A massive conflict of interest, accusations of mismanagement and acting to the detriment of the State Treasury, violations of auction rules, dramatic financial losses and poor horse sales results — this is the grim picture of the state Arabian horse studs in Janów Podlaski and Michałów, which for the past two years have been run by nominees of the Polish People’s Party (PSL).
The Janów Podlaski Stud Farm has existed since 1817. It is the oldest state-owned Arabian horse stud, based in Wygoda. It hosts the annual “Pride of Poland” auctions, which attract breeders and exhibitors from Poland and abroad.
Niezalezna.pl spoke with stud farm employees, well-known horse breeders, and members of parliament who monitor the situation in the state studs. What we learned will make your hair stand on end.
Conflict of interest
The new authorities brought back to positions of influence people who had been removed in scandal during the Law and Justice (PiS) government. We’re talking about Anna Stojanowska, Marek Trela, and Jerzy Białobok. The last two men have already run the studs in Janów and Michałów in the past.
After being dismissed as president of the Janów stud in 2016, Trela was hired by one of the studs in the United Arab Emirates. After a few months, he was kicked out with a bang and, from what we’ve heard, given 24 hours to leave his place of employment, people in the industry claim.
Trela told Niezalezna he had worked there for a year and left on his own terms.
“My contract ended. After a year I came back to Poland. I didn’t like the feudal style of that country,” he said. That’s interesting, because he is currently working in the Kingdom of Jordan at a sanctuary for wild animals.
At present, Białobok holds the position of vice president in Michałów. Trela became a breeding adviser in Janów Podlaski. In 2024 this “trio,” commissioned by the National Support Centre for Agriculture (KOWR), which oversees the studs, prepared a critical analysis of the condition of the purebred Arabian studs under the previous government. They suggested that auction results back then were too weak and that horses were being sold off at prices that were too low. Meanwhile, auction results now are poor, and the sell-off of horses is in full swing.
After the change of government, Anna Stojanowska in 2024 was hired under a contract for services by KOWR’s Director General, Henryk Smolarz, as a breeding adviser, with a salary of around PLN 17,000.
Stojanowska had been dismissed for disciplinary reasons from the Agricultural Property Agency (ANR), KOWR’s predecessor, in 2016. The decision was upheld by both court instances. As an inspector at ANR, she allegedly tried to force the payment of an undue commission of 20,000 euros for selling a horse, to a friend of hers — who was also acting as an intermediary from the United States.
She now advises “in areas including promotion, breeding, and providing opinions on documentation concerning horses.”
The form of that contract matters. This arrangement allows her to run private business activity. That opens the door to a massive conflict of interest. She is a co-owner of Horses Poland, a company involved, among other things, in horse trading and breeding consultancy. That is an activity directly competing with the state studs. What’s more, Horses Poland shows horses in the championships during the Arabian Horse Days. In 2025, during a show at the 2025 Arabian Horse Days, one of the stallions owned by this company won a gold medal and received a large cash prize.
The Zigi Zana scandal and the auction rules
The real test of how these three influential figures manage things was the 2024 Arabian Horse Days in Janów Podlaski — that is, the National Show of Arabian Horses as well as the 2024 Pride of Poland and Summer Sale auctions.
Under contracts signed with Trela and Stojanowska, they were among those responsible for selecting the Arabian horses from KOWR-owned studs to be entered into the auction.
“The auctions were a massive financial and organizational fiasco, and the icing on the cake was the scandal with the failed sale of the auction’s star mare, Zigi Zana,” breeders tell Niezalezna.
Zigi Zana from the Michałów stud was bid up to 145,000 euros by the Flexman Arabians stud from Belgium. In violation of the auction rules, no deposit was collected from the buyer, there was no attempt to enforce the payment due, and the bid bond was not forfeited. The transaction ultimately never happened.
“This is conduct harmful to the Michałów stud,” the sources say. “The owner of Flexman Arabians is Helen Hennekens. She is a good acquaintance of Białobok and Stojanowska. They have done various business together in the past. In 2024 they were shielded by the fact that the rules simply weren’t enforced.”
