Ramzes

Anglo Arab, foaled in 1937 in Poland
Height 16.11/2
Breeder Maria Graffin Plater-Zyberk
Ramzes was imported to Germany in 1948 by Clemens Freiherr von Nagel, who initially gave the stallion to German jumping rider, Hans-Heinrich Brinkmann as a competition horse. Ramzes stood at the Holstein Verband in 1951and 1952 to refine the heavy Warmblood horses of the area. His sire was the great Thoroughbred, Rittersporn, while his dam was the Shagya Arab, Jordi. The Shagya is a breed that has been developed over several hundred years from a base of Andalusian, Lipizzan and Polish Warmblood mares, bred to Arab stallions.
Ramzes was an immediate success as a sire. His jumping offspring Retina, ridden by Fritz Thiedemann, Romanus with Hans Günther Winkler and Ramona with Alwin Schockemöhle established Ramzes' fame in Holstein, and resulted in him standing there for two more seasons, in 1959 and 1960.

Romanus

While in Holstein, Ramzes bred showjumpers, in Westfalia, he produced dressage horses. The Ramzes son, Remus won individual dressage silver and team gold at the Tokyo Olympics, where he was ridden by Harry Boldt. Two years later, another son, Mariano (ridden by Josef Neckermann) won the World Dressage Championship, with Remus collecting another silver medal. Mariano won silver at the 1968 Games - and four years later, at the Munich Games, another son, Robin was a member of the German gold medal winning showjumping team. The Ramzes son, Radetzky established in Westfalia a line that led to Romadour II (although there is some doubt about the sire of Romadour II) and in turn to his gold medal winning son, Rembrandt.

Mariano

In Holstein, Ramzes produced five licensed sons, including Raimond and Rigoletto. Rigoletto was sold to The Netherlands where he was an enormously successful sire of showjumpers. Raimond was the sire of Ramiro, arguably the most successful jumping sire of them all.
In his 'Stallion Book of the Holsteiner Warmblood Breed', Dr Dietrich Rossow has this to say about Ramzes and his influence:
'Ramzes was a medium framed, harmonious stallion with a very well set on neck, which was heavily muscled on the underside. He had a heavy poll, good width and depth of body and clean legs which were very good behind and light boned in front. His head was plain... In general it can be said that his Holsteiner offspring lacked size and were too fine... In conclusion it can be said that Ramzes had a positive effect on the old Holsteiner type. He sired a huge number of beautiful, supple riding horses. He decisively improved on the old, tremendous but high headed, flat backed jumping form. Doubtless because of his gaits, he produced hardly any dressage horses in Holstein. His offspring's heads are not always the most beautiful.'
In his history of the breed: 'The Holsteiner Horse', Romedio Graf von Thun-Hohenstein, sums up the influence of Ramzes:
'The marvelously positive results were doubtless due to the large percentage of Thoroughbred blood carried by Ramzes himself... Ramzes influence in Holstein seems to have achieved its greatest importance with the whole list of first class approved broodmares which carry his blood. On his dam's side, Ramzes carried a great deal of Amurath blood. However his offspring did not show any Amurath characteristics. This is probably due to the large percentage of Thoroughbred blood. The hereditary Amurath tendency to produce pacing, which did not necessarily nulify jumping ability as seen in the Argram line of the Hanoverian breed, never occurred in Holstein.'