Akhal Teke UK
©Black Fox 2007-2008
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The Role of Racing in the Akhal-Teke Selective Breeding
Milena Stoszek – from the interview with Maria Marquise on www.akhaltekeuk.com
Racing is fun, a frill, an icing on a cake. But I would bet everything dear to me that in the
old days Akhal-Teke were never kept just for racing. Their purpose was to help their
people make a living. To do the work, be it herding the sheep, going to war, moving the
nomadic household to another location. To run tirelessly, outrun pursuing enemies, and
disappear over the horizon to deliver their masters safely home. In their spare time, when
rested up, youngsters may have raced them. Sure, we all love to race horses, that’s fun. As
a kid I raced even our draft horse against my friends’ horses a number of times - until an
adult stepped in and said to let the horses rest for the next day’s work. And that’s what
most likely happened to the youngsters itching to race Turkoman horses in the ancient
times. Likely they were told to cool it, if they were allowed to mount those precious mature
horses at all.
Aleksandr Klimuk
I would like to comliment the authors of the site www.akhaltekeuk.com for facilitating a
lively debate between breeders and enthusiasts of the Akhal-Teke horse in different
countries.
I was especially interested to read the interview with Milena Stoszek who is clearly a highly
professional person and cares for the breed. On many points, I agree with her but some of
the statements in her interview I would like to challenge. These mostly concern racing
which she cosiders to be simply “good fun”.
Undoubtedly, the main performance test for the Akhal-Teke horse were the raids which
weeded outright all the weakly, sickly horses within the breed, and those which were too
slow or lacked stamina. However, from the earliest times, as well as the trials in the context
of a battle, races became an important factor in the Turkmen selective breeding, because
they are indeed one of the harshest and most telling tests of the heart, lungs, muscles,
tendons and joints and the nervous system of a young horse. It is not accidental that race
winners were known and glorified in Turkmenistan first and foremost as breeding sires. In
contrast, in the neighbouring Kazakhstan, the winners of “baiga” were usually gelded.
During the thousands of years of selective breeding, the Turkmen created their own system
of professional training and trials for their horses. I suspect, that, owing to the arrival of the
“seis” [trainers] in England in the 17th-18th centuries, together with their Turcoman horses,
these training methods laid the foundations for the whole modern global racing industry.
The role of racing in Akhal-Teke breeding increased after the annexation of Turkmenistan
to Russia after “alamans” [the raids] were banned and the Akhal-Teke horses were only
used in the Turkmen division of the cavalry which became the famous “Teke division”
during the First World War.
The experience of the Russian selective breeding proves to us that well-organised races do
not harm young horses in any way. Such exceptional horses as Absent, Pentelli, Pepel,
Edinburg and others all rased from the age of two. Perhaps, for Pepel and Edinburg it was
not absolutely necessary because any crossbred horse can have the race-tested English
Thoroughbred blood added to the breed, whereas for the Akhal-Teke (and for the Arab)
this is not an option.
All this means that racing are the only real realm of usage for the breed. The Akhal-Teke
horse is an excellent riding horse and can excel in classical disciplines, in endurance and in
trail riding/hacking. However, I fear that without the regular racing trials and selection
based on their results, the Akhal-Teke horse will degenerate into a purely decorative breed
suitable only for parades, a saddle-horse equivalent of the Kladrub or the Fresian.
Katrina O’Neil
I have long asked for more info on what sort of racing is done with Tekes in Russia (and
Turkmenistan) -- what distances, what weights they carry, etc. to get an idea of how tough
the testing really is.
But so far no one has responded. I would really like to know.
I do know that I visited the website of one of the largest and most important breeders of
Tekes in Russia and read the bios of his breeding stock...the majority had NOT raced at
all or were not very successful at it.
I think here in America the general feeling is that racing over 1 mile or less is no way to
"test" the ability of a breed that was legendary for it's toughness and endurance, and so
therefore that sort of ruler to judge breeding stock & quality is close to worthless.
There is no way Tekes can match TBs in terms of ability to race, and there is certainly no
market for a "racing" Teke on this side of the pond. For Tekes to be marketable today
they must be a multiple-purpose horse capable of performing successfully (at least at an
amateur level)in dressage and/or jumping and/or eventing and/or endurance.
Running a mile afew times as a 3 year old doesn't prove any of that.
