THE PURE BLOOD AKHAL-TEKE HORSE, AND HER INFLUENCE ON OTHER PURE BLOOD BREEDS
The Akhal-Teke breed- this phenomenon was made possible by the cultural horse farmers of the world. Her history is also as unique and eventful as the unique and unmistakable beauty of the Turkmen Argamak. The appearances of Central Asian horses distinguish themselves well from the appearances of others, such as Persian horses.
The dry continental climate of Southern Turkmenistan with its mild, snow less winters, high quality grasses in the Kopetdag foothills and the constant threat of predators enabled the formation of large, fast horses.
The domestication of horses in the foothills and in the plains of Turkmenistan probably happened very rarely. Not excluding the indo-Iranian tribes that moved to Turkmenistan, and brought along with them already domesticated horses of a more northern origin. But in the conditions of Turkmenistan, the local wild horses were, in thanks to qualities more desired by people, able to oust those brought there, either resulting in once again the domestication of local types, or blending already domesticated horses with the local ones. Echoes of these distant events may be found in ancient legends about production of Central Asian horses written in Chinese and Arab annals. One of these, according to the Arab geographer Ibn - Superior Central Asian horses coming from a wild foal “Taller than the rest, whose descendants had a superiorly larger, beautiful stature,” and who “roaming around, as if flying between earth and sky, were obedient only to gravity, and gentle when running.”
When the descendants of the noble Central Asian horses appeared in countries of ancient eastern civilization, Egypt, the Near East, and India, judging by their preserved descriptions and depictions, they were sleek and well built with a tall, elegant neck, a light head, and a fundamental gold color. It is understandable, that the creation of such horses would require the passing of many centuries. The majority of classical sources confirm that their birthplace, or homeland, the birthplace of the best horses in the ancient world, is in Central Asia. At first, the best horses in the world according to Herodotus were owned by the Massagetti and then by Parfyan.
Parfyan horses are often called Nisian, after the capital of the Parfyan Empire, Nisa, Whose ruins lie only several kilometers from the present-day capital of Akhal-Teke cultivation, the S. Niyazov Ashkhabad farm.
The jealousy of the origin of the Akhal-Teke horse was first discovered and revealed in Russia just more than 100 years ago in the work of professor V. Firsov, “Turkmenistan and the Turkmen Breed of Horses”, which can be found in “Horse Cultivation Magazine”, 1895, St. Petersburg. Then this subject was developed in the work of Browner, Kovalevskij, Afanas’ev, Vitta, Lipping, Salikhov, Belonogov and others. For farmers in the Soviet Union, it became an axiom that the most ancient breed in the world was the Akhal-Teke. Unfortunately, their efforts did little to spread this beyond the borders of the C.I.S. Oddly enough, it was quite frequent to see in foreign horseracing works, at the beginning, a list of all the well-known facts about the famous Central Asian horses’ ancientness, and then the conclusion, that Akhal-Teke horses came from Mongol ponies or, in a slightly better instance, from Arabian horses.
Therefore, we wanted to stop and further detail the relationships of Akhal-Teke horses and different breeds of pureblood horses, as well as the reasons permitting the Akhal-Teke to remain pure throughout history.
Central Asia is the arena of a prolonged thousand-year conflict between many different peoples and nations. Waves of aggressors came to this land from north, south, east, and west. In the first line of attackers, large cities and trade centers were subjected to foreign rule. The waterless, sandy deserts of Turkmenistan, which were closed from one direction, the Caspian Sea, were always difficult for travelers. And, this is one of the reasons allowing Turkmen tribes to preserve, among all of the political difficulties, in general purity the valuable expanse of ancient bred horses of Central Asia, as well as ancient horse farming traditions. Next to be noted is that the cultivation of horses in Turkmenistan’s conditions, especially in the desert region, was very expensive. “While from the foal comes the horse, the farmer turns into a thin dog.” – says an old Turkmen proverb. Not only Akhal-Tekes were raised on the low-growing desert feed of the Turkmen deserts, but also the Kazakh horses, which were used to harsh climates. Most likely, according to beauty, strength, agility, and resilience, there was not another breed that could stand with them. Any crossbreeding would lead to artificial qualities in horses, and was economically unprofitable. This is precisely what the ancient Turkmen breeders’ traditions of preserving genealogical relations in horses were based upon. Horses produced in an all-Turkmen line, were of one type, one appearance, and a character capable of hard work. As a matter of fact, these practices during ancient times were actually just refining one breed. But, all travelers passing through Turkmenistan always noted that the purest and best horses were born in the “Teke” tribe. Details of the upkeep include individual selection, and strict enforcement of genealogical purity, which enabled Akhal-Teke horses to preserve her pedigree. The herding form of horse cultivation and less stringent practices regarding breeding with horses of another genetic line led to the formation of smaller horses, less agile, and less pedigree horses, while also lowering the quality of feed and general care.