But that’s not all. As a “reward,” Helen Hennekens became a judge at the 2025 National Show of Arabian Horses, and her daughter was placed on the disciplinary committee.
The Michałów stud then tried to do PR damage control. It claimed that Flaxman Arabians had bid on Zigi Zana as an intermediary for a client from Saudi Arabia. “The transaction documentation does not reflect that claim,” we were told.
To complete the picture: the lawyer retained for the 2024 auction was the same attorney who represents Stojanowska in all her court cases.
After this affair, the auction rules for 2025 were changed in a scandalous way. In the past, anyone who bid on a horse but then failed to sign the contract would lose their bid bond and would not be allowed to continue bidding. Now, they do not lose the bond and can keep bidding on other horses.
According to our sources, another act that may amount to causing financial harm to the Janów stud was the failure to use the advertising space on the boards surrounding the show ring during the presentations. People in the industry are also alarmed about the financial settlements for the 2024 shows. “We’re being kept in the dark about, among other things, revenue from the sale of VIP invitations and entry passes,” they claim.
We also have to mention the cost of the event organization for Arabian Horse Days. In 2024 it amounted to as much as PLN 3.7 million. In 2025 — after intervention by people in the industry and opposition MPs — the same thing was done for PLN 1.4 million.
On top of all that, to sum it up, the 2024 auction results were disastrous — among the worst in history. During Pride of Poland 2024, the Michałów Stud sold 2 horses for a total of 66,000 euros, while the Janów Podlaski Stud sold 10 horses for a total of 348,000 euros. In both Michałów and Janów Podlaski, payment for one of the horses in each case was never made.
All of this led to the resignation of the Janów stud president, Leszek Świętochowski, who (apparently for his “excellent management”) then became president of the National Food Group. He is a prominent PSL activist and has also served as a member of parliament. He was replaced by Weronika Sosnowska, previously the head breeder. She is acting as interim president, because she does not meet the formal requirements. “She doesn’t have the required length of experience in managerial positions,” the informants say.
Huge losses
The change at the top has not made the stud perform better. This year’s spring horse inspections in Janów and Michałów — among other things, to select horses for this year’s auctions — were, for the first time in history, closed to private Polish breeders.
“We know that in this closed circle there were foreign traders and intermediaries who could be interested in summer purchases later on. The ministry and the studs are concealing who was granted the honor of being admitted,” our sources claim. The information to potential buyers was also sent exceptionally late — only in July. The Pride of Poland and Summer Sale auctions, however, are held in August.
The basic source of revenue — horse sales — also looks disastrous. In 2025, at Pride of Poland, 13 horses were sold for about 1.3 million euros. The most expensive of them “went” for 430,000 euros. In 2023, before the change of power, 14 horses were sold for 2.1 million euros. The most expensive of those was worth 810,000 euros.
“What we’re seeing now is a predatory sell-off. They’re selling the studs’ star horses — the real crown jewels — at scandalously undervalued prices. Previously, some state horses would simply go unsold at auction because the price offered was too low compared to the horse’s real value. The 2025 auction can be compared to Black Friday — a clearance sale below value,” breeders say.
It’s the same story with the Summer Sale. In 2025, 19 horses were sold in this format for 216,000 euros. In 2023, it was 17 horses for 324,000 euros.
So it’s no surprise the companies are running into financial trouble. For 2024, Michałów Stud reported a gross loss of nearly 4 million PLN, and Janów Podlaski Stud reported a gross loss of more than PLN 4 million.
According to data from the report for the first half of 2025, both companies posted losses. Everything indicates that by the end of this year, they may be even bigger than in 2024. Janów Podlaski can “boast” a loss of PLN 4.6 million, while Michałów is at almost PLN 1.9 million.
We asked Law and Justice (PiS) MP Kazimierz Choma, chairman of the parliamentary team for the protection of the Arabian horse in Poland, to assess the situation.
“The state of Arabian horse breeding in Poland — and in particular in the state studs — is very bad. As a result, we are close to reporting major irregularities, and even suspected crimes, to the relevant authorities,” he said.
We asked Anna Stojanowska to comment on the information contained in this article. At first she agreed to speak, but after thinking it over, she refused to authorize her statements.