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Sir Reinhard Sax and the great Sax-Arabians' family

Reinhard Sax is not only a gentleman-farmer with a special passion for arabian horses, he is also an authentic artist whose pictures, as a renowned equestrian photographer, reflects an amazing understanding of the incomparable beauty of the arabian horses. Before showing some of his talent by beautiful photographs recently done at the Sax-Arabians' Palace, in Bavaria, we'll let introduce himself and explain us the way this love story with arabian horses began:

MAGIC MON AMOUR and Reinhard Sax

"In 1985, my son and I took riding lessons with a successful trainer in Landshut. The consequence of the cleverness of the trainer and my son's desire to have his own horse was that we soon had to make a decision. The first decision came in the shape of a warm-blood show jumper by the name of GALAPAGOS who had initially been put at our disposal for the riding lessons. The ambition and the progress were great so that shortly a younger and better horse for show-jumping, which my son had in mind, had to be found. He who seeks shall find and in this way we found ourselves already right in the middle of things. And, of course, there was still our first acquisition, GALAPAGOS.
Now, I didn't wish to spend my time at public stud farms and was, therefore, looking to find a suitable yard for myself within the Landshut area, my home and birthplace. The search was extended to the whole of Lower Bavaria. In the summer of 1986, we finally found somewhere. It was an old run-down farm that was to become my new domicile. At first there were thoughts of a perfect renovation job, however on closer inspection it was quickly recognisable that we needed to initiate the process of getting demolition authorisation and stick to that plan. With all the usual difficulties and problems, a new plan was handed in and authorised shortly after. In December 1986, I received the demolition authorisation applied for and within 2 weeks all buildings had been cleared. The most important was left over. a fantastic plot of land in a marvellous location. The rebuilding of the yard with stables began with full enthusiasm in March 1987 and in March 1988 the move coul d take place which had been longed after so much time.
Due to an existing friendship with a successful and well-known breeder, Fritz Koenig, I was already very close to Arabian horses at the time. As a consequence, I immediately had to get my first Arab. It was a two year old stallion called NOMECH, a son of the World Champion NAHBAY, who has since died. I, full of pride, had him brought to me on 10th August 1988 and lead him myself over the yard and into his box. The young stallion, NOMECH, was my basic training and I had to learn how to handle an Arabian horse from scratch, in particular a young Arab stallion. I decided to enter NOMECH for the "selection for breeding purposes", which still took place at the time, and had, unfortunately, to be content that he was sent home "not selected".
A few months later, together with Fritz Koenig, I went to an Arab show in Mindelheim. I fell in love with a two year old filly by NEMAN called BAVARIA, who I later re-named BAVIERA. She was bred and presented at the show by Silvia Garde-Ehlert, won her class and shortly after changed over to my stable. So that it was worth the transport, I also took her half-sister NEMANDA at the same time, who had a two week old filly called NIJALA (by NATUREL) by her side.
Therefore, the six boxes which had been planned at first were already full within the first few months and I had to think about what the first extension should be like. Thus, a further six boxes, which are currently the stallion boxes above the garage building, were built straight away before the final complete of the building works.
After everything had developed so nicely, there were then horses which I just had to have. First of all, I fell in love with NAFTALIN's son BAGDAD at Robby den Hartog's in Holland. After a short negociation he was my own, was delivered and life came to the yard. Then, horses of great decent followed in quick succession, such as MENE's daughters MARENGA, MENASCHA, MERANA, MENINA, FRENATA, GYPSEY and KATHARENA; NARISSA, daughter of KILIMANDSCHARO. The first foals were planned and the first gratifying successes in breeding could be recorded. The year 1990 saw the first show successes. The yearling filly MENORA (NATUREL X MAREI), half sister to MARENGA, won her class at the B show in Babenhausen.
In 1989, in order to be able to correspondingly train and exercise the horses which had be bought and planned, in order to be able to ride young horses and stallions, I planned to build an indoor arena which was 40 x 18 m. In 1990 I could not put off building a stable block with a further 16 boxes for young horses.
BAGDAD, the new acquisition, won his class at the National Show in Aachen and similarly at the All Nations Cup in Aachen in 1990. The mare MARENGA was 2nd in the Two Year Old Filly class at the National Show in Aachen. The mare KUMA won her class at the All Nations Cup. BAGDAD won at the first Association Stallion Show in Aachen and became Reserve Champion. MARENGA was a class winner and Champion at the B show in Lier, Belgium, BAGDAD took second place. MARENGA was also a class winner at the Europa-Championship in Lier, Belgium. This was the first year of our show entries, if only with horses that we had bought.
In 1991 the success continued. We clocked up a total of 11 class winners and 7 Champions. The best success which stays in our memory is when the first filly which we had bred on our own, NEVINIJA (daughter of VERSAL), won her class and became Champion Foal. MARENGA won her class and became Junior Champion and the mare NARISSA won her class and became Senior Champion. The next day at the All Nations Cup in Aachen, MARENGA and NARISSA repeated their respective class winning and won once again.
In 1992, we were able to enlist Frank Spönle as stud trainer at Sax Arabians for a two year contract. Many successes on both sides followed the agreement entered into by stud owner and trainer. Particularly memorable are the following: the double success of NARISSA as Europa Champion and MARENGA as Europa Reserve Champion at the Europa Championship in Herzogen-Bosch in Holland in October 1992. In 1992, NARISSA also became World Reserve Champion. In addition, it was in 1992 that the success began with horses we had bred ourselves, such as NEVINIJA, NEMANA BINT BAGDAD, and KIMSCHO.
In 1992, Frank Spönle won 30 classes with Sax horses and had 23 Champions. The high point of this year's great successes was that BAVIRA, daughter of BAGDAD, and IBN NARAV, son of NARAV IBN ASWAN, were both awarded World Futurity Champion in Paris.
After the building activities had seemed to be so appealing to me, alongside the horses, I planned a generous stable block for the mares with 28 boxes. This was the basis for a further extension of the whole breeding plan.
From the beginning, the number of offspring we bred was:

and for the year 2004 there are already 32 mares in foal. Over the past 15 years, 231 foals have been born at Sax Arabians: 107 fillies and 124 colts.
In 1995, we were able to get Scott Allman from the USA to commit himself to us for two years. In the first year he had already had chalked up 22 class wins, 31 placed second and third and 15 Champions.In 1996, he managed 14 class wins, 17 Champions and 24 placed second and third.
All together, we can look back on approx. 190 class wins and 160 Champions and Reserve Champions since 1990.
In 1996, I built a free-run horse exerciser for six horses with a transparent glass roof and rubber flooring, which is kind to their joints. This is a must for the horses' required fitness and any show preparation, and in particular for keeping the pregnant mares fit until they drop their foals.
A great highlight of the 1998 breeding success was the presentation of TAMAN II (by VYMPEL and out of TAKEMA), who won his class in the two year old section and became Junior Champion at the Association Stallion Show in Aachen. That not being sufficient, he went home as the Overall Champion of the show, where he has been confirming his quality as a stamping stallion ever since. In 2003, we would particularly like to remember the enchanting black filly, the elegant and splendid TAMINA (TAMAN II x PRESTYNIA).
The fact that Sax Arabians does not just support the show scene is demonstrated, for example, by TAHBAL (by MAMLUK out of TAKEMA) in 1999 who found his way to the racetrack in Poland. He won and was placed many times. Through NIANAH BINT BAGDAD, daughter of BAGDAD, who was successful on the racetrack, the first horse sales began to Oman, as buyers had seen her when she was at the racing trainer's in Munich. The interested party had to have NIANAH and, for a reasonably average price, took a further six horses straight away.