Shagya Arabian
Shagya Arabian
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| Country of origin | Hungary, southeastern Europe |
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The Shagya Arabian was developed in the Austro-Hungarian Empire during the 19th century at the Bábolna, Mezőhegyes, Radautz, Piber, and Topolcianky studs. Today it is most often seen in the Czech Republic, Austria, Romania, the former Yugoslavian countries, Poland, Germany, and Hungary, but has been exported to other nations and is bred around the world. A purebred Shagya Arabian today has bloodlines that can be traced in all lines to the stud books of , Babolna, and Topolcianky. The breed is considered by some to be a subtype of Arabian horse, but due to the presence of a small amount of non-Arabian breeding others consider it to be an Anglo-Arabian or a partbred Arabian.
One of the major founding sires was Shagya, a gray Arabian (or, some say part-Arabian) stallion with some ancestors of the Kehilan and Siglavy strains. Born in Syria in 1810, he was taller than the average Arabian of the time, standing 15.2 1⁄2 hands (62.5 inches, 159 cm) at the withers. He was mostly used for crossbreeding at Babolna, bred few pure-blooded or asil Arabian mares, and thus has no pure Arabian descendants today. Many of the Arabian stallions standing at Babolna and other studs were crossbred with mares who already possessed a great deal of Arabian influence due to the long Turkish occupation of Eastern Europe. Some Thoroughbreds and Lipizzans were also used. In all cases, meticulous pedigree records were kept.
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Wikipedia