Hungarian Horse History
How did the Hungarian horses go from the best-known cavalry mounts in Europe, to the best-kept secret in the sport horse world?
Hungary is a country of rolling grasslands, perfectly suited for cattle and horses, and the people of Hungary (the Magyar) have been known as great horsemen for centuries. As invaders crossed or conquered Hungary over the centuries, they brought with them their fine Turkoman (ancestors of today's Akhal-Teke), Iberian (ancestors of Andalusians and Lusitanos), and Arabian horses. These horses were crossed with the hardy little local horses to create a superior mount for the Hungarian cattlemen.
In the 1800's, Hungary was powerful and important politically, with a strong army. The Hungarian government was the first of the European governments to begin a deliberate breeding program to improve their cavalry horses. They established several stud farms, each with a specific purpose. At Kisber, the stud was to develop excellent light cavalry horses, by crossing the best Thoroughbred (and some Arabian and Shagya) stallions on the best local mares. In the decades leading up to World War I, these Hungarian horses (sometimes called "Hungarian Halfbreds" or "Kisber Felver" horses) became the envy of all the European cavalries, winning (along with the Akhal-Teke) many of the military endurance contests of the day, which were run over hundreds of miles, without benefit of vet checks, in astonishingly difficult conditions. They also excelled in the jumping and combined training competitions, which were originally mainly for military officers.
World War II decimated the horse population of Europe, and as Hungary fell behind the Iron Curtain, the communist government saw little value in raising horses. A few excellent Hungarian horses had been taken by the German government, and at the end of the war, some of these were taken as spoils of war by the US Army, to use in the remount breeding program. However, by 1950 the military had decided that horses would have no place in modern warfare, and the remount horses had been sold at auction, scattered across the country.
Two countesses and a Nebraska rancher
We owe the existence of the Hungarian horses in North America today in large part to four people:
Countess Judith Gyurky, (pictured left, jumping sidesaddle in competition in Europe) who escaped from Hungary during World War II, on foot and with wagons, bringing horses and villagers with her, and trading her jewelry for feed along the way till she reached territory controlled by the US army. She managed to make it to Virginia with 14 horses, and buy a small farm where she could raise a few Hungarian horses. For the rest of her life, she never had much money, but her horses, who had nearly starved on the march across Europe, never went hungry.
Countess (later Baroness) Margit Bessenyey, (pictured above, right, in Hungarian costume; and left, in the Tevis Cup) like Judith of mixed US and Hungarian ancestry, who also made it back to the US. She was an heir to the Marcus Daly (Montana copper king) fortune, and bought as many of the Hungarian mares as she could find when the remount disbanded. She took them to the Daly ranch in Montana, persuaded a Montana rancher (Jim Edwards) to loan her the Hungarian stallion he had acquired from the remount service, and set out to preserve as many of the bloodlines as possible. Her goal was to return breeding stock to Hungary after the communist government was replaced. Unfortunately, she died before the fall of the Soviet Union, and most of her horses were sold, without papers, by her New York lawyer.
Steve and Wanda Cooksley, a young ranch couple in central Nebraska. By chance, when buying Thoroughbred mares from the remount service, they acquired three mares who had been bred to Hungarian stallions. When those foals got old enough to ride, they decided that was the kind of horse they wanted to ride on the rolling hills of their huge cattle ranch. Steve had a hard time finding many more of the horses, and two stallions he did locate died before he was able to get them. But he was introduced to Margit, and through her later to Judith, and by working together following the traditions of the Kisber stud, Judith, Margit, Steve and Wanda were able to build up a viable breeding population in the US. After Margit and Judith died, the Cooksleys had the only sizable breeding herd in North America.