PLEASE -- someone tell me the racing history of one of the best modern Tekes -- how
many times they ran, carrying what weight, at what age and what distance -- they I would
have an idea of what "successful" means.
I would LOVE to hear more about Teke racing in detail from someone "in the know." As
you may or may not know, I worked as a professional on the TB racetracks for a number
of years (even had my trainer's license at one point), so it is a world I know well.
While I understand that one cannot compare TBs and Tekes in terms of speed, I would
think the critera for racing "greatness" in Tekes would be similar to that standard in TBs --
not just speed, but also the ability to handle different footing, the ability to go a distance,
the ability to race many times & still stay sound and the ability to carry weight. While very
few "great" TB's can/did meet ALL of the critera, they usually met more than one or two.
That's what made them great!
Leonid Babaev
Modern racing which originated in England, was, from the outset, a copy of the ancient
racing tradition and training methods of the Turcoman horsemen. These customs were
adopted by the English following the importation of purebred horses accompanied by
Turcoman trainers who shared their professional secrets with the English breeders. It is
also possible that the English came across the racing in the course of colonial invasions
when they came into close contact with the ancient culture of horse racing amongst the
Teke tribes.
Therefore, to answer the question from Katrina O’Neil - “I have long asked for more info
on what sort of racing is done with Tekes in Russia (and Turkmenistan) -- what distances,
what weights they carry, etc. to get an idea of how tough the testing really is.” – I can
answer that the Akhal-Teke today race in accordance with their ancient traditions which
are accepted around the world. These are races over a distance from 500 to 3,200
metres, carrying from 55 to 62kg, depending on the sex and age of the horse. The most
popular races are held over 1,600 – 2800m.
The Akhal-Teke races take place at hippodromes in big cities, open to spectators and are
well-publicised. The racing results and distance records are made widely available in the
press and on the internet. Whatever people in America may think about the performance-
testing methods acccepted in Turkmenistan and Russia, makes little difference. Nobody
disputes the right of Americans to performance-test horses by different means. If, as a
result of your preferred performance-testing methods you produce champions in different
equestrian disciplines, if the shows of your horses will boast mass attendance from the
general public and an American Derby winner becomes the coveted item for the Teke
breeders around the world, then I shall adopt your American system of performance-
testing of the Akhal-Teke horses. At this point in time, all this takes place in the former
USSR states where the great champions of the Akhal-Teke breed are tested on the same
race tracks as their parents and grandparents. The fact that not all the horse of our
studfarm have, or have had, the opportunity to race is the deficiency in our selective
breeding because it restricts us in the gathering of important data about the strengths and
the weaknesses of our horses. We are making enormous efforts to arrange full-programme
races at the Moscow Hippodrome, the closest racetrack for our studfarm. In the
meantime, we try to select into our breeding programme the horses with a significant racing
potential detectable from their pedigrees and their conformation.
The Akhal-Teke horse is renowned, first and foremost, for its speed over short distances
(500m – 28”, 1000m – 1’03”). The breed owes its speed record to its purity,
temperament, the type of its nervous system and the history of its selection. Generations of
Akhal-Teke had to show the propensity to produce a short burst, a huge output of instant
energy over a short stretch of time. This propensity is a gift.
I had to smile while reading the phrase “racing over 1 mile or less is no way to "test" the
ability of a breed that was legendary for it's toughness and endurance”. What is toughness?
Ability to survive on limited rations? Should we be testing our horses for their ability to
survive in adverse circumstances in order to determine which is the toughest? The history
of usage of the Akhal-Teke horse influenced the conditions under which it was kept. These
were always focused on improvment, and even if these conditions were poor at times, this
was only due to inadequate owners or as a result of poverty. I don’t understand the
concept of “toughness” in relation to the purebred horse. A purebred horse – is a golden
standard in the equestrian world and it needs the golden standard of horsecare. Toughness
is the feature of working farm horses who pull the plough all day long and don’t need
concentrates. Toughness is the feature of Yakut horses who live out at minus 60C and eat
moss dug out from under the snow, like deer.
And now about stamina – show me a horse which has no stamina. I am sure the mules
have more stamina than horses, and donkeys have still more. Stamina can be developed,
you can train for stamina. It is a quality which can be acquired. Speed, on the other hand,
is the result of pure blood, the gift from the great ancestors. A horse either has speed or it
does not, it is not something it can acquire or something it can be taught. A horse can only
be “born” to run fast, and it is our goal to uncover its potential for speed and to develop it
in future generations of the great purebred mounts.