The Akhal-Teke breeders always used, as if the improver of all the horse cultivation in Turkmenistan, many different horses from different lines throughout Turkmenistan. The great stud Boinou belonged at one time to a Turkmen from the clan “Saryk”, the mother of the famous Mele-Kush belonged to a Turkmen from the clan “Karadashli”, and the famous Junaid-Khan went to Mele-Hadji-Nure, the father and uncle of the thoroughbred line of Akhal-Tekes, Topor-Bai and Elya.
Already in ancient times, ancestors of modern-day Akhal-Tekes as a result of wars and trade became the improvers of world horse cultivation. The Persian king Kambiz, having conquered Egypt with the help of the Massagetti, left part of the country under the administration of an occupational detachment. Several of the depictions of Egyptian horses of that time strikingly resemble contemporary Akhal-Tekes. It is not apparent whether the breed, raised in Sudan and Ethiopia, are descendents of those horses now in Egypt and Nubia because of the Massagetti racehorses. In every instance, these descriptions of these horses which we have show an unmistakable similarity to Akhal-Teke horses, and none whatsoever to Arabian horses.
The Chinese emperors were also well aware of who had what when it came to horses. These "sons of heaven" would equip their impressive military expeditions with the "heavenly" Central Asian Argamak. Not far behind, their northern neighbors soon followed. As a testament to their knowledge, remains were found of the Scythian leader's gold-colored combat horses, buried under mounds in the Altai permafrost.
At the time, as communications between classical easterners were full of mention of Central Asian horses, they did not mention horse production in Arabia. Herodotus reports that Arabs went into battle with the forces of the Persian king Xerxes not on horses, but on camels. The Assyrian king Taglatfallasar appropriated for himself camels and livestock during his conquest of Arabia in 733 B.C., but no mention of horses was made. Sardanapal the 5th also keeps quiet about horses, but bragged that he had gathered all the treasures of Arabia. And at a later time, in 26 B.C., the Roman writer Strabon, in the company of General Eli Gall, during his campaign into Arabia, tells us nothing about Arabian horses, even though he often spoke in much detail about the horses of other countries. Horses at that time were already very well known in Arabia; they are mentioned in the works of Arab poets, as well as in historical reports from that period. But, apparently, they rarely actually met horses, and those seen were often from different countries. So in 350 A.D., Emperor Constantine I sent as a present, 200 Cappadotian horses to Yemen. This location is remembered also as the birthplace of Islam. These horses played an initially insignificant role in the conquests of the prophet Mohammed. In all of his battles for Mecca were, in total, two horses. But, very soon, later prophets understood the place of horses as combat animals, especially as Islam was spreading beyond the Arabian Peninsula. Horses, having fallen into the category of a war animal, allowed the Arabs to mark the basic foundation of the production of upper-class horses. A significant role in this was played by horses acquired from Central Asia. It is also interesting, that the Prophet Mohammed’s oral descriptions of horses, which were later assembled by El-Dameri and Abu-Bekir-ibn-Bedram, much more closely resemble the Turkmen, rather than Arabian, breed. Among them, the mare Sabkhakh and the foal El-Vard, horses of color, were not familiar to the Arabian breed, but were common among Akhal-Tekes. While the Arabs were able to acquire many valuable Central Asian horses, the main place in which they were found was Turkmenistan.
