For some time now masses of materials about the AT breed have been published on the Internet. Everybody, who only for once has heard the word 'Akhal Teke' or saw this horse, thinks it to be his duty to head over heals go into the discussion of its history and its fate, without taking the trouble of getting familiar with its historical sources and the works of scientists in this field. Therefore I recommend everybody interested to get familiar with the works of Prof. V.O. Vitt, which were published in the anthology 'Horse Breeds of Central Asia', in 1937. Completely and with references to the historical sources, the works of Prof. Vitt bring light to the historical origin, role and importance of the AT horse in the world's horse breeding.

The ancient history of this unique breed, coming a long way out of the depth of the centuries to our time, unfolds from occasional historical witnesses and facts, which reached us.

The ancestors of the modern AT were horses, which were bred in the area of today's Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, the south of Kazakhstan, northern regions of Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan. These are the Parthian, Nissian, 'Heavenly', Khutalski (there were also other names) horses. Descendants of these horses were kept by the tribes of the Gokhlen, Yomud, Ersarnits and the Tekke. But only the Tekke tribe, being the most martial and nomadic tribe, settling in barely accessible desert areas, protected the purity of this unique horse, because in their raids, in wars they fought for powerful rulers, they met no other breed which would excel their own regarding its beauty and performance quality. They saw no necessity to cross their extraordinary breed with others. This was in a time when horses of other tribes up to a certain extent got influenced by horses of Mongolian origins and later by horses of the Arab conquerors.

The ancestors of the modern Akhal Teke quite broadly spread throughout the world through the Silk Road, wars, gifts and other ways: to Russia, the bordering countries of Asia Minor, the north of Africa, and also crossing the Mediterranean Sea to Europe, and had a significant influence on the formation of a lineage of other horse breeds, among which are the Arabs and the English Thoroughbred.

In times closer to ours (the unification of the Central Asian territories with Russia) some tribes voluntarily united with the Russian Monarchy, but some, among which were especially the Tekke tribe, offered fierce resistance. The bastion of this resistance was the Tekke fortress Geok Tepe in the centre of the Akhal-Teke oasis. There was a bloody battle during which many people and horses died. But in this war the Russians got more familiar with the Tekke tribe and its horses and duly honoured them. General Kuropatkin, fighting in the army of General Skobelev, was appointed the Czar's representative for this region. Kuropatkin partly used his own money and partly the public purse in order to organise the first governmental stud farm -- the Zakaspiisky (Transkaspian) Stud Farm -- which was founded in the Aul Kischi close to Ashgabad. He invited Grigoriyu Masan to head this institution, a descendant of Kubanian Cossacs, who brought along grooms and other horse experts. In this stud farm the best sires of their time were collected, the famous Boinou came there when he was already very old. On the Governor's purse the specialists of the state owned stud farm held exhibitions, supported owners of well bred youngsters.

But due to the fact that the region devastated by war could not grant a proper keeping the horses on the whole were small, underdeveloped. That's why a decision was made to make the present horse material taller. In this time the English Thoroughbred already had a good reputation for bringing improvement to a breed. That's why it was chosen also here. English sires, brought from England and Ireland, and with very good pedigrees were used for serving. This adding of blood lasted for 33 years. Already under the Soviet rule the outcome of this work was reviewed at a meeting of the VASKHNIL (Academy of Science of Agriculture). The experts came to the conclusion that the crossing did not show the expected results and had a bad influence on the usability of the breed, its typical performance qualities and on the type of the breed. Therefore in 1932 a decision was made to stop crossing, to breed the AT horses purely, and to leave only occasionally extraordinary typical elements (means not pure bred Ats) within the breed.

Our knowledge is based on the works of Vit, Belongov, Firsov, Kolossovsky and others and also on the scientific work done at the All-Union Institute of Horse Breeding.

The Turkmen in former times did not keep any written breeding documents, the pedigrees of horses were passed on orally. The breeding documentation began the moment the Trans-Caspian Stud Farm was founded, but alas most of its archives were destroyed.

During the Soviet time several expeditions were undertaken, which aimed at studying the horse resources of this area. On the basis of these studies and the collected data the first Governmental Studbook for AT and Yomud horses was published. There were separated parts for the crosses.

In the fourth volume the pedigree of some horses was defined closer according to the materials of the second expedition for the examination of horses.

The fifth volume was published after a long pause and there horses were registered whose pedigrees go back to horses already registered in the third or fourth volume of the Studbook.

The first three volumes were without books for offspring, which means information on the further use for breeding of the mares inscribed in these books, was practically lost.

According to the decision of the Academy of Science and the Institute for Horse Breeding the fifth volume of the Governmental Studbook was closed, like in its time the Studbook for the English Thoroughbred was closed.

