Shagya history

Shagya - history of the breed.
This page was last updated: 2005-05-07
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Want to see some photos of different Shagyas? Click here for photopages from different studfarms around the world, where you will find photos of Shagyas of most of the different strains and types. You want to have your own horses presented in an album? Send me an e-mail with your suggestions, and I will consider making a page for you.	Read the article on the Dahoman line by Krzysztof Kordalski here

The Shagya *) is a breed that was founded in the Austro-Hungarian empire at the end of the 18th Century, as the Empress, Maria-Theresia requested the breeding of horses to the military to be greatly improved.

Through a number of declaration by the Empress, the Stud farms Babolna (1789) and Radautz (1792) among others, formed the basis of the breeding program. The goal was to produce hard, willing and enduring horses for the cavalry as well as stallions to improve the private breeding programs throughout the countries.

The founding mares were basically mares transferred from the Stud farm Mezöhegyes, partly local mares carrying a small touch of Arabian blood from their ancestors, imported during the time of the Arabian Invasion (till 1683, when the Osmannians were stopped at Vienna), and partly more recent imported mares originating from other European countries, such as Lippizanes, Spanish horses, Frederiksborgers, Hannoveranians, Oldenburgers and English Thoroughbreds. Later, the breeding stock was improved by the addition of imported, so-called desert bred (db) purebred Arabian mares.

All the horses were either ridden and/or driven, before they were selected for the breeding program, and the stallions were mostly active a couple of years in other sections of the Austro-Hungarian horse-breeding program (founding for instance the Austro-Hungarian Anglo-Arabians and Gidrans (warmbloods)), before they were used in the Shagya breed. This provided the possibility of evaluating the breeding quality of the stallions, before they were selected for the Shagya breeding program. Of these stallions, only a few achieved the rank of "Haupt Beschäler", "Main Stud Stallion" of one or more of the stud farms.

From the beginning the Austro-Hungarians had an advantage, when it came to having access to Arabian mares and stallions, in that Babolna at that time was already a feeding station for the cattle herds that were passing by on their way to Germany, and so they had a number of Arabian horses passing by, which they could use in their breeding program at Babolna and then distribute throughout the country.
Later, the Austro-Hungarians organized a number of very successful trips to the Arabian countries to find and buy Arabian horses of a quality that would be an improvement to the breeding stock that already existed in their country, and they successfully brought home a number of horses of very high quality that have influenced the Arabian breeding programs all over Europe (especially the famous Polish and German Arabians). Some of these stallions have proven of so high quality that the strains they founded are those found in the ShA pedigrees of today - like "Shagya", "O'Bajan", "Dahoman", "Siglavy", "Siglavi Bagdady", "Gazlan", "Jussuf", "Koheilan", "Kohaylan Ajuze" and "Kohaylan Zaid" to mention some of the most well known.

The foundation of the breed took place around the same time as the English Thoroughbred was founded, the stud book for the TBs was closed a few years prior to that of the Shagyas. Both breeds were founded on a base of local mares of high quality with a great deal of Arabian blood added as improvement.

But even if the two breeds have a lot in common, there are also two major, important differences in their foundation and development:
1) The breeding goal for the Shagyas was to produce hart, sound and versatile horses with a lot of the well known Arabian beauty - AND friendly and people-orientated temperament intact, whereas the breeding goal for the TBs was to produce fast horses for the racing courts, without much emphasis on the temperament or hardiness of the horses.
2) The Austro-Hungarians continued to add pure Arabian blood to further improvement and stabilisation of the breed, whereas the TBs haven't allowed foreign blood - including purebred Arabians - to be used since the stud book was closed at the end of the 18th Century.

This means that today, the Shagyas are very versatile horses, with a clear Arabian look, but with more bones and mass than the purebred Arabians, larger frame - more correct for a riding horse and movements that are fluent and elastic with lots of drive. At the same time, the Shagyas are friendly and (mostly) calm and very people-orientated horses that can be handled even by kids, meaning that the Shagya is an ideal family-horse, with size and frames to carry even adults, but yet not too big for children (typical height about 160 cm for stallions and 156 cm for mares). Its versatility makes it the ideal horse for dressage, show jumping, eventing, western, driving and endurance/distance riding for pleasure, but also for competitive riding, as many Shagyas are doing very well in open competitions in almost every riding discipline.

The Shagya has also been widely used as an improver of other Warmblood breeds, especially the Trakheners have quite a large amount of Shagya Arabians in their veins, but also most other European Warmblood breeds carry ShA blood in their pedigrees, and even today there are people that prefer the use of Shagyas as improvers over the use of Thoroughbreds, partly because of their versatility, partly because of their soundness, and partly because of their wonderful temperament.

For a horse to be registered as a Shagya, it requires that both parents are registered as Shagyas, and approved for breeding with a breeding club associated with the ISG. Only exception is that Purebred Arabians still are occasionally approved for the Shagya breeding, to add new blood to the population. For a horse to be registered as a Shagya at least 7/16 of the ancestors have to be registered Shagyas, meaning that 9/16 at the most can be registered Purebred Arabians in order for the horse to be accepted as a Shagya Arabian. This rule shall protect the breed from becoming "Purebred Arabians" without proper papers.