After the Mongol invasion of Turkmenistan, a part of the Turkmen tribes headed west and settled in Asia Minor and in the Near East. The relocation of these peoples and their horses had a significant impact on the horse cultivation in those countries. Some Central Asian horses, in the areas in which they were dispersed, were cross-bred with the then-developing Arabian breed. In the opinion of prominent specialists of the Arabian breed (K. Razvan, E. Shili, and others), in this way, the type munik was born, which distinguishes itself from other types of Arabian horses; it has a larger height, long, deep lines in the exterior and better agility. Many of these horses then ended up in Europe and laid the foundations for contemporary Arabian horse cultivation. Among them, there may also have been pure Turkmen studs. A good example of this is that we wanted to take the silvery-gray foal Gomoush-Bornu, used in the Vail’ stud farm, and start a good line of his descendents there. Already contemporaries doubted that this large (160 cm) horse with a long neck was a pure Arabian. In our opinion, this was a Turkmen horse, and was not the only one. In every instance, there is evidence of active production of Turkmen horses in Syria right up until the beginning of the 20th century. The prominent Russian specialist O.A. Balakshin noted exterior qualities of “Akhal-Tekes” in Syrian-Arabian horses in our time as well. As no exception, were a separate group of Arabian horses which ended up in Turkmenistan. They could, as an example, bring in palominos from Mecca. Theoretical Turkmen highly valued the Arab breed. Terminology was introduced into the Turkmen vocabulary, such as “bedyev” from the Arabic “bedyevi”, “asyl” from the Arabic “azyl”, and so forth; but, practical use of Arab horses in Turkmen horse cultivation was highly improbable. Surely, Arabian horses were always inferior to Akhal-Tekes in their strength and agility. In the Caspian area, Arabian horses were available to breeders, but nothing of real use was found. The mention by several authors of the movement of Arabian horses into Turkmenistan by the Shah was not used in light of more concrete examinations.
It is very difficult to separate according to breed, horses that were used in Europe next to the English thoroughbreds. In agreement with English sources that these were horses of a third breed: Arabian, Turk, and Berber. Many foreign authors believe that the greatest contributor to this breed were the Arabians. Automatics(?) in Arabians talk about Turkish horses, but about Turkmen horses, they correctly keep quiet. And with that, the English thoroughbred does not share its external similarities with any other breed as closely as it does with the Akhal-Teke. All the European travelers visiting Turkmenistan at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries were constantly being surprised by this similarity. Amazingly, this similarity is also largely preserved in portraits of eastern horses taking part in the creation of the English thoroughbred, in two of three patriarchs, Darlei Arabiana, and Byeerlei Tyorka. Of course, we do not exactly know what genealogical brotherhood they have, but the exterior similarity is unmistakably fact. In that, two of the foals, coming from a branch of a famous line in the English breed are Dan Arabian and Darcy’s Yellow Turk. According to the work of Professor M.I. Byelonogovij, who worked as a craniologist, has observed a striking resemblance between contemporary Akhal-Tekes and the English thoroughbred. This idea involuntarily leads to comparing of the old English and old Turkmen training methods. This includes working to increase the speed of young offspring in races, and other aspects. It is nothing like what the Arabs did during training, and therefore could not have come to England along with horses of Turkmen training. Here it is necessary to clarify the relationship between the Turkish breed and the Turkmen breed. In the beginning, the Turks also had real Turkmen horses. Marco Polo wrote of this during his time as well. The Danish traveler Karster-Nibur visited Turkmenistan and Arabia at the end of the 18th century and wrote: “The Turks do not hold a high value for Arabian horses, under the saddle they prefer to have a large, stately horse, which leaves a magnificent impression. Right up until the start of the 20th century, the best horses in the Sultan’s cavalry in Istanbul according to the opinions of European travelers were descendents of the Turkmen Akhal-Teke argamaks.
In this way, the oldest thoroughbred horse breed in the world, the Turkmen Akhal-Tekes, participated in the creation of two different pureblood breeds: the Arabian and English breeds. The status of thoroughbred places special responsibility upon the farmer raising the breed. An ideal lineal record, a strict record of breeding, and the regular publication of lineal books are the absolute minimum required of a selective-breeder.
Our predecessors knew how to preserve the beautiful Akhal-Teke horse for us, and it is possible to just be proud of the results attained by these breeders of Turkmenistan, Russia, and Kazakhstan who were in close interaction with each other. Hopefully, this will never end.
A. Klimuk