just weren’t interested. A total of five breeders sent purebred mares to him, all of them small local breeders. One was a veterinarian who lived down the road from me and owned a half sister to Neron, Salomea, who was also sired by Sport. He bred her to Neron four times, getting two colts and two fillies. One of the colts, Susdal, grew up to become one of the best Arabian racehorses in Germany and sired about a dozen foals himself, including some good racehorses. And that is basically it.
So why was a horse with that kind of breeding and credentials not more popular? Possibly because, even then, people were more concerned with “pretty” than with athleticism. And Neron didn’t “do” pretty — those inbred double Sport foals were anything but. In fact, one of the colts was quite ugly. But, though Neron got to breed some of the best Shagya-Arabian mares in the country, he was never bred to a first-class purebred mare. By the time people got interested in Russian bloodlines, Kilimandscharo had arrived on the scene, and all everyone wanted was Aswan get. Nearly everybody else in Germany was breeding Egyptians, anyway, and had no use for a big, athletic old Russian stallion. So while his name is rightly revered among Shagya-Arabian breeders today, the purebred world has forgotten him. We will never know what might have been, under different circumstances. What remains is the memory of a stallion who was everything an Arabian horse could and should be, but was never given the chance he deserved.
99 b ARABIAN HORSE WORLD b OCTOBER 2016