After the Revolution, all studs in Russia came under state control. Zakaspiiski State Stud became the "Soviet Turkmenistan" stud. The purpose of the stud changed as well. In addition to trying to preserve the tribal horses, Belonogov notes that "Soviet Turkmenistan" was to provide Akhal-Teke and Iomud saddle horses for officers, and to improve other saddle breeds in Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, as Kuropatkin and Mazan had originally intended.

At about this time, a plan, controverisal to this day, was begun to make the Akhal-Teke into a somewhat faster, slightly heavier horse by adding English Thoroughbred blood. The Russians had always felt that the English Thoroughbred was mostly made up of old Turkmen Horse blood. Directions to breeders called for turning out horses who were "heavier, with more bone and a better topline." Belonogov also cautioned to avoid the overuse of any one particular stallion by concentrating on improving the breed by crossing various sire lines. The English Thoroughbred stallions Burlak, Fortingbrass, L'Hermitage, Galaxy and Blondelli were crossed onto Akhal-Teke mares. (Information on these Thoroughbred stallions has been extremely difficult to find. Any reader with leads is encouraged to please contact us!) These stallions can be found even today in the pedigrees of all but perhaps five Akhal-Tekes. The number of horses slowly increased, to about almost 900 "tribal horses" when an earthquake damaged it in 1924.

Also around this time, the Russians started a studbook for all the breeds of horses under their control. Belonogov tells us that Akhal-Tekes and Anglo-Tekes alike were registered as Akhal-Tekes, as were Iomuds and Anglo-Iomuds, the "District Thoroughbred Register." Purebred Akhal-Tekes were listed in the first or "purebred" section, although anything more than the sire line was known for only 59% of these horses. Anglo-Tekes were recorded in the second section, as their pedigree was known in the case of the Thoroughbred sires; however, the parentage of the dams was known in only 56% of even these horses, as it was generally not the Turkmen custom to keep much information on the mares except for the name of their sires (in fact, even today among the Turkmen in Iran, mares are not given names).

Depending upon whom one asks, the result of the English Thoroughbred crosses was "disappointing" or simply "disastrous." The Akhal-Teke and moreso the Iomud gained height and bone (though arguably, they may have done so without the Thoroughbred infusion); but they lost endurance and overall health; in lean times, many died. Many modern writers also claim that they lost type as well, but here even experts in the breed raise questions. Dr. Tatiana Riabova states in Lines of the Akhal-Teke Breed of Horses,

It was also clear to many people that some outcrossing must now take place, regardless of what that outcross stock was. The influence of three major sires-Boinou, Dor Bairam and Bek Nazar Al-had become overwhelming on the very small nucleus of Tekes, and the onset of inbreeding depression was just a matter of time. The crossbreeding, for good or ill, went on.

In 1932, some people who knew the Argamak and those who had learned to admire it for its own merit decided to demonstrate the worth of their native horses once and for all. Twenty-eight workers at the Ashkabad Collective Farm, at the urging of Gabysh-Mamysh, and ranging in age from teenagers to men in their fifties, decided to ride from Ashkabad to Moscow, carrying nothing more than their raiding forefathers would have carried, on 28 Tekes and 2 Iomuds. They covered a distance of 4,300 kilometers-comparable to going from London to Istanbul or from New York to Denver-in 84 days (averaging 51 kilometers a day, exempting the days when the weather made travel impossible). This included crossing 300 miles of the Kara-Kum desert without water. Gabysh-Mamysh and his followers made the impression they intended; crossbreeding with the English Thoroughbred was officially halted after 1935.

A second Akhal-Teke studfarm was set up at Djambul, and from this stud farm many champions arose, such as Absent, about whom more will be said later.

The first Akhal-Teke studbook was published in 1941; but it was then that a curious thing--and something hotly debated to this day--happened. The Russians decided to close the Akhal-Teke Studbook as of 1935. All horses born of parents who were registered in the overall State Studbook by that time were declared to be purebred by definition--regardless of the amount of English or other blood they carried. Any Akhal-Teke born to parents who were not listed at this time was entered in the Partbred section of the Stud Book.

Since that time, the Akhal-Teke was "bred in purity" as the Russians say; which means that no additional outside blood was then being used. Akhal-Tekes and Iomuds were used mainly as racehorses, with some being used in long-distance riding. In 1945, to celebrate victory in "The Great Patriotic War" (World War II), a 500 kilometer race was staged, and representatives of the eight best riding horses of the Soviet Union participated, the Throughbred included. The winner of this race was the Akhal-Teke stallion Tarlan; Iomuds Parazhat and Karakum were second and third, respectively. Slowly, the populations of these "tribal horses" increased.

In 1948, an earthquake measuring 7 on the Richter scale flattened Ashkabad, killing at least 3,000 people (an outsider's estimate. Maslow notes in Sacred Horses that residents of Ashkabad claimed the death toll to be closer to 100,000.) The stud was required to relocate afterwards. Another blow to the breed came in 1959, when Krushchev's mechanization plan combined with a five-year-plan to outdo the United States in meat production caused the loss of much breeding stock in many different Russian breeds.

In the 1950s, Vladimir Shambourant brought 53 Akhal-Tekes from Turkmenia to the Tersk Stud Farm where he worked. His idea was to breed them with the aim of creating what the horses call a "sportive" horse, one which is versatile and can perform at the top levels of classical equestrian sport. He also felt strongly that the horses should be of beautiful type, and should also be fast and strong for racing. The influence of his two favorite stallions, the brothers Gelishikli and Fakirpelvan, is vast throughout the breed today, with the line of Gelishikli being the most widely represented in the breed. The gelding Penteli, a son of Fakirpelvan, was a champion Grand Prix jumper throughout the USSR and eastern Europe.

But through dedicated work and renewed effort with the breed, Riabova and Durgymuzhamedov say in the 6^th Volume of the Stud Book that there were "1,352 head [of Akhal-Tekes] up to and including young stock of 1978. Sires and dams numbered 532 head, of which 393 were thorough-bred."

By the early 1970's,. a small number of Akhal-Tekes had been exported to Germany and other areas of Eastern Europe, and once again their thriftieness and genuine athletic ability gained them new followers. Demand for Akhal-Tekes for export grew. It was decided in the 1970's that the studfarm "Komsomol" in Ashkabad was ordered transformed; its purpose now became to raise Akhal-Tekes and train them in classical riding, with the specific goal of selling them in the West. Another Five-Year-Plan was instituted; in five years, Komsomol was to enlarge its herd by 21%. (You can see a bit of the Komsomol farm in the photo at left.)

In 1981, at the Moscow Auction, the black stallion Koidurgen and eight other Akhal-Tekes were sold. Guranov notes, in the Russian journal Konevodstvo I Konnu Sportu (Horse Breeding and Equestrian Sport), June 1982, that this was "a new page in the history of the breed, moving from a raiding horse to source of income." Komsomol and several of the other studs concentrated anew on raising Akhal-Tekes for export.

Horse Breeding and Equestrian Sport magazine (in Russian)

Overview of Pedigree Work with the Akhal-Teke Breed of Horses from 1977-1986, Tatiana Riabova and M. Durgymuzhamedov, Akhal-Teke Studbook, Volume 6, 1986

Lines of the Akhal-Teke Horse Breed, Tatiana Riabova, International Akhal-Teke Breeders' Association, 1995

The Thoroughbred Times, a series of articles appearing in 1992.