Akhal-Teke Ranch

Akhal-Teke bloodline ARAB, perspectives and possible implications for North American breeders.

For more than 40 years, many Russian breeders prized and glorified one of their stallions as the ultimate achiever among the pure bred Akhal-Teke horses. Similarly, as the Akhal-Teke breed gained foothold in western Europe and North America, western breeders begun singing the same song of glory for the Akhal-Teke breed. The stallion’s name was 688 Absent, winner of medals in three subsequent Olympic games, and under two different riders. Unparalleled achievement indeed, worthy of the highest prize, for the horse and for the riders. Undeniably, the best of the best, the horse of the century.

Now, 55 years after Absent’s birth, let’s look at the horses of Arab line today. Even if we don’t expect Absent’s perfection, since in animal breeding perfection is a rarity and often only a fluke, we still need to evaluate. But of course as breeders we are also trying to get that perfect horse, as perfect as we can. That is our goal.

Now let’s look at the specifics of that goal. Are we making the right selections, are we aiming at the right goal? Do we have a clear picture in our mind of what actually is that goal? The earliest photograph that I have available is a picture of Absent’s father, 26 Arab, the founder of the bloodline. If you like, look at the “Arab bloodline” album which I attached to this blog.

Grey 26 Arab was born in 1930 from 4 Ag-Ishan and an Akhal-Teke mare, measurements 157-157.5-172-19.5, and he was a very accomplished horse himself. In 1935 Arab successfully completed the famous long distance endurance race from Ashkhabad to Moscow, and then held a jumping record during his military career. Not to mention his good natured willingness to carefully carry a somewhat portly and aging General Zhukov during a boisterously noisy Victory Parade in Moscow at the end of the World War II. Indeed, Arab was a versatile, capable, willing horse of the best quality.

Arab’s two sons, 677 Alam, and 688 Absent, continued the two branches of the male blood line Arab.

* 677 Alam, 1952, black, 156-156-167-18.5; 7, 6, 7, 9, 6 Class I, 26 Arab - 1120 Anketa 7. Alam died in 1958 at the age of 6. Alam produced a son 672 Akbar

** - 672 Akbar, chestnut, 1957, 677 Alam-1149 Bilbil, 160-161-185-20; 8, 10, 8, 10, Elite. Akbar produced 854 Akbelek 2nd:

- /* 854 Akbelek 2nd, black, 1970, 672 Akbar-1193 Elsona, 162-164-180-20; 8, 10, 8, 6, - Elite. And Akbelek 2nd. produced 1020 Azhan:

- - - 1020 Azhan 2, black, 1981, 854 Akbelek 2nd - 1801Keramika,161-158-178-19; 7, 7, 8, 8, 7, Elite.

*688 Absent, black, born in 1952 in Dzhambul, 26 Arab - Bakkara, measurements 160-162-182-20; grading 9,10,9,10,8, Elite. Absent produced 858 Ametist, 860 Ararat, and 1026 Alagir

**- 858 Ametist, 1966, bay, 688Absent - 1106 Algush, 162-165-189-20; 9,10,8,10, 8, Elite, was born in Lugovskoi. Ametist produced 960 Mukhtar, 1088 Pakhlivan, and Arik:

- /* 960 Mukhtar, buck.1974, 858 Ametist-1609 Melekush, 155-155-168-19; 8, 7, 6, 4, -, Class I. Mukhtar produced 1031 Akhmed, and1076 Melekush:

- - - 1031 Akhmed, buck. 1981, 960 Mukhtar - 1416 Aishat; 158-157-174-19; 7, 8, 7, 8, 8, Elite, was used at Stavropol studfarm.

- - - 1076 Melekush, buck. 1985, 960 Mukhtar-1797 Kepgyr; 156-158-172-19; 8, 8, 7, 6, 5, Class I. Melekush produced 1122 Aksum, 1252 Palmar, Zakhmet, and Metman:

- ^^^^1122 Aksum, brown 1993, 1076 Melekush- 2543 Akgozel 39; Aksum produced Magnatli

- (((*))) Magnatli, buck. Aksum- 2841 Mimoza, residing in USA

- ^^^^1252 Palmar, buck.1994, 1076 Melekush-2886 Parfia

- ^^^^Zakhmet, black, 1993, 1076 Melekush-2297 Zagadka

- /* 1088 Pakhlivan, bay, 1977, 858 Ametist-1636 Palma; 160-160-172-19; 7, 6, 7, 7, 4, Class I.

- /* Arik, AAKT 84, bay, 1978, 858 Ametist-1416 Aishat; produced Aran and Azim:

- - - Aran, AAKT 250, black, 2004, Arik- Samira, born and residing in USA, registered in Russia

- - - Azim, AAKT 251,buck.,2004, Arik-Valentyna, born and residing in USA, registered in Russia

**- 860 Ararat, black, 1971, 688 Absent-1236 Karta, 163-168-181-19.5; 8, 10, 8, 6, 7, Elite. Ararat produced 1024 Akpan 9:

- / 1024 Akpan 9, black, 1986, 860 Ararat-1800 Keramika 12; 161-163-183-20; 7, 6, 9, 7, 4, Class I.

