Kvadrat - a two-time Derby winner and a famous troter

31.08.2013 19:50

Monuments are erected at the horse breeding plants which are home to famous horses. The frisky stallion Kvadrat is immortalized in the two sculptures in the capital. Let us remember the history of this wonderful racer.

The Orlov trotter Kvadrat was a two-time Derby winner, born in 1946 at the Moscow Horse Breeding Plant. He lived for almost 30 years and became the father of more than 600 horses of the Orlov breed laying the foundations of the good breeding core of the Moscow HBP.

The birth of Kvadrat was predicted by Vladimir Vitt, hippologist. After analyzing the branches of the Orlov trotting breed, he found out that there was a possibility of appearing of a distinguished descendant in the line of Veterok from a combination of Proliv and Keramika - a successful beautiful agile horse. This was Kvadrat.

Acquaintance with Roshchin

In the summer of 1947, the stallion got acquainted with his future sports partner - the horse rider Alexander Roshchin. The latter one was invited to select a horse party for the Moscow Hippodrome. Kvadrat did not appear on the track of the plant but when reviewing the young horses at the stable, Roshchin immediately liked the beautiful Kvadrat, a 1.5-year old son of Proliv and Keramika.

The bay Kvadrat was perfect: a beautiful dry head, long neck, good crupper and strong back. Mobility of the stallion was captivating. But his legs were weak. As riders say, "it sat on the pasterns”. However, the stallion managed with the work at the plant racetrack and at the request of the head of the plant, Alexander Popov, who expected a lot from Kvadrat, Roshchin took it into training. During its first performance Kvadrat was the second. But at the exhibition of young horses born in 1946 it received the title of the champion of the stallions of the Orlov trotting breed.

Kvadrat had a fervent nature which led to crashes, often called for a relaxing training on long distances and due to weak legs was not able to perform with the necessary load. All that features complicated the preparation of the trotter for big prizes.

Tricky nature

Kvadrat, spoiled with constant attention, fel the liberty to do things that other horses would not dare do. It could eat a sugar and immediately bite the person who gave it to him, could suddenly kick even its rider. During re-shoeing it almost laid down on the farrier blacksmith holding one of its legs. The stallion willingly posed for photographers aptly hiding the defects in its legs with a pose. Its favorite pose was "candle". It rose almost vertically stretching its shiny, muscular body. Up to the old age, at all dressage tests and international auctions, which the Moscow HBP had always had a lot, Kvadrat "walked" only on its hind legs.

Once it was tested after swing by Viktor Maksimov, a horse holder. Kvadrat, as usual, tried to find a cube of sugar but Maksimov replaced it with a box of matches. That trick brought the stallion into a rage and it rushed to press Maksimov down under itself. The screams made the riders and horse holders rush out of the stables to help, and the imminent disaster was prevented. Since then, it was the two horse holders who did testing of Kvadrat.

Racing career

Kvadrat easily won the winter three-year prize beating, among others, the future all-Union record breaker Utekha. Having won several traditional prizes, Kvadrat set the all-Union record on the winter ice track in December for three-year-old trotters - 2 minutes 11 seconds at the distance of 1,600 meters, breaking the record set 12 years ago.

1950 was a triumph for Kvadrat. It won the winter derby for the Orlov and Russian trotters, as well as the summer one - in its breed and the open one (the Bars Prize and the Grand All-Union Prize). At the time of the drawing of the main prize - the All-Union one - Kvadrat had 30 performances, scored 19 victories and 8 times was the second at the finish.

Kvadrat - Breeder

Kvadrat breed a lot of descendants at the plant. Its daughters and granddaughters became the core for the Orlov trotters for the competitions. In 1986, a grandson of Kvadrat, the bay Kipr improved the record for 3,200 m - 4 minutes 17.6 seconds. In 1954 and 1957, Kvadrat was named the champion of the breed at the All-Union Exhibition of Achievements of National Economy and several of its children were awarded the 1st degree certificates.

As a valuable breeder, Square became famous immediately. Its offspring showed remarkable abilities being 3 years old, many overstepped the agility mark of 2 minutes 10 seconds over the distance of 1,600 meters. Among them were Bokal - 2 minute 6.6 seconds -the all-Union record breaker in a trio; Buket - 2 minutes 2.2 seconds; Kamelek - 2 minutes 6.6 seconds; Bratina - 2 minutes 7.3 seconds. By the beginning of the 1970s, the daughters of Kvadrat formed the core of the brood at the Moscow HBP, the main one among which was the mare Gavan (Kvadrat-Gondola). Born in 1956, Gavan repeated the record of the Khrenovsky Buduschnost which had had seven offspring of Class 2.15 and even more agile. Descendants of Kvadrat were sold in 14 countries around the world!

It is worth noting that in the current conditions of training and testing of trotters, the strict standard of agility for each age, Kvadrat would not have lasted long on the racetrack. Riders would not have risked to take a horse with such weak legs imagining how difficult it would be to train it and keep it in the proper state for the prize competitions. Aleksandr Roshchin understood that but took the risk and won.

Source: Horse Park

Author: Edition

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