A Triple Treat: Open Days at El Thayeba, Al Qusar, and Nagel’s Katharinenhof,

by Betty Finke 

In the north of Germany lies a small, idyllic town known as Grossenkneten. It’s a popular place for people to live, within easy commuting distance to the bigger cities, and for others to spend their vacation. The area has much to offer: a nature preserve with large forests, fishing opportunities, and several megalithic tombs. And, though the vacationers and even many of the residents may not be aware of this, some of the world’s finest Arabians.

Grossenkneten is a hotspot of straight Egyptian breeding in Germany: the home of not just one, but three of the most successful breeding farms, whose horses have traveled all across the world as foundation stock for other breeders. And when those three farms get together for a weekend of open days, the world takes notice.

NK Laziz (NK Nabhan x NK Lateefa), 2021 stallion co-owned by El Thayeba and Dr. Nagel.

This happened for the second time in August 2024, when more than a hundred guests from several European countries, the Middle East, and the USA gathered at Grossenkneten for a weekend of stud presentations and meeting old friends. The first such occasion had been in 2021, when El Thayeba celebrated its 40th anniversary, and it proved so popular that they decided to do it again. These opportunities are not to be missed, since none of these farms participate in the shows. They used to, many years ago, and horses they have bred and their offspring are shown successfully by other owners. But they no longer do. If you want to see their horses, you have to go there.

El Thayeba, which opened the proceedings on Saturday afternoon, is one of the oldest established straight Egyptian farms in Germany. The stud was founded 53 years ago by the late Dr. Hans-Jörg Tauschke in Southern Germany and relocated to Grossenkneten in 1981. The current breeding program is based on four original foundation mares: Momtaza (Sameh x Mamlouka) and Taghreed (Shaarawi x Naama), both bred at El Zahraa in Egypt and representing the Kohailan Rodan and Hadban Enzahi strains, respectively; Mona II  (Mahomed x Mahiba), bred by Dr. Nagel represents the Seglawi Jedran strain; and Kamla II (Ansata Halim Shah x Mona III), bred by the Luetetsburg Stud represents the Dahman Shahwan strain.

"These opportunities are not to be missed, since none of these farms participate in the shows any more. If you want to see their horses, you have to go there."

Dr. Tauschke was a man who appreciated a challenge. Two of the original foundations mares he bought, El Thayeba (Ramses Fayek x Mahdia) and Momtaza, were supposed to be sterile. Momtaza had been a broodmare at Bábolna State Stud in Hungary, where she had produced two fillies and a colt. After that, they couldn’t get her in foal again, which was the only reason why she was for sale. She was a lovely mare with huge, expressive eyes and impeccable breeding, so Dr. Tauschke decided to take the gamble.

Now you’d think that for a mare that didn’t get in foal, the owner would choose a stallion with proven fertility, wouldn’t you? Not Dr. Tauschke. He bred his apparently barren mare to Nizam (Shaarawi x Nazeema [x Bint Kamla]), a beautiful bay stallion imported from Egypt, who at the time was thought to be sterile. And against all odds, Momtaza did get in foal and produced a filly. This filly, Morawa, was to be her last foal, but she grew up to found an extensive family and to be honored with the title of Elite Mare by the German registry.

Sometimes, miracles happen.  Not always, though. Dr. Tauschke was less successful with the other barren mare, El Thayeba, who never produced a foal. But in order to preserve her legacy, he chose her name as that of the stud.

The breeding program really took off after the move to Grossenkneten, when Dr. Nagel leased Ansata Halim Shah (Ansata Ibn Halima x Ansata Rosetta) in 1984. Dr. Tauschke used him frequently, getting a whole lot of colts. But all those colts became approved stallions – this was back in the day when all breeding stallions had to be approved by a state commission. They were also performance tested and, unusually for straight Egyptians, they passed their tests on the race track. Dr. Tauschke’s wife Cornelia, who was responsible for riding the horses, got a trainer’s license for this purpose and trained them herself, not wanting to give them away for training. Of these horses, both El Thay Ibn Halim Shah (x Mahameh) and El Thay Mansour (x El Thay Maheera) became show champions, successful sires and Elite stallions, and both were used in the breeding program.

