CPP-Bred Arabian Horses Star at Nationals

Cal Poly Pomona-bred Arabian horses won a string of honors last month at the 56^th Annual U.S. Arabian & Half Arabian National Championships.

Horses that were bred at the W.K. Kellogg Arabian Horse Center took home two national championships, three reserve national championships and four Top 10 awards in Tulsa, Okla., Oct. 21-29.

“The Cal Poly Pomona Arabian breeding program is thriving, and the results are outstanding,” horse center Executive Director John Lambert said. “Many breeders go a lifetime and never produce a single national champion.”

The national championships is the most prestigious Arabian horse show in North America, with more than 1,800 horses competing for national championship titles, bringing owners from around the world.

“The nationals can be equated to the Super Bowl, the show everyone in the industry dreams of one day winning,” Lambert said. “As a breeder, it is the pinnacle and the ultimate measure of one’s breeding program.”

This year, there were 10 Cal Poly Pomona-bred horses competing. Six were sold at one of the horse center’s public auctions; they accounted for one national championship, three reserve national championships – the equivalent of a silver medal – and two Top 10 awards.

The remaining four horse competing were sold in private sales prior to the center switching to the auction format in 2015.

Selling horses is part of what a breeding farm like the horse center does.

The auction provides the public the opportunity to own some of the finest bloodlines in the world. Many of the horses can trace their bloodlines back to the original Arabian horse herd that cereal magnate W.K. Kellogg owned and raised on his Pomona ranch, which is now Cal Poly Pomona University.

An auction format is used instead of private sales to ensure transparency and fair market pricing, with 100% of the proceeds going to support the horse centers student programs and essential needs of the Arabian horses.

The horse center is holding its next auction from Nov. 13 to 19. Nine horses are up for sale in the online event, which The Arabian Horse Times will manage.

Both the horse center and The Arabian Horse Times will have information and videos of the horses available on their websites for prospective buyers to review. The horse center is also  actively posting information of the sale horses on its Facebook page and Instagram.