xo gray (Rittersporn – Jordi / Shagya X-3) born. 1937-03-02,
breeding SK Wojcieszków

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You can also read about Ramses on the site Wojcieszków commune.
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Yes dr. Stanislaw Deskur writes about the Polish stud dog of the century, founder of the most outstanding breeding line of sports horses in Germany:

Ramzes was bred at the Wojcieszków Stud and purchased at the beginning of 1940 for the State Stallion Stud in Janów Podlaski. At that time, there was no indication that this stallion would turn out to be the sire of the century in the future and his progeny would be successful in the most serious equestrian competitions on a global scale. Thanks to the messages of the director of the herd in Janów Podlaski, Eng. Tadeusz Marchowiecki, in whose area of ​​activity the Wojcieszków Stud was located, we know the history of Ramzes starting from the foal age.

As I mentioned, Ramses' sire was the Belgian Thoroughbred stallion Rittersporn, who competed with good results in steeplechase races in Germany. As part of war reparations, he went to Poland and was included in the State Stallion Stud in Janów Podlaski. He came from the line of the well-known stallion Le Sancy, who passed on talent for jumping.

Rittersporn, standing at the mating point in Łabunie near Zamość, produced 1926 very good competition horses in 1927 and 8 and gained an excellent reputation, so many cavalry officers wanted to have a horse by this stallion. Therefore, repairs after Rittersporna went to the army like the proverbial water. Nevertheless, the lists of horses registered by the Polish Equestrian Association published in the interwar period do not mention any other horses after Rittersporn - apart from the aforementioned eight - which had more significant equestrian achievements. Also in breeding, the offspring of this stallion did not stand out. Three of his sons were purchased for the State Stallion Herds, one of which was culled after two mating seasons. From the 3s and probably until the end of his life, Rittersporn stood at the Wojcieszków Stud (Łuków district). The stud had about 1930 breeding mares and belonged to Maria Zyberk-Plater, who - as director Marchowiecki described her - "didn't know about horses, but she liked them very much and fed them well". As the example of Rameses showed, in some cases these owner-breeder attributes could ensure success.

In 1929, Maria Plater bought a yearling filly named Jordi at an auction at the State Stud in Janów Podlaski, which the stud lacked, so in the opinion of local specialists, she did not promise hope that she would grow into a good stud mare,

Jordi had a very good background. Her grandmother, the mare Astarte, was born in the well-known Austrian stud Radowce (now Romania) and according to the nomenclature in force there, her original name was 264 Amurath-8. Jonia's pedigree (see attached pedigree of Ramesses) was imbued with oriental blood. She came from a family marked in Radowce with the Roman numeral III, dating back to the beginning of the XNUMXth century. Three-year-old Jordi was included in Wojcieszków as a broodmare. Unfortunately, Jordi broke her front leg. In the then state of veterinary knowledge, the mare was in danger of being killed, but the owner did not allow it.

The mare was hung on straps, and the veterinarian fixed the limb in wooden splints. The leg healed, but crookedly. The mare was limping badly and any use other than breeding was out of the question. At that time, a wooden stable with a grassy paddock was built in the park in Wojcieszków, and there Jordi, together with her successive foals, spent time every year from spring to late autumn. Her third successive foal was Ramzes. Director Marchowiecki often visited Wojcieszków on business and observed little Ramzes, who gave the impression that he would grow up to be a stallion suitable for breeding in the future. Unfortunately, little Ramzes was haunted by family misfortune. In early spring 1938, the well-developed and overgrown and always cheeky Ramzes, while playing with his peers, accidentally fell backwards so much that he could not get up for several days. Maria Plater also rejected the suggestion that Ramses was not worth suffering any longer and should be killed. Massages and warm compresses of the loins were used to the point where after a few days Ramses, supported by people, would stand up and unsteadily stand on his feet. In the following period, it was as if he was learning to walk, and the unsteady movement of his hindquarters persisted for a longer time. Nevertheless, this condition improved and in the summer of 1939, the uninitiated did not notice Ramses's previous paralysis of the lower back and no such ailment occurred in him later. As I mentioned earlier, Ramses was purchased for the Stallion Stud in Janów Podlaski in 1940. According to director Marchowiecki, he represented the type of handsome, caliber Polish Anglo-Arabian, about 160 cm tall, grey with a dark mane and tail, with a dry, shapely head with expressive eyes, a long neck, prominent withers, correct loins and a long and well-muscled back. He was deep, had limbs with a correct posture with slightly rounded front cannons. In movement, Ramzes was beyond reproach, because he had a long and gliding walk, an energetic trot and a long, covering a lot of ground gallop.

Throughout the war, in the mating seasons, Ramzes was sent to breeding stations in the vicinity of Kałuszyn. Every year after returning from the points - like all young stallions in the stallion herd in Janów Podlaski - he usually had to take part in heavy hunting runs twice a week, in an area bristling with many difficult obstacles. Ramesses was distinguished by good and precise jumps, but his disadvantage was an aversion to water obstacles, which he passed on to some of his descendants. He must have been a good riding horse, since he was constantly ridden during quadrilles by the herd's equerry at that time, and in the future by the director of the stud in Janów Podlaski, Eng. Andrzej Krzyształowicz. Regardless, Ramesses was harnessed and walked in four-horse teams.

