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From forsaken stallion to stately stature

Once starving and crippled, Lech is the new poster horse for an international ad campaign. Whoa.

By MICHELLE JONES
Published March 18, 2005

[Times photo: Dan McDuffie] Nancy Ryan plays with her Arabian stallion Lech PASB in a corral at her home in Quail Hollow. She and her husband found the horse starving in a pasture near Brooksville four years ago. They nursed Lech back to health and discovered his noble lineage. "He has a regal carriage about him. He knows he's something special," Alan Ryan says.

WESLEY CHAPEL - He was found starving in a pasture. After four years, some detective work and lots of loving care, Lech is the Johnny Depp of the Arabian horse world.

The Sexiest Horse Alive.

The Arabian Horse Association of America has chosen the 21-year-old stallion as its poster horse for a new international ad campaign. Last year, he was Mr. March for Arabian Horse World Calendar, keeping company with the sheik of Qatar's Arabian and an Arabian owned by William Hearst III.

"He is the greatest horse I have ever known," said Alan Ryan, who co-owns Lech with his wife, Nancy. "He has a regal carriage about him. He knows he's something special."

It wasn't always that way.

In 2001, the Ryans discovered Lech, starving and crippled, in a field near Brooksville. Although emaciated, Lech held his head and tail high, giving the couple a hint of his noble background.

The person who had him could no longer afford to keep him and was willing to have the Ryans take him for free.

They didn't yet know Lech's secret identity. Love was the motivation behind the Ryans taking Lech home; a hind leg injury left him unable to be ridden.

Without his precious pedigree, he was just another stallion.

After a lot of care from the Ryans, Lech's breeding began to show.

"We knew he was beginning to turn around when the hair in his tail started growing again," Nancy said.

Then the search for Lech's origins began.

Using records from the Arabian Stallion Association, they matched his hoof colors and a star on his head with his birth records and tracked down Lech's original owner, Jerry Vanier of Scottsdale, Ariz. Vanier had Lech's pedigree papers.

The Ryans learned that Lech was brought to the United States in 1984 from Poland in utero. He was named after Lech Walesa, the leader of the country's Solidarity movement in the early 1980s and later Poland's president. He was born at one of the world's largest stables, Lasma Arabians, in eastern Kentucky. His mother was named Dunkierka, and his father was named Palas. Lech's registered name is Lech PASB.

Vanier sold Lech in 1985 as a yearling for $250,000; the horse was worth a fortune for future stud services.

What happened to Lech in the time before he turned up in the Brooksville pasture where the Ryans found him in 2001 remains a mystery.

"I struck gold as the original owner, Jerry Vanier, didn't want any money for Lech," said Nancy.

Vanier said he couldn't be happier for Lech.

"I'm glad he got his just deserts," Vanier said. "He was a fine colt."

Equine photographer Suzanne Sturgill captured a still photo of Lech romping in the pasture at the Ryans' home in Quail Hollow for the calendar and the magazines.

"Lech is a truly classic Arabian," Sturgill said in a news release from the Arabian Horse Association. "His incredible charisma and character, despite the traumas of his early life, made photographing him a real treat."

Lech's image was used in the campaign for the Scottsdale Arabian Show, the biggest in the world.

In addition to becoming a star, Lech is now a father. He has sired four foals; three more are on the way. He commands a stud fee of $1,700 with a guaranteed live foal. Recently one of his fillies was appraised around $18,000.

The family bought 21 acres in Brooksville with lots of pasture and a pond. They plan to build a barn and a house.

There, their five Arabians can run free, and their three sons can fish.

"This horse has changed our lives," Nancy said.

[Last modified March 18, 2005, 06:13:02]