** - 1026 Alagir, chestnut, 1972, 688 Absent-1440 Afisha 21; 164-166-182-20; 7, 7, 10, 7, 7. Class I. Alagir produced Altyn 8, Aramis 5, and Adanak 7:.

- / 1129 Altyn 8, grey, 1989, 1026 Alagir-1869 Khvatka, died 6-05, broken leg

- / Aramis 5, bay, 1989, 1026 Alagir-2200 Gloria

- / Adanak 7, chestnut, 1990, 1026 Alagir-2204 Gokcha, residing in USA. Adanak produced Nadima:

------ Nadima, palomino, 1997, Adanak 7- AAKT108 Natasha, residing in USA.

This list is not complete, but it summarizes horses important at this time to North American breeders. Should we better utilize in our breeding plans Arab line horses that we now have in America, what mares should we select for breeding to those stallions, and what traits would we like to see in the resulting offspring.

Russian breeders, who have a long experience with this breed, tell us that horses of Arab line “are tall, powerful, strong boned horses, plain in type, with sufficiently high results in flat races ... but mainly they excel in classical sports.”

As the flat races for Akhal-Teke (AT) in North America seem to be in quite distant future, let’s look at classical sports. Some of us like to breed AT for top performance in classical sports, not just for halter shows. But do we want to sacrifice AT type and produce plain looking sport horses? I would think not. After all, the AT type is what distinguishes AT from other horses. So the question is, can we have both, the type and performance? And what is a type?

When I looked at the pictures of recent AT breed champions, just like many of you I also see incredible elegance and exotic beauty. I see some degree of that same beauty and elegance in our own horses. But to my eyes it’s a different type of a horse than what I see in Absent. Arab line is characterized by plain type. Uninteresting type, I also heard the experts describe it. From the Russian Studbooks and the few photos of stallions which I happen to have, I see that 26Arab was measured but not graded for the studbook, but from his 13 sons and grandsons listed above, seven were graded Elite and five of those were found to be of a perfect Akhal-Teke type, with the grading points of 10, the highest possible number. They are: 672 Akbar , 854 Akbelek 2nd, 688 Absent, 858 Ametist, 860 Ararat. In my BLOG photo album of Arab Bloodline you can look at their pictures, and asses their type yourself. Would those horses be today called of uninteresting plain type when they represented a perfect Akhal-Teke type of 10 points just a few decades ago? Or did someone judge their type by a different yardstick? I don’t believe so. Yet in the entire studbook, extremely few horses of any blood line have a perfect type of 10 points.

As some AT experts may tell us, there is a common type for the entire AT breed, a type which distinguishes AT from any other breed of horses. That type, however, does not consist of only one phenotype. As with all animals that were bred not for looks but for extreme work performance by a geographically widely scattered nomadic peoples, there are a number of somewhat different phenotypic sub-types within the AT population. They all physically had to perform the same thing, they all were built to move like Akhal-Teke, but in the show ring and next to each other they are not exact duplicates. And they should not be. The type consists not only of the show ring looks, but also of the way the horses move and endure, of the way they think and learn, of their temperament, of the spirit and determination they project. When the horses are free to react to a challenge, that is when we can see the type. But overall that does not mean that there is only one ideal horse, one standard, and that all others should be his carbon copies. In the past, Akhal-Teke’s value was in their ability to perform better than any other horse, to help their human partners to make a living and bring them home safely. Any attempt to standardize and push them all now in the same mold, and worse yet to push them outside of that mold to get a bigger size or the same shape of ears, irreversibly harms the population gene pool.

In the photos you may notice that, according to the genetic inheritance laws, the farther away you go from the original line founder, the less resemblance the horses have to the line founder. In other breeds, true line breeding means that both the stallion and the mare are of the same blood line to concentrate the line founder’s genes and stabilize desired characteristics. This, of course, is very difficult to achieve in a critically small and closed population such as AT, where preservation of genetic variation within the breed is a more pressing objective. However, we need to keep on mind that both parents contribute their genes equally to the offspring, and that “line type” of the stallion should not be expected in all of his offspring, and the stronger expression of the dam’s blood line type should not be counted as a negative factor.

I am not saying that the official grading is not done properly. On the contrary, I spent several weeks traveling with Dr. Riabova, looking over her shoulder as she graded our horses, and I have a very good knowledge and respect for what she does. In animal science industry the grading systems used by her are successfully used around the world for most farm animals. However, Akhal-Tekes have a completely closed gene pool and a very small population of already inbred animals. To be successful in the long term preservation of this breed, we need to adjust and employ best scientific techniques developed for preservation of the genetic variety in critically endangered species, rather than continue to depend on routine methods used by animal scientists for large and usually non-purebred populations of farm animals. Above all, we need to set aside our differences and truly cooperate. I think that we will be very lucky if in the end we will succeed in preserving this population in the format developed by thousands of years of rigorous breeding and daily testing, and if we will be able to hand over a healthy population to the next generation of breeders for their safekeeping. Anyone talking about actually improving this breed is just kidding himself.

Wishing you all the best,

Milena