The Shagya-Arabian Horse

The Shagya-Arabian combines the advantages of the Desert Arabian (elegant type, great hardiness and toughness, endurance, easy keeping, and inborn friendliness toward humans) with the requirements of the modern riding horse. These requirements are sufficient height, big frame, and great ride ability including great movement and jumping ability.
Shagya-Arabians are typically 15 to 16 hands in height, with a minimum of 7 inches of bone at the cannon. Grey is the most common color, although there are also bay, chestnut and black Shagya-Arabians. Limbs are well-formed and dry.
History of the Shagya-Arabian
The Shagya-Arabian Horse was developed in the Austro-Hungarian Empire over 200 years ago. The breed originated from the need for a horse with the endurance, intelligence and character of an Arabian but with larger size and carrying capacity required by the Imperial Hussars. Over time, Shagya-Arabians were utilized both as carriage and light riding horses. The registry of the breed is the oldest next to the registry of the English Hunt Club.The Shagya-Arabian breed was originally developed at the the Imperial Stud at Babolna, Hungary. Failed experiments with Spanish and Thoroughbred blood eventually led the breeders at Babolna to a cross of native Hungarian mares with stallions of pure Desert Arabian blood. Shagya-Arabian bloodlines were also developed at the stud farms at Topolcianky (Czechoslovakia), Radautz (Rumania) Mangalia (Rumania), and Kabijuk (Bulgaria).
The breed takes its name from the dapple-grey stallion Shagya, born in 1830. The Bani Saher tribe of Bedouins, who lived in what is now Syria, bred Shagya and sold him to agents of the Habsburg monarchy. In 1836, he became the breeding stallion at Babolna. Shagya was prepotent and appears in almost all Shagya-Arabian pedigrees.One of the purposes of the Shagya-Arabian breed has always been as improvers of other breeds. Shagya-Arabian stallions appear in the bloodlines of many warmblood breeds. The Shagya-Arabian mare "Jordi" is the dam of the great warmblood stallion "Ramzes." "Ramzes" descendant "Rembrandt" won the 1988 Olympic Gold Medal for dressage.Shagya-Arabians not only served as cavalry horses, they were also prized as parade horses by European royalty. The Imperial Guard of the Habsburgs was always mounted on Shagya-Arabians. Every royal officer regarded it as a privilege to be able to ride a Shagya-Arabian. The toughness, courage, endurance and ride ability of these horses was legendary among European horsemen. The motto of the Hungarian breeders was "Nothing but the best is good enough."
Amara's Obiwon, (*Oman x Aerial by Bravo) bred by Carolyn Tucker and owned by Toni Jones, Prineville, OR
O'Bajan XIII (O'Bajan X x 242 Koheilan Zaid ox), born 1949, Babolna, Hungary
The Shagya-Arabian in AmericaShagya-Arabian breeding in America officially began in 1986. The American foundation stallion was Hungarian Bravo, whose parents *Pilot (born at the Janow-Podlaski Stud in Poland in 1939) and *52 Gazall II (born at the Babolna State Stud in Hungary in 1937) were brought to America in 1947 under the direction of General Patton as prizes of war. Bravo began his purebred Shagya-Arabian breeding career when he was 24 years old. He produced 3 sons and 11 daughters which are being used in Shagya-Arabian breeding today. One of his sons is in Venezuela where he is helping to found Shagya-Arabian breeding in South America.