In July 1944, Ramzes together with the entire Herd of Stallions from Janów Podlaski was evacuated, reaching Cleverhof L. Lubeki as the final stopping place. After the end of the war, most of the Polish breeding horses in Germany were returned to the country, leaving a few especially talented in the sport in western Germany to represent our breeding. Among them was Ramzes, then ridden by Lieutenant Bielecki.

When Lt. Bielecki emigrated to Canada, Baron Clemens von Nagel-Doornick, the owner of the Vornholz Stud (Westphalia), with about 30 stud mares, bought Ramzes. Baron von Nagel - as I mentioned in the previous "Wiadomości Zootechniczne" - was the commander of the stud in Racot during the war, and because he behaved decently, as testified by his Polish employees, he was able to take care of his horse breeding after the end of the war. His idea was to breed good horses, primarily for the discipline of dressage and show jumping, which would ensure the continuation of German equestrian achievements from the interwar period. Being the son of the director of the stud in Beberbeck, he had the opportunity to get to know these horses well and decided to implement his plans based on them. He found a few horses with Beberbeck blood, the rest in Germany. He used the stallion Oxyd (lrrlehrer-Oxalis) and Hanoverian mares by Beberbeck stallions. He also used the Polish stallion Zew, bred by Jezierski from Worotniów (Łuck poviat), descended from a Thoroughbred stallion and an original Beberbeck mare.

The first post-war German Olympic team was prepared in Vornholz, competing in the dressage discipline in Helsinki in 1952, riding horses bred in this stud according to the breeding concept discussed above. This team won the bronze medal. There were chances of the same horses being sent again to the 1956 Olympics in Stockholm, but one of the horses lame and had to be replaced. This team also came back with a bronze medal, and one of the horses from Vornholz also won an individual bronze medal. Further Olympic successes of Baron von Nagel's horses were impressive. In Tokyo in 1964, the West German team took first place in team dressage. Remus took part in this team, winning the silver medal individually. In Mexico in 1968, the West German team took the same place in the same competition, and Mariano, who participated in it, also received a silver medal. In Munich in 1972, the West German team, which won the gold medal in show jumping, featured the gelding Robin. These three horses - Remus, Mariano and Robin are already sons of Rameses. During the first years of his stay in Vornholz, Ramzes competed in equestrian competitions under the excellent German horseman Brinckmann, achieving good results on a national scale. Baron von Nagel probably wanted to check the working value of this stallion. Ramzes ended his sports career in 1948, breaking his leg in training. Certainly it was a bad omen, because as we remember, his mother also broke her leg, and his father - stallion Rittersporn broke his leg twice. In this case, Baron von Nagel may have feared a hereditary predisposition; fortunately, in Ramesses' offspring such cases did not occur.

The use of Ramzes in breeding could also be discouraged by the failures of the interwar period in Racot - attempts to combine Hanoverian and Holstein mares with Racovian stallions - which were certainly known to Baron von Nagel. In addition, in the history of horse breeding, there has never been a case where a sire with such a large infusion of oriental blood in his pedigree, as characterized by Ramses, produced progeny outstanding in equestrian sport. In this case, Baron von Nagel showed great breeding intuition, allocating the stallion boxing in Vomhoiz to Ramzes. Ramzes stayed there until his death in 1966. In the opinion of German breeding circles, no sire of local or foreign origin has ever achieved such positive results with local mares as this Polish Anglo-Arab. Ramzes gave birth to a large group of outstanding sports horses, distinguished also in breeding. There was a time when every famous rider in West Germany rode a horse descended from this stallion. Of the sons of Ramzes, Radetzki and Raimond stood out in the kennel. The great-great-grandson of the former, the stallion Rembrandt, described as a horse that had no equal when it comes to the dynamics of movement, under his young amazon Nicole Uphoff, won the individual and team gold medal at two consecutive Olympics - in Seoul in 1988 and in Barcelona in 1992. It was a feat not recorded in the history of the Olympic Games.

Raimond's son, the stallion Ramiro, is currently the sire of excellent jumping horses. His daughter Ratina-Z at the Olympics in Barcelona in 1992 won an individual silver and team gold medal for the Dutch team. In addition, under German top rider L. Beerbaum, she took first place in the 1993 World Cup in Gothenburg. At the last Olympics in Athens, Ramiro's son, the excellent jumping stallion Royal Kaliber, won a team silver and an individual bronze medal for the US team.

Author: Dr. Stanislaw Deskur
source: Horse Breeding in Poland (VII) – Ramzes
"Zootechnical News" (no. 4/2004)

License granted by Dr. Stanisław Deskur and the Institute of Zootechnics in Balice - Faculty of Horse Breeding, for BoberTeam, for the purposes of the Legends of Polish Equestrian project. Rights reserved.

Below you will find links to related materials in the Polish Digital Equestrian Library.