Akhal-Teke Blood Lines: Arab Line
Following is my translation of an article written by Dr. Tatiana N. Riabova, as printed in the 2005 Akhalteke-Inform, discussing the Arab line of Akhal-Teke horses.
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ARAB Line
By Dr. T. Riabova
Grey stallion 26 Arab (Government Studbook III, page 42) was born in 1930 in the Voroshilov kolkoz in Askhabad Region (now “Turkmenistan” of Gyaurskyi region.) His measurements were 157-158-172-19.5. At that time he was a large stallion with good bone, correct conformation, dry strong constitution, one of better examples of the breed. Arab raced at Ashkhabad racetrack, and as a five year old he participated in the legendary race Ashkhabad - Moscow, after which he was left in Moscow as a gift to S.M Budonnyi . Under the name Kazbek he successfully participated in all horse sport disciplines, and (General) G.K Zhukov oversaw the Victory Parade in 1945 mounted on Kazbek.
As a 17 year old, Arab was sent to the Tashkent breeding farm as a breeding stallion, but didn‘t leave there any offspring and was then sent to Dzhambul breeding farm, where he sired a few foals. Four of his sons were used in breeding: 677 Alam, black, 1952 out of 1120 Anketa, 670 Avangard 5, bay, 1955 out of 1196 Erka, 688 Artist, gray 1954 out of Sekta, and 688 Absent, black 1952 out of Bakkara. Avangard and Artist left their legacy in the breed through their daughters, and the male Arab line was maintained by Alam and Absent.
Picture: Olympic champion stallion Absent (Arab - Bakkara)
Even though the line Arab was listed already in the works of M.I Belonogov, when in 1973 the horse breeding institute begun work with the Akhal-Teke breed, there was practically nothing left of that line. In 1976, when the work with Arab line was included in the scientific plan of the institute, the breeding nucleus of stallions and mares that descended from Arab was extracted with greatest difficulty from various sport clubs and other organizations. In 1990 work with this almost lost line was officially finalized.
Current representatives of the line Arab - those are tall, powerful, strong boned horses, plain in type, with sufficiently high results in flat races (stallion Ametist, black,1966 (Absent - Algush) - record keeper of the breed at the distance 2000m - 2 min.11,5 sec), but mainly they excel in classical sports. 68% of breeding stallions of this line were trained and tested in various disciplines of horse sports.
Picture: Ametist (Absent - Algush)
Importance of this line in the breed is visible in the results when breeding stallions were graded by the quality of their offspring, comparing them with other foals, and comparing them with their mothers, and also in the second generation as sires of brood mares. From the results of evaluation in the first category, the line takes eight’s position with the result of 53.7 points. The results are based on 31 stallions with 610 of their offspring tested in the races. Best among them was Akhmed (Mukhtar-Aishat).
When compared to the mothers, the best was Derbent (Ametist - Dertli), who unfortunately died early. During his time this stallion was highly valued and became the champion of the breed at VSK in Krasnodar in 1982. The value of the stallions of this line as sires of the brood mares is tremendous. Overall the line takes third place with the result of 55.27 points. This is based on results from 21 stallions with 530 head of offspring and in the first place in this group is great Absent.
Picture: Akhmed (Mukhtar - Aishat)
Results of the selection work with this line was conducted on the basis of combination of representatives of the line Arab with other lines, while taking into account direct combination as well as combination reciprocal. It as always considered that combination of lines Arab and Gelishikli - that is the “Golden cross” in the breed. However, analysis of combinations on the same basis, but with evaluation of the sires according to the quality of their offspring, showed in reality that this match may be most approved (145 pairs), but by results it takes only 10th place. And here with clever combinations, when mares of Arab line were crossed with stallions of other lines, the effect was much higher. A record number of pairs was approved (161) and highest result was obtained - 58.48 points. Mares of Arab line cross very effectively with stallions of the line Fakirpelvan, which, just as line Gelishikli, originated from the old line Sluchai.
Picture: Akzhol (Aktash - Khunta)
Good potential for combination with the Arab line appears with the young lines of Sere and Kaplan. In direct and in reciprocal combination those lines keep high position. It is desirable to increase application of this recipe. Very little was tried combination with the line Toporbai, but judging from obtained data, this is one of perspective crosses and a possibility to use this cross in larger quantity is on a breeding farm “Akhalt-Servis,” where they use stallions and mares of this line.
Interesting, but absolutely untried, is combination of Arab mares with stallions Everdi Teleke. To try this cross in Russia now is not possible for lack of stallions of the line Everdi Teleke. Such a possibility may open up in the future.
What is the future perspective of the line Arab? Without doubt, the line will be developing, just like in the past, in two branches: Absent and Alam. At the Stavropol horse breeding farm, big hope was placed on the great great grandson of Absent, buckskin Akhmed, and they did get from him excellent brood mares. So far there is not from him a good stallion, although in the last groups of foals there are remarkably excellent colts, such as Mugan and Mediny. There is hope for use in breeding of Absent’s grandsons through Alagir: in Kazakhstan - Aramis, in Russia - Altyn, who already produced excellent mares at the farm Akhalt Servis. On that same farm they stand at stud grandsons of Mukhtar through Melekush: Aksum, Palmar and Zakhmet, who give offspring in the type of the line.
From the branch of Alam there still produces foals classical jumper Azhan, who left daughters as brood mares in the breed, but so far did not give a good son. Now he has excellent offspring at the farm “Yulduz” in Krasnodar region. Specialists have more than small hope for breeding results from black Arguvan in Kazakhstan and bay Akzhol in Azerbaidjan.
T. Riabova 11.01.05
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I'll try to post various photographs of horses in this line, starting with 26 Arab, so we can look and see how horses of this line looked in 1930's, and how they look today. Since this line gave us horses with fabulous and thus far unsurpassed performance, such as Arab himself, who after the famous long distance race from Ashkhabad to Moscow entered Russian military training where he held a record in jumping, and Arab’s son Absent, who won medals in dressage in three subsequent Olympic games, it will be interesting to look and compare.
Milena
