The Mezőhegyes stud farm, founded by imperial/royal decree in 1784, spent 70 years developing the Gidran breed of Arabian origin, the Nonius breed descended from Normandy bloodlines, and the English half-breed formed by the Furioso and North Star English racehorses. However, even during the first 70 years of the stud farm's history, the selected breeding stock became increasingly fragmented and divergent as a result of selection based on utility (and color).The formation of the Gidran breed and its heyday took place in four distinct phases. The first phase began in 1816, when an original Arabian stallion, born in 1811 and measuring just 157 centimeters in height, descended from the Siglavy Gidran line in Nedjed, arrived in Bábolna. The stallion sired six sons, all bred in Bábolna, which became the founding stallions in Mezőhegyes. The stallions Gidran I, Gidran II, Gidran III and Gidran IV were born in 1818 and moved from Bábolna to Mezőhegyes in 1823. Two other stallions, Gidran V and Gidran VI, were born in 1820 and moved to Mezőhegyes in 1825. The six stallions had a total of 66 offsprings.
This period ended in 1830 and can be considered the period of the Gidran Senior tribe's offspring.
The second phase of breed development between 1830 and 1838 was characterized by the activities of Gidran Senior's grandchildren. Gidran VII (son of Gidran II), born in Bábolna in 1825, began his stud career in Mezőhegyes in 1830 and sired 93 offsprings (four of which later became studs) during his eight years of breeding. Another significant stallion in the second phase of breed development was Gidran VIII (son of Gidran VI), who sired 111 offsprings. The nearly 10-year phase of breed development, which ended with the grandchildren of Gidran Senior, resulted in 217 offsprings, most of them yellow in color, which made it possible to establish a stud farm consisting of nine yellow mares.
Stage III. of development: 1838–1854 (Gidran Senior's great-grandchildren in breeding). In the third stage of the development of the Gidran tribe, five great-grandchildren of Gidran Senior (Gidran X, Gidran XI, Gidran XII, Gidran XIII, Gidran XIV, Gidran XV) covered the mare stock, shaping and defining the role of the yellow-colored Arabian stud farm No. 9 in Mezőhegyes. Among them, Gidrán XIII, who served as a stud for 11 breeding years, played a decisive role, leaving behind 100 offspring, but Gidran XV also served breeding for 12 years. The third phase ended in the autumn of 1854, when 65 mares were selected from the 9th stud and a further 29 were registered for the new classification of yellow-colored brood mares for the breeding season beginning the following year.
Stage IV of development: 1855–1919 (completion of breed formation, the golden age of the breed). This stage of development was characterized by a different breeding principle than before, and by the last third of this stage, the breed had reached its heyday. At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, there were already 16 mare families and three genealogical lines. The stage begins with 94 yellow mares being classified in the No. 4 Gidran stud for the 1855 breeding season. Most of these were horses named and of Gidran origin, but some yellow mares with other paternal names also had Gidran ancestors. These mares, which were essentially already Gidran mares, were assigned to the Gidran XVI, XXI, XXII. XXIII, and XXIV studs. Another significant change was that Lieutenant General Prince Joseph Lobkowitz, who took over as commander of the stud farm in 1855, ordered the independent registration of the stock in a stud book and the keeping of a Gidran stud book. The independent Arabian breed of Mezőhegyes was born!
In Mezőhegyes, after four, five, or six generations of inbreeding, and certainly due to the influence of yellow horses transferred from other breeds during the first three stages of breed development (e.g. Nonius V yellow stallion), it became apparent that the horses had grown in size, with successive generations becoming increasingly different from Arabian half-breeds in terms of body weight.
In order to prevent the coarsening that also occurred as a result of the rigidity effect, and to improve structural strength and certain conformation faults (high-set head and high-set neck, steep shoulder, stiff and choppy gait), the time was deemed ripe for change in the No. 4 Gidran stud farm as well. Lieutenant General Franz Ritter, who took over as commander of the stud farm in 1861, restricted the use of Arabian stallions in accordance with his breeding principles and assigned thoroughbred stallions to the Gidran stud farm as well.With the compromise and the transfer of the stud farms to Hungarian state ownership, the management of the Mezőhegyes stud farm set the development of an elegant Anglo-Arab character as the breeding goal for Gidran.
