Onyx AF is by the black 100-mile endurance horse Janos, whose pedigree reads like a who’s who in German and Hungarian Shagya-Arabian breeding, including 2 lines to the well-known Shagya-Arabian Bajar, progenitor of several Olympic-level Trakehners, and his dam is a grand-daughter of Shagal, another Shagya-Arabian approved for Trakehner breeding in Germany.

Onyx was identified as a stallion prospect when only a few days old due to his excellent type and overall conformation, but he had the misfortune to suffer a grave injury to his left stifle in 2005 when only a few weeks old. Surgery following the accident revealed that he had lost over 50% of his cranial cruciate ligament and also damaged his medial meniscus. This type of injury in an adult horse is considered to be fatal, since the stifle joint ligaments are essential for stability of the stifle joint. At the time of the injury Onyx could not put any weight on his leg, but the attending veterinarians felt that it might be possible for Onyx to survive as a breeding stallion since he was so young. Over the next few years Onyx survived and his very obvious lameness gradually improved.

Onyx was excused from the free jumping phase of his stallion inspection and also excused from the required NASS Performance Test due to his injury, but he was approved for breeding with uniformly high scores (all 8's), for his type, tremendous bone, and conformation. Over the years Onyx made remarkable improvements and he was eventually vetted sound and he is now ridden in the hunt field in a Colorado hunt.