There is a
legend told by Turkmen tribesmen of a certain lean and
elegant bay stallion whose speed no other horse could
surpass. The only worthy challenger was a falcon. Thousands
of spectators gathered on the day of the Akhal races
to watch the contest. The falcon and horse started together
from the crest of a hill and the stallion sped away,
leaving the falcon far behind. It is the custom for
Turkmen tribesmen to name their stallions after birds
to remember this.
The “Golden Horse” is remarkable for the
wonderful metallic sheen of its coat, (which has a different
hair structure to other breeds) best seen in the dun,
chestnut and palomino animals, but other colours, such
as black, bay, perlino and cremello also have an iridescence.
The conformation is unusual and rather different to
that usually expected in modern breeds, but the result
is very special and eye-catching. The head is fine,
with large, expressive eyes and ever-mobile ears, and
is carried high on a long, lean neck set high on the
good sloping shoulders. Legs are long and thin, of dense
bone with no feather, and hooves are small and hard.
The main and tail can be thin and silky. Back and loins
are straight and long, and the chest narrow but deep.
The result is a unique breed, both beautiful, athletic
and tough.
Horses of the breed have a wonderful temperament, because
of the relationship that they have with their Turkmen
owners. Grazing is sparse and the horses were traditionally
fed pellets of food containing alfalfa, barley and mutton
fat. They were kept tethered in small groups, often
heavily rugged to protect them from extremes of desert
temperature. Because of this close contact with the
Teke tribesmen the horses are loyal and gentle, responding
well to sensitive handling and training.
The breed is of unique and ancient lineage of great
archaeological significance dating back over, at least,
3,000 years. It is very similar to the Scythian horses
found in frozen burial mounds of Pazyrik. By 1,000BC
Ashkhabad. a modern centre for the Akhal-Teke, was famous
for its racehorses and around 500 BC the type appears
again, used as mounts for the 30,000 horsemen of the
Bactrian guard of King Darius of Persia. Originally
bred as war mounts by Turkmen warriors, they were sometimes
referred to as “Turkmene” or “Turkomen”.
The Akhal-Teke is associated with the “Heavenly
Horses of Ferghana” and the “Golden Horses
of Samarkand” which were praised by travellers
and traders from both east and west.
The Akhal-Teke probably played a very important part
in the formation of the English Thoroughbred. The Byerly
Turk was almost certainly an Akhal-Teke, while the Darley
Arabian was an Arab of the Muniqui strain which carries
a lot of Akhal-Teke blood. Other influential Turkmenian
stallions include the Darcy White Turk and the Darcy
Yellow Turk
The Akhal-Teke is used today in a number of competitive
sports, including dressage, show jumping, eventing and
endurance riding. With its remarkable stamina and free-flowing
stride it is exceptionally suited to the latter of these.
One of the most famous Akhal-Tekes of the Twentieth
Century was the black stallion, Absent, who won the
Gold Medal for dressage at the 1960 Rome Olympics. His
sire, Arab, won the National Show Jumping Championships
several times and also took part in the remarkable 1935
Ashkhabad to Moscow Ride in which 28 riders, on Pure-Bred
and Anglo-Teke stallions covered 4,300km in 84 days,
including crossing the Kara Kum Desert. Another notable
stallion, Perepel, established a Russian long jump record
of 8m 78cm (28ft 9ins) and Poligon jumped an impressive
height of 2m 25cm (7ft 4ins). |
