Famous horses and their owners

Gilda was born at the Dubrovsky stud farm (Mirgorod district, Poltava region). And she died there at the age of about 26 years. In general, her life story can be called happy. Or not… Judge for yourself. Gilda’s father was the famous derby stallion Gildeets. In 1923, at the Chicago Hippodrome, he set a new record, running 1600 m in 2 minutes 11 seconds. Rider Mikhail Stasenko, who shared moments of glory with the horse, was then offered to stay in the USA, a country where equestrian sport is very developed. But he refused, as he always refused (and offers came from both the British and the French), returning to his native Dubrovka to “his” horses.Gildeets’ record was broken only 10 years later, and his daughter Gilda succeeded in doing so together with the same Stasenko. Mikhail Dmitrievich was then still 63 years old, and his pupil Gilda was already 13. They covered the 1600 m distance at the All-Union competitions for the traditional Derby prize in 2 minutes 5 seconds.
And then the war began, Stasenko went to the front, and 700 head of “his” horses had to be evacuated from Dubrovka to calmer regions. Most of the horses died. Gilda was among those taken to Germany.
As fate would have it, Hitler recognized the record holder and ordered her to be prepared for running in honor of the anniversary of the attack on the Soviet Union. On June 22, 1943, Gilda went out on the treadmill and took off from the first seconds. When her victory was almost obvious, the mare stopped abruptly, kicked back, destroying the rocking chair and the rider, jumped over the racetrack fence and disappeared.
The Fuhrer could have ordered the horse to be killed, but he was no stranger to the symbolism that demanded that a proud animal be brought to its knees. He ordered to catch the mare and get offspring from her, and so that she would not run away again, she had to be blinded.
Gilda escaped from the Germans more than once. She rushed to her native Dubrovka and stood in a familiar stall, where she was caught in order to be taken to Germany again. In captivity, she managed to give birth to a foal and, according to legend, kill eight more grooms. It is not known for certain how many Germans are on the “Poltava patriot’s” account, but at least four are certain. At the same time, the workers of the Dubrovsky plant, who knew Gilda, claimed that the mare was not at all aggressive, affectionate and obedient. Seeing her in a herd grazing in one of the Berlin squares, tanker Grigory Safronyuk, Before the war, he worked as a groom in Dubrovka and organized the return of captive horses to their homeland. Gilda led a herd of “her own” from the Romodan station to her native stud farm. The whole village came out to meet the horses.
Among those greeting us was 75-year-old Mikhail Stasenko, who had returned from the front. He called Gilda and she, stepping carefully, went to meet him. The mare actually returned home practically blind. The extent to which the Germans were involved in this is unknown; one of the horse’s eyes was damaged in the pasture before the war. She no longer participated in competitions, but she gave birth to several babies.
Stasenko regularly came to visit his beloved. The man who set one world record (together with Gilda), two European and 30 all-Union records, retired from sports at almost 70 years old, having grabbed another Derby prize at his farewell. And Mikhail Dmitrievich never left the Dubrovsky stud farm. Even after his death – Stasenko died at the age of 88 – the Dubrovsky stud farm’s dining room was made in the house of the legendary rider and trainer, where horsemen constantly mill about and talk mainly about horses.