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Featured Foundation Sire:Ramzesby Louisa Zai Ravaris

Warmblood Stallions of North America

—Warmblood Stallions of North America 2011

2 This article originally appeared in Warmblood Stallions of North America’s 2011 issue

Check your barn—you probably own a piece of history! For many years the Germans paid tribute to the stallion Ramzes with the slogan, “No horse without his blood!” If you think you do not have an R-line descendant, look twice at your horses’ pedigrees. Here is the remarkable story of how Ramzes became one of the most important sires in sporthorse history.

In 1937, an extraordinary gray colt was born in Poland. He was bred by the Countess Maria Grafin Plater-Zyberk. Rittersporn, a gray Thoroughbred with a success-ful racing record, was his sire. His dam was Jordi, a modest-looking 15-hand Shagya Arabian mare. At the age of two, Ramzes went to the regional stud farm of Jano Pollaski. He was put to work right away, first as a part of a four-in-hand and later as a riding horse.

Ramzes was born in a time of upheaval, both in the horse world and the real world. World War II was beginning. The demand for cavalry horses was high, and working horses were being replaced by machinery. Treasured breeding programs were being aban-doned as war torn countries struggled for survival. Many good horses were lost to slaughter and war. Fortunately Ramzes was a useful horse, and had become a favorite of the hunt master at the Janow Pollaski Stud.

The Baron Clemens Freiherr von Nagel took notice of Ramzes when, in 1940, his commanding officer Dr. Gustaf Rau obtained (appropriated might be a more apt word, for it was soon after Germany invaded Poland) four Rittersporn sons from the Count-ess. Fortunately, the Baron was the son of a knowledgeable horse breeder, and he had the eye to see something special in the gray. After the war, the Baron made an application to buy the horse, and finally his request was granted in 1947. He brought Ramzes to his stud farm Vornholz in Westfalia. Ramzes was entrusted to the well-known show jumper rider Hans-Heinrich Brinkman, who campaigned him successfully for a year. Ramzes’ jumping career ended with an unfortunate misstep into a rabbit hole.

After that, Ramzes’ career at stud began in earnest. He stood for most of the rest of his life at Vornholz in Westfalia, with the notable exception of four productive years in Holstein. He first went to Neurendorf, Holstein in 1951–52. His production record was so impressive that Holstein brought him back for two more seasons, in 1959 and ‘60. Meanwhile, under the leadership of Baron von Nagel, Vornholz reputation grew as a prestigious horse breeding and training center in Westfalia.

Ramzes quickly distinguished himself by siring internationally successful sport horses. Ramzes sired just 195 offspring (all of which were gray) during his sixteen years at stud in Germany. In North American Stallions in Sport and Their Bloodlines, breeder Ursula Laikos reported that all but five were active in sport.

His importance as a sire of dressage horses in Westfalia was resoundingly demonstrated by his sons Remus and Mariano. Harry Boldt won the 1964 Olympic individual silver medal and team gold with Remus. Josef Neckerman attained more success with Mariano, winning the individual silver at the 1968 and 1972 Olympics. In 1966, these two dominated the World Dressage Championships, with Mariano winning gold and Remus winning silver.

While Ramzes sired outstanding dressage horses in Westfalia, he was equally successful at siring some of the world’s best jump-ers for Holstein. For example, Romanus, who was bred during Ramzes’ first stay in Holstein, successively won silver, bronze and team silver with Hans Gunther Winkler in the European Championships in Aachen in ‘61, London in ‘62 and Rome ‘63. In 1959, Retina, ridden by Fritz Thiedemann, won the Hamburg Jumping Derby with a record time. The record money-earning mare Ramona, ridden by Alwin Schockemöhle finished second.

Ramzes’ ability to sire top performers was eclipsed by another phenomenon: his ability to found several new lines for exceptional performance horses. His bloodlines continue to thrive to this day.

Featured Foundation Sire

by Louisa Zai-RavarisamzesR

3www.WarmbloodStallionsNA.com • Online Stallion, Breeder, and Trainer Listings

The breeding directors also made expert use of linebreeding, be-ginning with repeated crosses back to their founding sire, Shagya himself. Linebreeding, when expertly done, can strengthen ge-netic potency for the superior qualities of an ancestor. With mul-tiple crosses to Shagya, and the renowned Amurath appearing twice in the third generation, Jordi’s pedigree exemplifies the art of consolidating bloodlines. Ramzes’ ability as a sire, through his dam Jordi, shines as a culmination of this extraordinary breeding program.