From this moment on the Akhal Teke breed has been bred purely, and is considered a pure bred breed. Crosses of Akhal-Teke horses are registered in a separate register (Appendix to the Studbook).

Before the publishing of the sixth volume of the Studbook years went into the research of materials of the archives to bring light into the breeding activities of the mares, which were registered in volume 3, 4 and 5 of the Governmental Studbook. As a result of this work the sixth Studbook was the first one to be published including a book for offspring, and all horses which were inscribed there again go back to ancestors already inscribed in one of the former volumes of the Governmental Studbook.

Now, for already a quarter of a century the horses are blood-typed, which means the origin of every horse has to be confirmed in the necessary order by the immuno-genetic laboratory -- a member of ISAG. Otherwise the horse is not considered pure bred.

Anticipating the questions of the representatives from Iran, who think the horses which are being bred in the bordering regions to Turkmenistan to be pure, we announce that the origin of these horses is not determined and therefore they can only be registered in the Appendix to the AT Studbook.

A needless and for nobody helpful affair has been caused by Mrs. Raija Kirsch, by counting the percentage of the past and already historical adding of Thoroughbred blood to the Akhal-Teke horses. This is not undertaken in the practical breeding of the Akhal-Teke. Without reason Mrs. Kirsch and her followers also think that the Teke has to be a small horse, flat and with a big adam's apple. But such a horse is the product of bad breeding and disgusting selection.

The real Teke, and this is something all people researching it agree upon, always stroke with his tallness, the mighty conformation, especially of its croup, the easy gaits his riders enjoy, the toughness and stamina, the perfect adoption to extremes and to the conditions of the track.

In reading the ideas of R. Kirsch, the impression arises, that she has lived three thousand years ago and directly took part in the forming of the ancestors of the modern Teke. Of course everybody has the right of his own opinion, but this opinion has to be based on historical experience and arises out of the deep knowing of the object. In my opinion, most of the theoretical explanations of Mrs. Kirsch, are not supported by anything, and give no correct reference to the authors, whose works she uses in her articles.

The experts of the Institute of Horse Breeding have been doing serious scientific work about the morphology, anatomy and genetic uniqueness of the AT breed. The typing of the horse on the basis of the method of population genetics has also been studied. And we have got another classification of types than Mrs. Kirsch. In our work we use data of hundreds and hundreds of horses and Mrs. R. Kirsch of 3, 4 ,5 ? Everybody knows that a statistically reliable result can only be obtained if there are at least more than 300 objects available for research. And therefore you can only draw conclusions or give recommendation for selection on the basis of thorough scientific analysis of the situation of the whole breed.

The breed is manifold concerning its typological characteristics, maybe this is why it was able to go through the thick layers of centuries and preserve its unique quality of a war horse. Within the breed everybody may find a horse suiting his taste. The difference between the various types of the breed is a bright merit of the Akhal-Teke, and according to the opinion of the world's best scientists, every stud breed simply has to have various types within its breed.

Now selection specialists and aficionados of the AT breed have to direct their main force not at the question of how high the percentage of foreign blood among the ancestors of the horses is and not at whether their ancestors where Gokhlen horses, the Caspian Pony or the excavated horses of Yakutia, but at protecting the breed in its pureness and to enhance its competitiveness in the field of sports.

The principle of breeding AT horses has to be the same for all -- pure bred line-breeding and breeding along the mares' families, with the necessary confirmation of the pedigrees. The first and main criteria of selection is the pureness of the pedigree, further type, height, the correctness of confirmation and the performance ability.  

Being in close contact with the AT breed now for over a quarter of a century I made up my own idea about the origin of the Teke. Here it is!

"In the light of the last achievements of the world's science it is obvious that there existed an extraterrestrial civilisation. And it is possible that once strangers from other planets inhabited the earth. Since to our days there is a gap in the development of man from monkeys to the Homo Sapiens, there might as well be a gap in the development of horses, between wild horses and horses like the Teke, whose ancestors are painted on the walls in Aravan. If we dug we possibly could find such parallels with other creatures as well.

As we already talked about cloning then why not assume that these strangers from other planets already could handle these methods and that they brought material for cloning from their homeland to the earth. So here for you are the heavenly horses with the rainbow's colours, so here for you are supernatural horses, coming out of the fountains at the foot of the mountains."

Now how do you like my version?

At the end of my monologue I want to call on all lovers and experts of this unique breed to unite and with united forces to take care that in our difficult times this fire out of the darkness of the centuries won't stop burning.

The best advertising for the breed is to show its real worth, to use it widely in sports (racing, jumping, three day eventing, dressage, driving). In addition to skillful hands you need a loving heart, patience, work, understanding and persistence for the extraordinary wits and intelligence of these horses.

I wish all of you success.

Tatiana Riabova

Prepared by N. Abramova

Translation: A. Rauter