From the early 1880s until the outbreak of World War I, the Anglo-Arabian tribe with a higher thoroughbred gene percentage played an important role (Amaty Gidran I, Chief Justice Gidran I, Bíbor Gidran I, Kengyel Gidran I, Algy Gidran, Hűség Gidrán I.). However, the most common practice was to classify the mares of English thoroughbred stallions from prestigious parents that met professional expectations into the stud and breed them with Gidran stallions.
Hungarian equestrian history records that between 1887 and 1900, there was always a Gidrán horse among the leaders in dressage competitions. It was during this period that the first reports of the outstanding performance of individual Gidran horses appeared, such as in 1891, when Bibor Gidran, assigned to the Royal Hungarian Army Central Riding School, made a remarkable jump over a ditch estimated at 10 meters with István Kovásznay in the saddle, on the southern border of Kis-Pest. Studying the old stud books, it is also apparent that most of the horses from the Mezőhegyes breeds were transferred from the Gidran stallion to the stud. Studying the old studbooks, it is also apparent that most of the horses of the Mezőhegyes breeds were transferred from the Gidran stud to the Vienna Riding Instructor Training Institute, but they also performed excellently in the Holics pack hunts.
The fate of the breed from 1919 to 1948
The horse population in Mezőhegyes suffered virtually no losses during the war, but the Romanian army marched into Mezőhegyes (among other places) on May 2, 1919. From the autumn of 1919 until the complete withdrawal in March 1920, 186 Gidran horses were taken away, including 74 mares, 4 stallions, 4 stallion candidates, and the rest were mares and foals of various ages. On March 20, 1920, 13 mares were available for breeding. After the war, Mezőhegyes did everything in its power to regenerate the breed, with quality requirements being the top priority. By the mid-1930s, this lively breed had regained its international reputation. The best show jumpers of the interwar period were of Gidran origin. Suffice it to mention the successes of Tibor Várkonyi, Imre Bodó, and József Platty. But hunting continued in Örkénytábor and Alagon, and the horses tested here were praised in the literature of the time. There was no shortage of dressage riders either, as evidenced by Pauly Hartmann and his Gidran mare. The breed flourished once again and gave rise to high hopes. By 1944, there were already 90 broodmares in breeding. The further development of the stock was prevented by the war.
The fate of the breed between 1948 and 1958
World War II pushed the breed toward further destruction. In 1948, 28 mares were finally able to return to their original home, and nine valuable stallions were available to start over. Nevertheless, its magical performance in sport continued after World War II. 7 Siglavy Gidran I-4 (Mérges), 85 Gidran "B" VIII, 83 Ragyogó Gidran (Szlanka), Gidran Maxim I-78 (Ibolya), 969 Ozora Árvácska-, Gazal Gidran II, Gidran B VII offspring are named after the war, just under two decades later.
Meanwhile, disregarding Mezőhegyes' role in animal husbandry, in 1958, 32 mares belonging to 9 Mezőhegyes mare families and the yearling foal stock were moved to Sütvény. The genetic distinctiveness of the Gidran breed settled in Sütvény (Dalmandi State Farm) was not resolved. By 1961/62, contemporary descriptions mention only 16 original Gidrans and 12 Gidran-type brood mares. The decline of the Gidran breed had begun irrevocably.
The necessity of establishing the Borodpuszta stud farm
After the squandering of Hungarian animal breeding values, and in response to the shock of the former-now-non-existent reality, a program to preserve old animal breeds was launched in Hungary. As part of this, a Gidran breed reconstruction program was launched in Borodpuszta, which is part of the Animal Breeding and Feeding Supervisory Authority, with 20 mares of Gidran genetic background purchased from folk breeders. The breed was successfully revived, and individuals with outstanding sporting performance were born in this stud farm.
The practice of stud relocation, which had become customary in Hungary, caught up with the breed again, and in 1984 the stud was moved to Szántódpuszta, then in September 1988 to Marócpuszta, where it was joined by the remaining stock of the Sütvény stud. At that time, the herd consisted of 75 state-owned mares, with no privately owned Gidran horses. Gidran Maxim I (Ibolya), bred in Borod and Sütvény, developed into a nationally significant show jumper at the Marócpuszta Gidran stud farm, but Gidran IV-53 (Jácint), Gidran IV-60 (Igaz), and 60 Gidran III-14 (Rebeka) also showed great promise in show jumping. Not to be left out of the list are Gidran VI-10 (Ozora), Gidran IV-21 (Miska), Gidran IV-62 (Gibraltár), the national champion carriage horse Gidran VI-3 (Obeliszk), and the offspring of the Déva thoroughbred also began their march. The Gidran X tribe was considered a successful prize winner at the national level.