“There is no way Tekes can match TBs in terms of ability to race, and there is certainly no
market for a "racing" Teke on this side of the pond.” Why should they match TB? The
Arab horse also can’t match TB but this has not prevented the Arab horse breeders to test
their horses at the racetrack, the Arab horse enthusiasts are active and not lazy and, as a
result, have been able to lobby for their races to take place all around the world. Unlike
Akhal-Teke breeders, they are serious professionals and understand the significance of
performance-testing through racing in the breeding and marketing of the purebred horses.
Fortunately, our market does not depend on the market on your side of the pond. In our
country, racing Akhal-Tekes are in great demand.
The best breeders here in Russia produce excellend versatile horses, able to compete at
the highest level with sports breeds, and, especially, able to improve these breeds. It’s true
that such horses are expensive and Americans usually prefer to buy something a bit plainer
and cheaper. As a result you are importing into your country cheap, uninteresting horses,
with poor bone, lacking qualities which would allow them to compete with the horses of
other breeds. All these people keep saying that an Akhal-Teke should be able to do this
and that but they forget that to run and jump well and to carry a rider can only a horse with
an ability to do so. The name “Akhal-Teke” alone cannot do this. In Russian there is a
saying: “No matter how often you say the word “honey”, the word alone won’t taste
sweet”.
In selective breeding, as in everything, one has to aim at the highest of standards, one must
never use the average as a point of reference. If you aim at the top, the average will emerge
anyhow. If you aim at the average, you are opening the doors to let in the trash.
Alexander Klimuk
I would like to stress again that ability to race is not the only criterion I use in my selective
breeding. The results obtained in endurance racing (120-160km), in show-jumping (over
130cm), in eventing and dressage (from Intermediate level onwards) are as significant as
the short-distance racing results. However, in order to get results in these types of
competition, the horse has to be 8-10 years old. To test all breeding stock in this way is
simply not realistic. This is why the main performance measurment criterion remains racing.
Everything else does not give a clear-enough picture of the strength, speed and health of a
2-4 year-old horse.
The Turkmen of the Teke tribe began to race their horses when they were yearlings. As a
rule, horses of all ages were raced over the distance of 250m – 1000m. They normally
raced just two horses at a time, against each other and the winner would normally go on to
race again – usually 3-4 times a day. The Yomud, on the other hand, raced over much
longer distances – up to 50km. In 1927, the Yomud brought their horses to Ashkhabad, to
pitch them against the Teke horses but refused to race over short distances. For them
especially races were organised over the distance of 5-10 versts (1 verst – the old Russian
measure = 1067m). Both races were won by the Teke stallion Tugubai, the sire of El.
Nowadays, the Akhal-Teke horses in Russia and Turkmenistan begin racing from 2 years
onwards. The races are held over the distance of 1000-1600m, the weight of the rider is
54-57kg, the use of whip is forbidden. The horses of 3 years race up to 2800m, the Derby
is held over 2400m. The horses of 4 years old and older run over 4000m, the weight of the
rider up to 59kg. At the Piatigorsk Hippodrome there is a race over 500m and another
one over 6000m.
The speed of the Akhal-Teke is inferior to that of the English Thoroughbred but this doesn’
t mean the Akhal-Teke races are not interesting, quite the contrary, they are very
aesthetically pleasing and exciting. By the way, in the US, there are races not just for
English TB but also for the Arabs, for quarterhorses and for the Appaloosas.
I hope I answered, at least in part, the questions about racing, though I am not sure if
everyone will find my answer convincing.
Milena Stoszek
I would like to thank Mr. Klimuk for his comments. As one of the most knowledgeable
and dedicated breeders of the Akha-Teke horses, Mr. Klimuk contributes enormously to
the maintenance and preservation of this threatened breed, and he helps set a worldwide
perception of how our horses should look and how they should perform. Mr. Klimuk’s
willingness to share his experience and knowledge of the breed, and his thoughts related to
these topics, is very helpful and appreciated.
I have a few things I would like to clarify now in regard to Mr. Klimuk’s response, since it
may be that several points raised in my interview were lost somewhere, perhaps because
of the language differences.