To this day, horsemen favor the R-line horses as much for their interior qualities as for their athletic ability. Ramzes’ interior af-fected Dutch breeding consultant Gerd van der Veen so deeply that he wrote, “At the age of twenty-eight years, this silvery white stallion seemed to radiate an aura of wisdom, understanding, mood, hardiness, courage, gentleness, peace and an unequalled vi-tality and beauty, which was there and then indefinably anchored on my retina.” Ramzes convinced horsemen in every way possible, and sporthorse breeding is forever changed for the better.

Ramzes’ two most famous lines descend from his sons Radetzky (for dressage) and Raimond (for jumping). More lines were founded by sons such as Rigoletto, who first brought Ramzes blood to Holland; and Condus, a Trakehner sire of Grand Prix dressage horses for both Germany and the U.S. Ramzes also sired the important Holsteiner mare Vase, a full sister to Romanus, and a producer whose influence has been vital to other Holsteiner sire lines.

The Radetzky line produced many top national horses within Germany, but attracted international attention following the two individual Olympic gold medal successes of Nicole Uphoff ’s Rembrandt (1988 and 1992). On the breeding side, the Radetzky line has advanced with Rubinstein and his sons Rotspon, Rohdi-amont, and Royal Diamond. The modern R line is now expressed through stallions such as Blu Horse Romanov, Real Diamond (highest breeding value stallion of the 2010 German Breeding Value Index, December 2010) and Rascalino.

Ramzes’ best stallion son for jumpers was Raimond, who sired Ramiro. Ramiro has sired more than fifty licensed stallions for Germany. Ramiro also sired Olympic silver showjumping winner Ratina Z. Ramiro was also approved for breeding at Zanger-sheide and in Holland, where he became a leading stallion again. At the 2008 Olympics, Ramzes blood could be found in 53% of the pedigrees of the showjumpers. 1

It has been more than fifty years since Ramzes began his career at stud in Germany, and yet even today most avid equestrians are delighted to have an R-line horse in their barn. So how could one stallion inject such a genetic force into the development of the modern warmblood? Surprisingly, the answer comes from another breed, the Shagya Arabian. The unique Shagya Arabian bloodlines of Jordi, dam of Ramzes, were the perfect remedy for Germany’s outdated base of heavy mares.

The Bábolna stud in Austro-Hungary developed the Shagya Arabian breed to meet the demands of their calvary. Their goal was to create a practical, versatile horse of size, substance and an ideal temperament, all while retaining the beauty and intel-ligence of the Arabian. This horse was created by using imported oriental stallions to cover their best mares, representing several riding horse breeds including Arabian, Lipizzan, Andalusian and Thoroughbred. The breeding horses were chosen under stringent guidelines, and evaluated and culled through strict testing. The Hungarian breeding directors at Bábolna were adamant the breed had to remain thrifty, solid, tough, sound and with good temperaments. Attitude and wonderful riding quality were traits that were particularly stressed. 2

1 Haberbeck, Andreas, Analysis of 2008 Olympic Show Jumping Bloodlines. [Online] Available http://www.tbheritage.com/HistoricSires/JumpSires/Olym-pic2008.html, December 1, 20102 Coss, Donna, and Bernhold, Suzette, “Shagya: The Great Improver.” [Online] Available http://www.shagya-arabian-horses-asav.org/Education Center/Shagya - The Great Improver.pdf, December 1, 2010

Radetzky

Raimond

Rigoletto

4 This article originally appeared in Warmblood Stallions of North America’s 2011 issue

Sources

Brokeford Stud, “Ramzes More than a Legend – a Phenomenon.” [Online] Available http://www.vgp.com.au/brokeford/index.html, December 1, 2010

Coss, Donna, and Bernhold, Suzette, “Shagya: The Great Improv-er.” [Online] Available http://www.shagya-arabian-horses-asav.org/Education Center/Shagya - The Great Improver.pdf, Decem-ber 1, 2010

Eylers, Berndt, Ramzes. [Online] Available http://www.horse-gate.com/jh/horses/en/ramzesx.html, December 1, 2010

Clark, Diana D., Sport Horse World’s North American Stallions in Sport and Their Bloodlines, Great Falls, Virginia, 1995

Ramzes, Radetzky, Raimond, Rigoletto, Rittersporn, Vase. [Online Images] Available http://www.sporthorse-data.com/photodb.php, December 1, 2010

Rittersporn

Vase

This article appeared in the 2011 edition of The Sporthorse Stallion Directory, published by Anna Goebel. Copyright © 2011 by Anna Goebel and Louisa Zai-Ravaris. www.warmbloodstallionsna.com

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