The fate of the breed from 1989 to 2017
With the change of regime, the Kisbéri Half-Blood Horse Breeders' National Association was established, which included the Gidrán breed with its 75 mares, and the Association continued its breed preservation work under the name Kisbéri and Gidrán Horse Breeders' National Association with two breeding committees. More and more horses came into the possession of private breeders, and more importantly, private breeders began purchasing Gidrán horses from the Radautzi stud farm. With 61 imported broodmares and more than a dozen imported stallions, the genetic diversity of the breed was restored. With the imports, the existing horses, and the rescued horses, the actual genetic structure of the breed can once again be concentrated in the hands of Hungarian breeders. With the exception of the mare families that became extinct between the two world wars, it has been possible to maintain all of them, and although not without problems, the genealogical lines are also available.
The breed's sporting successes continued during this period. Some of the most notable include:
Gidran XI-53 (Sáfrány), international three-star military horse
Gidran XI-4 (Sóhaj) with Vilhelm Fox Pittel in the saddle, at one point the world's best cross-country horse
Gidran XI-39 (Nimfa), military horse qualified for the Moscow Olympics, ridden by Harald Ambros
Razbeg I-12 (KIS MITOK), military horse qualified for the London Olympics, ridden by Alice Naber Losemann
Gidran XI-16 (Ima), an international *** star military horse with rider Jan van Beek
Gidran XI-50 (Sovánka), Hungarian military champion with rider Vanda Pintér
Gidran XI-30 (Illanó), which performed in the first third of the breeding competition.
But the breeding results of this period also include Déva Gidrán-1 (Róza/Roletti), the horse of the year, and Gidran XI-32 (Regölő), an international ***-star military horse.
A little later, Gidran XXIV-120 (Selllő) became a dominant force in military competition. However, the greatest success was achieved by the mare Gidran XXVIII-4 (Iduna). This horse was bred in 2020 after finishing her sporting career as a ***-star military horse. The list continues with the stallions Gidran XIX-21 (Kelevéz), Gidran XXVII-43 (Kartel), and even Gidran XXVII-42 (Nótás), as well as a few broodmare candidates.
Private breeders committed to the breed have strived to test their Gidran horses in sports to the limits of their capabilities. First and foremost among them is the stallion Gidran-44 (Mytok), who has been a regular competitor on show jumping courses for 10 years. He jumped 200 centimeters in a high jump endurance test, then performed successfully the next day on a 145-centimeter show jumping course. Gidran XIII-43 (Fáraó) was a successful jumper in Hungary and Italy, and was put into breeding in 2018 at the age of 20. We must also mention Déva Gidran-13 (Riadó), Gidran XXIV-26 (Széptevő), Gidran XXVII-4 (Bohém), and Gidran-15 (Sebes), which, together with the others, have proven the breed's suitability for sport with their outstanding sporting performance.
The history of the breed since 2017
Act XCI of 2016 created the legal basis for the establishment of the National Stud Farm and Tangazdaság, and Section 2(1) of the Act stipulates that the breeding of the state-owned herd of Gidran horses in Mezőhegyes is its task. In order to implement the provisions of the law, in October 2017, after fifty years, nearly 100 Gidrán horses originating from Mezőhegyes were returned from the Marócpusztai Gidrán Stud Farm managed by the State Stud Farm in Szilvásvárad.
With the privately owned broodmare herd, the breed exceeded the 300 mark, and the idea of establishing an independent association arose. During consultations with dedicated breeders of the breed, the initiative to establish an independent Gidrán association received widespread support, and as a result, the process of founding the association began.
In 2019, the court registered the association under the name "Hungarian Association of Gidrán Horse Breeders," and the Ministry of Agriculture approved the transfer of breed maintenance rights from the Kisbér and Gidrán Horse Breeders' National Association. With this decision by the Ministry of Agriculture, an independent breeding organization was established, assuming the associated responsibilities.
Since January 2020, the Hungarian Association of Gidran Horse Breeders has been independently maintaining the breed, taking responsibility for all tasks related to breeding.
In January 2023, together with the yearling fillies, the number of mares registered with the Association exceeded 500. This is the largest number in the history of the breed.