I think that in the ancient times a short distance horse racing sprint was never an ultimate
activity for which Akhal-Teke horses were bred and maintained. Their job was to help
make a living for a human society inhabiting increasingly more arid, harsh and hostile
environment. The cost of raising and maintaining horses that competed for precious forage
with food producing livestock had to be outweighed by the horses’ ability to somehow
produce more food and other goods for their masters. From the truly ancient records there
is no evidence that, as Mr. Klimuk believes, the young colts that were the short distance
“race winners were known and glorified in Turkmenistan first and foremost as breeding
sires”, regardless of how well they run around the yurt during the various festive occasions.
In contrast, mature stallions are known to have received high honors and valuable
elaborate decorations for each successfully completed raid, and their success was glorified
and remembered for generations within each family and beyond. It appears that stallions
had to prove themselves first, not only by their speed and stamina, but also by their spirit,
intelligence and willing cooperation. And after several such raids they were eventually
allowed to breed the mares in hopes of producing equally strong and useful young
replacement stallions.
In my interview I did not say that “racing is simply good fun”. I said “when Europeans
brought Tukmen horses back to Europe, racing fun became a dead serious money
producing business.” Business based on the large crowds paying for mass attendance at
the races, and on huge revenues generated from public gambling.
I agree with Mr. Klimuk that the use of short distance racing is a very good selection tool
when breeding horses, IF the breeder wants to produce faster horses for short distance
races. Over the centuries this selection tool was successfully used in producing English
Thoroughbred horses, with increasingly faster speeds in each successive generation.
Question is, do we really want to produce another racing sprinter from the small and
closed genetic base of Akhal-Teke horses? If we do, it will take many generations of
serious breeding to get even close to the speed of existing Thoroughbreds, and I doubt that
we could ever compete with the Jockey Club. And what are we going to advertise now as
a strength of Akhal-Teke horses, the fact that our race horses cannot sprint as fast as the
Thoroughbreds?
In my youth, I also frequently heard Mr. Klimuk’s assertion that “racing … is a harsh and
most telling test for the heart, the lungs, the muscles, tendons and joints, and the nervous
system of a young horse.” It is a harsh test all right, but with the new scientific knowledge
we now know that it is “telling” us only if a young horse probably does, or does not, have a
genetic makeup and predisposition to be a fast sprinter. And, I do worry about the
purpose and the goal of using racing results as a performance yardstick, worry about the
type of future finished horses that this test would produce. Most races, with very few
exceptions, are run on a flat ground and over short distances. The winners show explosive
burst of energy propelling them within just a few short minutes toward their finish line.
Human athletes engaged in similar sport are known as sprinters. It is now a well established
fact that sprinters posses their ability to excel in short distance sprints not as a result of
vigorous training, but because of their inherited genetic makeup. Of course they need to
train hard, but without their specific genes they would never excel as sprinters. And no
matter how hard they would train, they would never perform well in a marathon. At the
other end of the genetic spectrum, successful marathon runners are born with a different
genetic makeup, that sustains them well during long periods when they cover long distances
with minimum effort, but which also makes them very poor sprinters.
Of course we all know that this inherited predisposition is due to the inherited genetic
blueprints that give each individual different amounts of the fast twitch and slow twitch
muscle fibers. These fibers are the basis of genetically inherited differences in running
abilities. While humans have on the average about 50% of each type, Olympic sprinters are
known to have up to 80% of fast twitch muscle fibers, and marathon runners have up to
80% of slow twitch muscle fibers. Thoroughbred horses are claimed to have 80% of fast
twitch muscles, and Quarter horses that run even shorter distances have more than 90%.
On the other hand, Arabians with their excellent endurance records are listed as having
larger proportion of slow twitch fibers.
While vigorous training may convert a portion of the intermediate fast twitch Type IIa fibers
to a slow twitch metabolism, experiments show that the slow twitch Type I fibers, and the
fast twitch Type IIb fibers do not substantially change even with intensive training. In short,
each individual is born with ability, or inability, to run marathon, and they pass that ability or
inability to their offspring. If you eliminate marathon runners from a population, you cannot
get marathon runners in future generations. Complex biochemical reactions, functions, and
chemical requirements of the Type I are fundamentally different than those of the Type II. I
can simplify that here by saying that each muscle fiber type has it’s own specific
biochemical pathways by which it utilizes different chemical sources of energy, and releases
that energy in different amounts for muscle contractions. The need for oxygen in Type I,
and the release of energy by anaerobic reaction without oxygen by Type II, is also
completely different. There is also a difference in the total generated work output,
accumulation of chemical waste in the muscles, and onset of fatigue.