Dr. Tauschke sadly died in 1994, having spent two years in a coma following a heart attack. Ever since, Cornelia has been running the stud on her own, and doing extremely well with it. In 2004, a colt was born that would become especially significant for the breeding program: El Thay Mahfouz (Ansata Selman x El Thay Mahfouza), from the dam line of the “impossible” filly Morawa. This ethereally beautiful stallion excelled as a sire of broodmares. A half dozen of his daughters grace the El Thayeba broodmare band today and most of the youngstock are descended from him. Mahfouz himself sadly died earlier this year, only 20 years old.

His legacy, however, was very much in evidence in the exquisite daughters and granddaughters shown on the open day. They all have his elegance and type and the huge eyes recalling the foundation mare Momtaza. All are grey except for one (equally gorgeous) chestnut, El Thay Mayassa (El Thay Mahfouz x El Thay Magidaa). She was the last mare of the Seglawi family of Mahiba, which Cornelia has always found difficult to keep going, because the mares produced one colt after the other. Mayassa was no different. After the fifth consecutive colt, Cornelia lost patience and sold her, with the option of buying back a filly, should she produce one. Which she promptly did, followed by another two fillies! Cornelia has since bought back Mayassa and one of her daughters, along with another mare of the same family, Moniet Al Ryah (Nader Halim x Maheebah Al Ryah). Of course, the first foal Mayassa produced after she came home was another colt ... but with the two daughters on hand, things are looking up again for this family.

"Now you’d think that for a mare that didn’t get in foal, the owner would choose a stallion with proven fertility, wouldn’t you? Not Dr. Tauschke.

The most exciting thing at El Thayeba right now is the new stallion. During the open day three years ago at Dr. Nagel’s farm, a very special foal made its first appearance: a bright chestnut colt bursting with attitude, arching his neck and letting everyone know he was going to be a stallion to be reckoned with. Cornelia and her partner Klaus Beste took notice. The colt was not for sale. Dr. Nagel knew what he had there, and he’d been trying to get a superior Seglawi stallion for years. But he was finally persuaded to go shares on him. NK Laziz (NK Nabhan x NK Lateefa) now resides next door at El Thayeba and, just three years old, presented his first foal crop this year. And he sure delivered on his early promise: all his foals have inherited his upright neck and his look-at-me attitude. For all that his sire NK Nabhan is currently the king of Katherinenhof and regarded by many as Dr. Nagel’s masterpiece, I’ll stick my neck out and say his son is even better.

Al Qusar Arabians, run by Robert Schlereth and Volker Wettengl, isn’t quite as old. Robert got started with Arabians in the mid-1980s, right at the time when both breeding and showing Arabians was expanding everywhere. For many years, he was a professional show trainer, running his own training stable at the former location. He did some showing for the Hungarian state stud Bábolna, and from there eventually acquired a young straight Egyptian stallion, Teymur B (Assad x 214 Ibn Galal I). A grandson of Ansata Halim Shah, Teymur B was registered with a gold premium in 1998 and has long achieved Elite status. He is Robert’s horse of a lifetime as well as the foundation of the stud, which is based on his daughters. Now aged 30, he is still in residence at Al Qusar, though he was not shown this year due to health issues. Three of his lovely daughters were very much present, though; and in fact every single horse shown that was bred at Al Qusar was descended from him.

Pamira Al Qusar (NK Hafid Jamil x Paminaa Al Qusar), 2014 mare.

This includes the current resident stallion Majd Al Qusar (NK Nadeer x Mashahana Al Qusar by Teymur B), whose first promising get were also shown. During the past few years, Robert and Volker have used Dr. Nagel’s stallions, mainly NK Lotfy (NK Nadeer x NK Lina), NK Nizam (NK Hafid Jamil x NK Nadirah), and NK Nabhan (NK Nadeer x NK Nerham), who have given them several lovely daughters. They now have a stallion leased from the Emirates, Badr Al Rayyan (Fares Al Rayyan x Darine Al Rayyan). It was interesting to see him together with Majd Al Qusar, as they are two very different types. Majd is very reminiscent of Dr. Nagel’s horses, a compact stallion with a short head and big eyes, while Badr, though he has some Nagel breeding on his dam’s side, is more rangy with longer, elegant lines, recalling the type of horse bred at El Zahraa. Both stallions were much admired by the guests, not only for their type and charisma, but also for their impeccable behavior. They were stood up facing each other and, while they obligingly arched their necks and looked impressive, neither of them resorted to squealing or striking.

