Poland faces being pitched into an unexpected clash with some of the richest and most influential people in the world after the nationalist government sacked horse breeding specialists at prestigious state-owned stud farms.

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As part of a political purge of top staff at state-owned enterprises, the agriculture minister, Krzysztof Jurgiel, sacked three specialists in February alleging financial irregularities around horse sales.

Two mares owned by British breeder Shirley Watts, wife of Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts, died at Janów Podlaski stud recently and on Thursday she ordered her two remaining horses on loan to the farm to be loaded into a lorry and driven back to Devon.

At a meeting with the Guardian outside the 1,800-hectare stud, sacked Janów Podlaski director Marek Trela said the reputation of the farm – which employs 53 people – was in the balance and its demise would have a knock-on effect for poor, eastern Poland: “The stud’s existence provides thousands of jobs. A five-star hotel is due to open nearby. Our Pride of Poland sale raised more than €4m (£3.2m) last year, including a record €1.4m for a single broodmare, Pepita.’’

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Sacked former director of Poland’s Janów Podlaski stud Marek Trela. Photograph: Alex Duval Smith

Trela, who worked for 38 years at Janow Podlaski, first as its resident vet, then as director, denied the charge of financial mismanagement and Jurgiel’s claim he was responsible for the death of a valuable 12-year-old mare, Pianissima, who died from intestinal complications in October 2015.

Trela said Pianissima had suffered the same complication as her mother who died at the age of 10.

Petitions have now been launched for the reinstatement of the three sacked specialists – Trela, Michałów stud director Jerzy Białobok and national horsebreeding inspector Anna Stojanowska.

British breeder Joanne Law said Poland’s three Arabian studs were “one of the rock beds of Arabian breeding in the world”. Law, who is an international judge and runs Claverdon stud in Warwickshire, said: “You can salvage bloodlines but it is how you use them that matters. No one can breed those horses as well as the Poles do. I am very sad for the three people who have lost their jobs but the effect on the breed is very serious indeed.’’

The sprawling 199-year-old breeding centre, close to the Belarus border, is among three prestigious state-owned Arabian stud farms in Poland. With 500 horses and grooms turned out in neat, green uniforms, it is one of the country’s proudest and most enduring national treasures.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest A Janów Podlaski stud staff member leads a horse away. Photograph: Alex Duval Smith

Family outings here are part of Polish childhood memories. Janów Podlaski is a household name in the equine world, with wealthy buyers from the US and Middle East who fly in for its Pride of Poland sales.

During the cold war, the stud discreetly supplied the world’s elite from behind the Iron Curtain, providing a valuable source of hard currency to the communist regime.

The Arabian is considered one of the oldest horse breeds in the world and has been recognised on 4,000-year-old rock paintings. The qualities of Arabian horses – endurance, grace and speed – mean their bloodlines are found in most modern breeds of riding horse. They arrived in Poland in the 16th and 17th centuries as war spoils from battles with the Ottoman empire.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest National horsebreeding inspector Anna Stojanowska at her flat in Warsaw. Photograph: Alex Duval Smith

Stojanowska, 46, was sacked with one hour’s notice as inspector of Poland’s 17 state-owned horse breeding centres, including the Arabian studs. After 21 years with the Agricultural Property Agency she was given a settlement worth three months’ salary. She said: “Poland’s reputation for breeding was hard-built, by people with passion who never watched the clock.

Once we lose our reputation, that’s it, forever Sacked horsebreeding inspector Anna Stojanowska

“Trela has been replaced by an economist, Marek Skomorowski, who says horses are his hobby. Once we lose our reputation, that’s it, forever. It happened to Russia’s studs and it may now happen to ours.”

Warsaw-based Stojanowska said the sackings had been “part of political games” by the Law & Justice government which won the October 2015 parliamentary election pledging to institute “dobra zmiana” (good change) in state enterprises where central government is perceived as having lost control. The policy has already led to dozens of sacking and resignations from state companies including a major regional insurer, PZU, the main electricity and gas utility companies and mining conglomerate KGHM.

Stojanowska said she and the other breeding specialists were apolitical and that the policy was inappropriate in the breeding industry. She said the two mares belonging to Shirley Watts that died in recent weeks had been the victims of “bad luck and lack of knowledge”. Both she and Trela dismissed rumours the horses had been poisoned with chicken antibiotics.

On Tuesday police were at the stud as part of an ongoing investigation into the horses’ deaths that includes autopsies and the analysis of feed.

At Janów Podłaski, the foaling season is in full swing. In one paddock, 10 mares with gambolling foals have the company of a stork, newly arrived from Africa. In another, a group of purebreds stand gathered impatiently, nostrils flaring, as they wait to charge to the manger at mealtime.

The staff – accustomed to chatting to visitors from all over the world – are under new orders to keep quiet “because of the problems” says a groom. But as if grateful for the media attention, no one attempts to chase out journalists. In the stud office, where shelves are lined with crystal champion trophies from shows all over the world, new director Skomorowski greets visitors but will not answer questions.

The ministry of agriculture and Shirley Watts did not respond to the Guardian’s request for comment.