Ownership dispute threatens unique Nizhny Novgorod horses with slaughter

The Pochinki Stud Farm in the Nizhny Novgorod region is raising concerns after an attempt to move its horses to another region. This article explores the reasons behind the attempted removal and the farm«s future plans.

The unique stud farm in Pochinki was established back in the time of Tsar Romanov. In the last century, a new breed of horse was developed there — the Soviet Heavy Draft.

In 2009, the enterprise was declared bankrupt, and the procedure for selling its assets began. The farm«s affairs were difficult: the complex was literally falling apart piece by piece. In 2019, during an auction, it was purchased by the company »Volgogazstroy« owned by Oleg Gusev. The oldest farm gradually began to be restored.

“Until 2008, the Pochinki Stud Farm belonged to the state. During the bankruptcy procedure, part of the property disappeared, namely the horse herd. It was not included in the auction. A competition was held, we purchased only the farm«s property — the stables, barns, arenas, but not the horses. After some time, the missing herd acquired an owner. A criminal case was initiated, and the investigation established that the sales contract for this herd was forged,” said Oleg Gusev in 2024 to the channel “Horse Affairs.”

Volunteer Inna Mosunova said that the criminal case was closed because no victim was found. The legal “war for the horses,” according to her, they have currently lost. At the same time, as the volunteer explained, since 2021, “Selskokhozyaystvenny Produkt” (Agricultural Product, owned by Kirill Zdankevich) has not been feeding or caring for the animals. Their upkeep is handled by “Volgogazstroy” and concerned individuals.

According to the Nizhny Novgorod resident, the enterprise repeatedly tried to reach an agreement with Zdankevich«s company, but it sabotaged the deals. Later, it sold the horses to an affiliated firm “Yumis Consult” — its director is listed as Ekaterina Zdankevich. As Mosunova states, this did not affect the situation — the new owner did not start caring for the animals.

“In the Moscow region, there is a writ of execution from ‘Volgogazstroy’ against ‘Selskokhozyaystvenny Produkt’ to seize 18 million rubles (approximately $180,000 at current rates). This is the money the company spent on maintaining the abandoned horses. ‘Selskokhozyaystvenny Produkt’ abandoned its workers in 2020, the last hay purchase was at that time. All this time, the animals have been living on hay purchased by ‘Volgogazstroy’, and on money and medicine bought by volunteers,” Inna Mosunova told NN.RU.

Volunteers and residents of Pochinki are trying to draw attention to the situation with the horses to prevent them from being taken from the farm — they are writing to Governor Gleb Nikitin and the head of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation Alexander Bastrykin. According to Mosunova, the trucks that arrived on December 24 came for the animals are not designed for the safe transport of heavy draft horses — such trucks are only used to take them to a meat processing plant.

For more on the history of the Pochinki farm, we covered it in a separate article.