Rembrandt

[Toni Jones <tjones@coinet.com>]

Are we all talking about the same Rembrandt? 
The Rembrandt I know of is a Westfalen and he was the 1988 Olympic Gold
Dressage medal
winner. THIS Rembrandt is a Ramzes bred horse, through his sire Romador
II. In
Germany there is a saying regarding Ramzes "No riding horse without his
blood" or - "Without Ramzes, there is no sporthorse."

Ramzes was used extensively in just about all warmblood breeding
programs, including Westfalen, Dutch Warmblood, Trakehener and others.
Ramzes was foaled in 1937 and was bred by Maria Graffin of the
Plater-Zyberk family of Poland. Technically, Ramzes was an Anglo-Shagya.

He was by a TB stallion named Rittersporn, and out of a Shagya Arabian
mare named Jordi. So, yes, Rembrandt does carry Arabian blood. Through
Ramzes. Ramzes' many sons of many warmblood breeds have won numerous
jumping competitions and dressage metals through the years. His last
surviving son was Condus, a Trakehener, (and now deceased).... the lists
of wins and medals of Ramzes get and grand-get and great-great grand get
goes on and on...

The Shagya is an Arabian bred breed from Hungary with pedigrees dating
back over 200 years. They were an elite cavalry horse used by the
Austro-Hungarian Monarchy and were also developed specifically to be a
pre-potent arabian bloodstock source for improving other breeds. The
developers of the warmblood breeds in Europe recognized this and used
Shagya blood in many of their programs since Shagyas add elegance and
movement without compromising size or substance, something that often
can happen when breeding to a purebred Arabian. Meaning the resulting
offspring (when crossing a warmblood with a purebred Arabian)  often
ends up much smaller than hoped for. The Hungarian Shagya breeding
program was known for their judicious line-breeding techniques where
they
would breed Shagya to Shagya for 3 generations then on the 4th
generation they would breed proven desert bred Arabian stallions to the
Shagya mares. 

Jordi, Ramzes dam carried, in addition to the already
developed Shagya lines, the blood of the purebred arab stallion Amurath
twice. Amurath was a beautiful, balanced, large boned animal (have seen
a photo dated 1881 from North American Shagya Society Archives) and can
be found in purebred Arabian pedigrees
as well as Shagya pedigrees.

So, yes, the Rembrandt I know of carries arabian blood, and not too far
back there. :) If there is a different Rembrandt, and I missed the boat,
well, no extra charge for the history lesson. 

later
Toni Jones & Shagya O'Biwon
central oregon