By applying selective pressure on a horse population when using a quick sprint (race track)
as a measure of quality, fastest sprinters with the highest percentage of the fast twitch Type
II muscle fibers, and thus with the lowest genetic predisposition for endurance, are being
favored and selected for breeding, to the detriment of horses with predominantly slow
twitch (fatigue-resistant/endurance) Type I genetic makeup. Contemporary Akhal-Teke
horses, whose legendary ability was to cover effortlessly long distances and endure many
days of grueling travel, are for several generations now systematically tested only as
sprinters, and fastest sprinters among them are selected to produce largest numbers of
foals. By contrast, horses with the highest percentage of slow twitch fibers, with their best
biochemical and physiological abilities for endurance, are being systematically culled out of
the population. They are culled because their large percentage of slow twitch Type I
endurance fibers makes them fail as sprinters in the short flat races.
Thus over the recent decades, Akhal-Teke population is being systematically shifted and
transformed from the original ultimate endurance runners to a breed of rather mediocre
sprinters. If we want to preserve the original famous Akhal-Teke/Turkoman horses, the
endurance horses, horses that went from Fergana to Beijing, from Ashkhabad to Moscow,
horses that for thousands of years ruled over the vast spaces of Central Asia, then we need
to combine ancient history and modern science to identify and preserve those fundamental
qualities that made Turkoman horses so famous. We need to carefully preserve and
expand that part of the population that still possesses this vastly superior genetic ability to
endure. We need to salvage what is left, and do it fast.
Decades ago Vladimir Shamborant intuitively realized how important it is to preserve the
original Ahkal-Teke qualities, when he advocated expulsion of all foreign thoroughbred
blood from the breed. A century ago a Thoroughbred was crossed in to increase short
distance racing speed, but this infusion resulted in a loss of unique original qualities and in
mostly inferior performance of the crosses; thus most of the thoroughbred blood was
subsequently expelled from the breed. In Shamborant’s time, nothing was known about the
slow twitch muscle fibers, and only little about genetics. Yet he knew instinctively that pure
Akhal-Teke blood was unique, precious, and in need of preservation. Today we have that
scientific knowledge. So why are we still selecting against those unique original Akhal-Teke
genes? Why don’t we test our horses to see what percentage of slow twitch Type I
muscles they still have, and start selecting for that? It’s likely that our horses still have that
unique muscle and body composition of a true marathon runner, composition that is not
found in any other horse breed. Historically they certainly had it. It may be that they still
have the best marathon genes of any horse breed, genetics of the ultimate Olympic athlete.
And here we are, instead of carefully preserving their original genes, we are pushing our
horses into a warm blood mold, and into a sprinter mold, and then we wonder why their
round peg doesn’t fit in the square hole.
A fully agree with Mr. Klimuk that we should not allow Akhal-Teke to become a purely
decorative breed. In the end we may decide to protect other Akhal-Teke traits, not their
exceptional endurance. But I think that we need to re-evaluate all attributes of our ancient
horses, and then try to salvage and preserve them by the best possible means. I also think
that we need to openly discuss our breeding goals, breeding experiences, genetic defects,
grading and performance tools used for selection, and then come to a conclusion that
would give us all a more unified and historically and scientifically proper tools and goals. I
am convinced that we all have welfare of the breed on our minds, even though we may be
using different and sometimes conflicting ways of getting to that same goal. We just need to
find a common will, common language to communicate, and then work together toward
that goal.
Milena Stoszek – from the interview with Maria Marquise on www.akhaltekeuk.com
Racing is fun, a frill, an icing on a cake. But I would bet everything dear to me that in the
old days Akhal-Teke were never kept just for racing. Their purpose was to help their
people make a living. To do the work, be it herding the sheep, going to war, moving the
nomadic household to another location. To run tirelessly, outrun pursuing enemies, and
disappear over the horizon to deliver their masters safely home. In their spare time, when
rested up, youngsters may have raced them. Sure, we all love to race horses, that’s fun. As
a kid I raced even our draft horse against my friends’ horses a number of times - until an
adult stepped in and said to let the horses rest for the next day’s work. And that’s what
most likely happened to the youngsters itching to race Turkoman horses in the ancient
times. Likely they were told to cool it, if they were allowed to mount those precious mature
horses at all.
