Although a relatively rare breed, the Shagya Arabian has made its mark as a versatile and athletic family riding horse, able to excel in endurance competitions as well as jumping, eventing and dressage. Because of its beauty and athleticism, the Shagya has been used as an improver for a number of warmblood breeds, bringing refinement and elegance without loss of performance and agility. The most well known product of a Shagya cross was the Anglo/Shagya stallion Ramzes, who was the progenitor of the incredibly successful “R” line (e.g. Radetzky, Ramiro) appearing in the pedigrees of many horses of the Dutch Warmblood, Westphalian, Trakehner, Oldenburg, and Holsteiner breeds. He was sired by a Thoroughbred stallion and out of Jordi, a Shagya Arabian mare of Shagya and Dahoman bloodlines .Another prepotent Shagya influence appears in the pedigree of the Trakehner stallion Habicht, whose paternal grandsire was the Shagya stallion Lapis, of Siglavy bloodlines. Habicht is the sire of many successful Trakehner performance horses, including the Olympic eventing stallion Windfall, as well as Coktail, sire of Martini Pg*E*, a leading producer of US dressage winners.

Shagyas also appear in the pedigrees of Swedish Warmbloods through the wide influence of the stallion Urbino, whose grandsire was the Shagya stallion Nerox (Nigro by Judit). Urbino’s descendants include the popular stallion Flamingo and the Olympic dressage stallion Amiral. The recent Swedish dressage star Briar 899 traces back to Shagya ancestor through his great grandsire Utrillo.

More recent Shagya influences include the Shagya stallions Gazal VII and his son Gazal, and Bajar and his son Ghazzir, who appear in pedigrees of Trakehner’s, Hanoverians, Holsteiners and Oldenburg’s. Bajar’s daughter, the Trakehner mare White Girl was an Olympic eventer and Ghazzir placed in the German Bundeschampionat in eventing. An example of the Bajar Shagya influence in the US is the Trakehner mare Dorina (owned by Rita Haas) and her filly foal this year, sired by the Trakehner stallion Tzigane, who has Ramzes in his background.

In the US there are several Shagya warmblood crosses, including two offspring of the Dutch mare Hologram, daughter of the famous stallion *Roemer – these are Holiday Star AF, sired by the Shagya stallion Starwalker and bred and owned by Adele Furby, and Highland Silver, sired by Sterling Silver AF and bred and owned by Shelley Housh. In addition, several Shagya crosses to Trakehner’s with Habicht bloodlines have been made, exemplified by Hera AF (out of the Habicht daughter Heritance, sired by *Shandor, bred and owned by Adele Furby) and WS Elodie, sired by the Trakehner stallion Feuertanzer out of a *Shandor daughter. Elodie is bred and owned by Kathy Richkind, and Feuertanzer was chosen for her Shagya mare WS Emilagra because he had not only a sire line leading to Habicht but also a dam line leading to Ramzes.

So, Warmblood owners – inspect your horses’ pedigree –chances are there is a Shagya back there somewhere!

Dorina

 

Highland Silver

 

Holiday Star AF

 

WS Elodie

 

 

Hera AF