For the grand finale, everyone moved on to Dr. Nagel’s celebrated Katharinenhof, a truly special place in the annals of straight Egyptian breeding. This is where the career of Ansata Halim Shah first began, 40 years ago, and it has since become the home of one of a unique and recognizable breeding programs in the world. Whether you like Dr. Nagel’s unique brand of horses or not, this is a breeding program with a distinct concept and aim, and Dr. Nagel has never veered from his chosen path. There’s a reason why, when he was honored along with Judith Forbis for his achievements a few years back and was asked to select a song for the occasion, he chose Frank Sinatra’s “My Way.”

NK Nizam (NK Hafid Jamil x NK Nadirah), 2014 stallion.

Now 94 years old, Dr. Nagel remains irrepressible and was on hand to welcome each guest personally and to give the commentary on his horses himself, both in English and in German. Such commtaries by Dr. Nagel are really lectures telling you all about his breeding program and the ideas behind it. He knows exactly what he is doing and why, and he is perfectly aware and candid of any shortcomings of his horses. His herd is based on just four (only 3 listed or counting A. Rosetta?) foundation mares: Hanan (Alaa El Din x Mona), Mahiba (Alaa El Din x Mouna), and Lotfeia (Alaa El Din x Bint Kamla) from Egypt, representing the Abeyan, Seglawi, and Hadban strains; and two branches of the Dahman strain both descending from Ansata Rosetta (Ansata Shah Zaman x Ansata Bint Bukra), the dam of Ansata Halim Shah. No additional blood had been added during that past 30 years, creating a highly inbred herd in which horses carry multiple lines to both Ansata Halim Shah and Hanan and resulting in a type that is immediately recognizable. The horses are small, extremely refined, and have very beautiful heads not so much characterized by a dished profile – some of them are quite straight – but by huge dark eyes, short muzzles, and very wide nostrils. Yet at the same time, there are noticeable differences between the individual mare families. These horses make a fascinating subject for study, and a few years ago Dr. Samantha Brooks ran a genome analysis study of this herd with fascinating results. It showed, among other things, that at the genomic level, even full siblings can be very different, and there was more genetic diversity to be found within the herd than you’d expect with such a level of inbreeding.

The presentation began with the current king of the stud, NK Nabhan (NK Nadeer x NK Nerham). Now 11 years old, this stallion has had an impact like no other since his grandsire, NK Hafid Jamil. He is descended from the Hadban family of Lotfeia – in fact both his parents are, so technically he is a pure-in-strain Hadban – but he carries no less than 15 crosses to Hanan, and it shows. Though all his parents and grandparents were grey, he has inherited her bay color, and is in a category all his own. Dr. Nagel especially values him for his superb neck and shoulder, and he also has more of a dished face than most of the Nagel horses and often passes this on. He is, in many ways, a living work of art, looking as if he has stepped straight out of a 19th century lithograph.

He has already sired several fine mares for Dr. Nagel, some of which had their first foals this year. And he is, of course, the sire of the fabulous NK Laziz now standing at El Thayeba, but still owned in partnership with Dr. Nagel.

He is, in many ways, a living work of art, looking as if he has stepped straight out of a 19th century lithograph.

The other resident stallion at present is NK Nizam (NK Hafid Jamil x NK NL Nadirah), ten years old. He is also from Lotfeia’s family, and he is also a bay from grey parents, but with only a modest seven lines to Hanan. He is more of the usual “Nagel type” with the straighter profile and bigger eyes, more compact than the stretchy Nabhan, better in conformation, and with a darker coat. He was used quite heavily in previous years. He has now been joined at stud by his four-year-old son, NK Amal El Dine (out of NK Abla by NK Jamal El Dine), who is from Hanan’s family. Though he started out black (and the breeding program does throw up the occasional random black) he is now turning grey. He is the sire of this year’s foal crop, except for one foal by Nabhan, and they are a promising lot. There’s an especially interesting a colt out of NK Lamya (x NK Jubna by NK Jamal El Dine), the best of the Nabhan daughters. Dr. Nagel doesn’t show his horses, but if he did, Lamya would definitely be a contender! Her colt is black at the moment, but will most likely turn grey like his sire.

In addition to the Nagel horses, two other straight Egyptian breeders, also from the north of Germany, had brought two mares each to present at Katharinenhof, and they were well worth seeing. One of those farms Al Ilaf Stud, will be celebrating its own 40th anniversary next year.

Perhaps an occasion for another open house?