Aleksandr Klimuk
I would like to comliment the authors of the site www.akhaltekeuk.com for facilitating a
lively debate between breeders and enthusiasts of the Akhal-Teke horse in different
countries.
I was especially interested to read the interview with Milena Stoszek who is clearly a highly
professional person and cares for the breed. On many points, I agree with her but some of
the statements in her interview I would like to challenge. These mostly concern racing
which she cosiders to be simply “good fun”.
Undoubtedly, the main performance test for the Akhal-Teke horse were the raids which
weeded outright all the weakly, sickly horses within the breed, and those which were too
slow or lacked stamina. However, from the earliest times, as well as the trials in the context
of a battle, races became an important factor in the Turkmen selective breeding, because
they are indeed one of the harshest and most telling tests of the heart, lungs, muscles,
tendons and joints and the nervous system of a young horse. It is not accidental that race
winners were known and glorified in Turkmenistan first and foremost as breeding sires. In
contrast, in the neighbouring Kazakhstan, the winners of “baiga” were usually gelded.
During the thousands of years of selective breeding, the Turkmen created their own system
of professional training and trials for their horses. I suspect, that, owing to the arrival of the
“seis” [trainers] in England in the 17th-18th centuries, together with their Turcoman horses,
these training methods laid the foundations for the whole modern global racing industry.
The role of racing in Akhal-Teke breeding increased after the annexation of Turkmenistan
to Russia after “alamans” [the raids] were banned and the Akhal-Teke horses were only
used in the Turkmen division of the cavalry which became the famous “Teke division”
during the First World War.
The experience of the Russian selective breeding proves to us that well-organised races do
not harm young horses in any way. Such exceptional horses as Absent, Pentelli, Pepel,
Edinburg and others all rased from the age of two. Perhaps, for Pepel and Edinburg it was
not absolutely necessary because any crossbred horse can have the race-tested English
Thoroughbred blood added to the breed, whereas for the Akhal-Teke (and for the Arab)
this is not an option.
All this means that racing are the only real realm of usage for the breed. The Akhal-Teke
horse is an excellent riding horse and can excel in classical disciplines, in endurance and in
trail riding/hacking. However, I fear that without the regular racing trials and selection
based on their results, the Akhal-Teke horse will degenerate into a purely decorative breed
suitable only for parades, a saddle-horse equivalent of the Kladrub or the Fresian.
Katrina O’Neil
I have long asked for more info on what sort of racing is done with Tekes in Russia (and
Turkmenistan) -- what distances, what weights they carry, etc. to get an idea of how tough
the testing really is.
But so far no one has responded. I would really like to know.
I do know that I visited the website of one of the largest and most important breeders of
Tekes in Russia and read the bios of his breeding stock...the majority had NOT raced at
all or were not very successful at it.
I think here in America the general feeling is that racing over 1 mile or less is no way to
"test" the ability of a breed that was legendary for it's toughness and endurance, and so
therefore that sort of ruler to judge breeding stock & quality is close to worthless.
There is no way Tekes can match TBs in terms of ability to race, and there is certainly no
market for a "racing" Teke on this side of the pond. For Tekes to be marketable today
they must be a multiple-purpose horse capable of performing successfully (at least at an
amateur level)in dressage and/or jumping and/or eventing and/or endurance.
Running a mile afew times as a 3 year old doesn't prove any of that.
PLEASE -- someone tell me the racing history of one of the best modern Tekes -- how
many times they ran, carrying what weight, at what age and what distance -- they I would
have an idea of what "successful" means.
I would LOVE to hear more about Teke racing in detail from someone "in the know." As
you may or may not know, I worked as a professional on the TB racetracks for a number
of years (even had my trainer's license at one point), so it is a world I know well.
While I understand that one cannot compare TBs and Tekes in terms of speed, I would
think the critera for racing "greatness" in Tekes would be similar to that standard in TBs --
not just speed, but also the ability to handle different footing, the ability to go a distance,
the ability to race many times & still stay sound and the ability to carry weight. While very
few "great" TB's can/did meet ALL of the critera, they usually met more than one or two.