Should you now want to learn more about this wonderful breed, or maybe even purchase one for your self, you will find a list of breeding clubs in my favourite links list - or you can go to the ISG Homepage to learn more about the breed: www.shagya-isg.de or the Danish Club's Homepage at: http://www.shagya-anglo-arabere.dk For learning more about the Shagyas in North America, please check out: www.shagya.net

*) Note: The name "Shagya" was only given to the breed, as the international breeding association for Shagyas (ISG - Internationaler Shagya Gesellschaft - www.shagya-isg.de ) was founded in the early 1980ies, and refers to one of the most famous line-founders of the breed Shagya db. The Austro-Hungarians operated with closed stud books almost from the beginning (except for an occasional addition of PbA blood) for their "Araber-Rasse" ("Arab breed"), that was what they called this, the lightest and most elegant of the many Austro-Hungarian breeds. As the ISG was founded, they wanted another name than "Araber-Rasse" to minimize the possibility for confusion with the purebred Arabians - but also a name that indicated that this was "a breed", and not only "some Arab cross". The name, that was chosen was "Shagya" - the name of one of the founding stallions, which had had the greatest influence on the breed.
As "Shagyas" all the horses that carried the blood of the "Araber-Rasse" horses from the Austro-Hungarian Empire and its satellite states - and only this blood, were recognised.

Today the total number of registered Shagyas throughout the world is around 2.000, meaning that it is one of the endangered breeds of the World. This of course place quite a responsibility on the breeders and fanciers of the breed in order to preserve its precious blood for the future - and hopefully not only preserve it, but also increase the overall interest for the breed, bringing it back to previous fame and popularity.

1) They as a very special breed has an important role to play, in my opinion, as maybe the most versatile horses in the World. Suitable as a family and leisure horse, a pleasure horse for the Western riders, a carriage horse - easy to pair, as well as the perfect horse for the more advanced riders competing in dressage, jumping, eventing or endurance/distance. It seems to me these days, that many riders are getting tired of the big, heavy Warmbloods that can be quite difficult to ride, requiring quite some strength, and so these riders are looking for a smaller, more agile and versatile horse like the Shagya. At the same time, concepts like "natural horsemanship" in the training methods used for even sporthorses - and more natural ways of stabling horses are gaining in popularity as well. And also in these areas, the Shagyas are the perfect horses, bred for versatility and hardiness as they are, they are more suited for an outdoor lifestyle than many of the horses carrying a greater amount of Thoroughbreds - like most of the modern Warmbloods do.

To suit the demand for this type of horse, I think it is essential that the Shagya stay true to the original breeding goal - a versatile horse of middle size. There seems to be a tendency, as I see it, to breed them bigger and to focus more on dressage and jumping, than on versatility. In my opinion this is a shame, as I don't think turning the Shagyas into yet another Warmblood-type breed, meeting the criteria for these horses, is going to do the breed any good on the long term - I am afraid it will loose the "characteristics" that makes it such a special breed, turning it into "just" another sport horse breed like every other breed. By saying this, I don't mean that there shouldn't be room for adapting the breed to the horse scene as it is today, I just think it is essential to keep the focus on, what makes the breed special - rather than to focus on the things it has in common with most other breeds.

Another risk is that of overusing purebred Arabian blood. As the Shagya stud book is closed to any breed but purebred Shagyas and purebred Arabians, it is tempting to cross with purebred Arabians every time fresh blood is needed, as purebred Arabians are available in any country around the world. But, as much as the breed is based on purebred Arabians, and as much as I love this breed too - overusing PbAs will not do the Shagyas much good, as it will probably lead to smaller and lighter horses of smaller frames, with shorter backs and less suitable for meeting the demands of the Sporthorse riders of today. A further danger is that if the Shagyas are carrying too much PbA bloods, the differences between the two breeds will be diminished, and then one could start wondering, what the reason for keeping the breed alive would be?
The solution to the problem with fresh blood should rather be solved by co-operation of the breeders across the borders in order to 1) preserve the quality of the broodmares, and 2) exchange stallions or making them available cross borders by offering frozen semen from the best stallions of the different strains in every country.

2) They also even today serve as improvers of other breeds, especially many Anglo-Arabs and Trakheners carry a great deal of Shagya blood in their veins, but also other warmblood breeds benefit from the versatility of the Shagyas as improvers. This is something, the breeders shall be very aware of - on one hand, breeding "crossbreds" open further doors for marketing and selling the Shagya breed, as some strong believers in Warmblood horses, probably will be more willing to buy partbreds than purebred Shagyas. On the other hand, every time a partbred is sold, it "steals" market shares from the purebred Shagyas, which makes it even more difficult to find buyers for the purebreds. And further, to be able to constantly supply the Warmbloods with suitable Improvers of high quality, it is essential that a quite large number of purebred Shagyas are bred, as only a very small number of the offsprings will be of a high enough quality to compete with the Warmblood and Thoroughbred stallions - just like only a small number are suitable for licensing for the Shagya breeding program it self. So in order to preserve and protect the breed, it is essential to keep on breeding enough purebred Shagyas of high quality - and if there then is a demand for their blood for improvement of other breeds, that is just one more dimension to add. But it should never be the primary goal of the owners and breeders of this wonderful, ancient breed - this should always be the preservation and improvement of the purebred Shagya itself...