That's what made them great!
Leonid Babaev
Modern racing which originated in England, was, from the outset, a copy of the ancient
racing tradition and training methods of the Turcoman horsemen. These customs were
adopted by the English following the importation of purebred horses accompanied by
Turcoman trainers who shared their professional secrets with the English breeders. It is
also possible that the English came across the racing in the course of colonial invasions
when they came into close contact with the ancient culture of horse racing amongst the
Teke tribes.
Therefore, to answer the question from Katrina O’Neil - “I have long asked for more info
on what sort of racing is done with Tekes in Russia (and Turkmenistan) -- what distances,
what weights they carry, etc. to get an idea of how tough the testing really is.” – I can
answer that the Akhal-Teke today race in accordance with their ancient traditions which
are accepted around the world. These are races over a distance from 500 to 3,200
metres, carrying from 55 to 62kg, depending on the sex and age of the horse. The most
popular races are held over 1,600 – 2800m.
The Akhal-Teke races take place at hippodromes in big cities, open to spectators and are
well-publicised. The racing results and distance records are made widely available in the
press and on the internet. Whatever people in America may think about the performance-
testing methods acccepted in Turkmenistan and Russia, makes little difference. Nobody
disputes the right of Americans to performance-test horses by different means. If, as a
result of your preferred performance-testing methods you produce champions in different
equestrian disciplines, if the shows of your horses will boast mass attendance from the
general public and an American Derby winner becomes the coveted item for the Teke
breeders around the world, then I shall adopt your American system of performance-
testing of the Akhal-Teke horses. At this point in time, all this takes place in the former
USSR states where the great champions of the Akhal-Teke breed are tested on the same
race tracks as their parents and grandparents. The fact that not all the horse of our
studfarm have, or have had, the opportunity to race is the deficiency in our selective
breeding because it restricts us in the gathering of important data about the strengths and
the weaknesses of our horses. We are making enormous efforts to arrange full-programme
races at the Moscow Hippodrome, the closest racetrack for our studfarm. In the
meantime, we try to select into our breeding programme the horses with a significant racing
potential detectable from their pedigrees and their conformation.
The Akhal-Teke horse is renowned, first and foremost, for its speed over short distances
(500m – 28”, 1000m – 1’03”). The breed owes its speed record to its purity,
temperament, the type of its nervous system and the history of its selection. Generations of
Akhal-Teke had to show the propensity to produce a short burst, a huge output of instant
energy over a short stretch of time. This propensity is a gift.
I had to smile while reading the phrase “racing over 1 mile or less is no way to "test" the
ability of a breed that was legendary for it's toughness and endurance”. What is toughness?
Ability to survive on limited rations? Should we be testing our horses for their ability to
survive in adverse circumstances in order to determine which is the toughest? The history
of usage of the Akhal-Teke horse influenced the conditions under which it was kept. These
were always focused on improvment, and even if these conditions were poor at times, this
was only due to inadequate owners or as a result of poverty. I don’t understand the
concept of “toughness” in relation to the purebred horse. A purebred horse – is a golden
standard in the equestrian world and it needs the golden standard of horsecare. Toughness
is the feature of working farm horses who pull the plough all day long and don’t need
concentrates. Toughness is the feature of Yakut horses who live out at minus 60C and eat
moss dug out from under the snow, like deer.
And now about stamina – show me a horse which has no stamina. I am sure the mules
have more stamina than horses, and donkeys have still more. Stamina can be developed,
you can train for stamina. It is a quality which can be acquired. Speed, on the other hand,
is the result of pure blood, the gift from the great ancestors. A horse either has speed or it
does not, it is not something it can acquire or something it can be taught. A horse can only
be “born” to run fast, and it is our goal to uncover its potential for speed and to develop it
in future generations of the great purebred mounts.
“There is no way Tekes can match TBs in terms of ability to race, and there is certainly no
market for a "racing" Teke on this side of the pond.” Why should they match TB? The
Arab horse also can’t match TB but this has not prevented the Arab horse breeders to test
their horses at the racetrack, the Arab horse enthusiasts are active and not lazy and, as a
result, have been able to lobby for their races to take place all around the world. Unlike
Akhal-Teke breeders, they are serious professionals and understand the significance of
performance-testing through racing in the breeding and marketing of the purebred horses.
Fortunately, our market does not depend on the market on your side of the pond. In our
country, racing Akhal-Tekes are in great demand.
The best breeders here in Russia produce excellend versatile horses, able to compete at
the highest level with sports breeds, and, especially, able to improve these breeds. It’s true
that such horses are expensive and Americans usually prefer to buy something a bit plainer
and cheaper. As a result you are importing into your country cheap, uninteresting horses,
with poor bone, lacking qualities which would allow them to compete with the horses of
other breeds. All these people keep saying that an Akhal-Teke should be able to do this
and that but they forget that to run and jump well and to carry a rider can only a horse with
an ability to do so. The name “Akhal-Teke” alone cannot do this. In Russian there is a
saying: “No matter how often you say the word “honey”, the word alone won’t taste
sweet”.
In selective breeding, as in everything, one has to aim at the highest of standards, one must
never use the average as a point of reference. If you aim at the top, the average will emerge
anyhow. If you aim at the average, you are opening the doors to let in the trash.
Alexander Klimuk
I would like to stress again that ability to race is not the only criterion I use in my selective
breeding. The results obtained in endurance racing (120-160km), in show-jumping (over
130cm), in eventing and dressage (from Intermediate level onwards) are as significant as
the short-distance racing results. However, in order to get results in these types of
competition, the horse has to be 8-10 years old. To test all breeding stock in this way is
simply not realistic. This is why the main performance measurment criterion remains racing.
Everything else does not give a clear-enough picture of the strength, speed and health of a
2-4 year-old horse.
The Turkmen of the Teke tribe began to race their horses when they were yearlings. As a
rule, horses of all ages were raced over the distance of 250m – 1000m. They normally
raced just two horses at a time, against each other and the winner would normally go on to
race again – usually 3-4 times a day. The Yomud, on the other hand, raced over much
longer distances – up to 50km. In 1927, the Yomud brought their horses to Ashkhabad, to
pitch them against the Teke horses but refused to race over short distances. For them
especially races were organised over the distance of 5-10 versts (1 verst – the old Russian
measure = 1067m). Both races were won by the Teke stallion Tugubai, the sire of El.
Nowadays, the Akhal-Teke horses in Russia and Turkmenistan begin racing from 2 years
onwards. The races are held over the distance of 1000-1600m, the weight of the rider is
54-57kg, the use of whip is forbidden. The horses of 3 years race up to 2800m, the Derby
is held over 2400m. The horses of 4 years old and older run over 4000m, the weight of the
rider up to 59kg. At the Piatigorsk Hippodrome there is a race over 500m and another
one over 6000m.
The speed of the Akhal-Teke is inferior to that of the English Thoroughbred but this doesn’
t mean the Akhal-Teke races are not interesting, quite the contrary, they are very
aesthetically pleasing and exciting. By the way, in the US, there are races not just for
English TB but also for the Arabs, for quarterhorses and for the Appaloosas.
I hope I answered, at least in part, the questions about racing, though I am not sure if
everyone will find my answer convincing.
Milena Stoszek
I would like to thank Mr. Klimuk for his comments. As one of the most knowledgeable
and dedicated breeders of the Akha-Teke horses, Mr. Klimuk contributes enormously to
the maintenance and preservation of this threatened breed, and he helps set a worldwide
perception of how our horses should look and how they should perform. Mr. Klimuk’s
willingness to share his experience and knowledge of the breed, and his thoughts related to
these topics, is very helpful and appreciated.
I have a few things I would like to clarify now in regard to Mr. Klimuk’s response, since it
may be that several points raised in my interview were lost somewhere, perhaps because
of the language differences.
I think that in the ancient times a short distance horse racing sprint was never an ultimate
activity for which Akhal-Teke horses were bred and maintained. Their job was to help
make a living for a human society inhabiting increasingly more arid, harsh and hostile
environment. The cost of raising and maintaining horses that competed for precious forage
with food producing livestock had to be outweighed by the horses’ ability to somehow
produce more food and other goods for their masters. From the truly ancient records there
is no evidence that, as Mr. Klimuk believes, the young colts that were the short distance
“race winners were known and glorified in Turkmenistan first and foremost as breeding
sires”, regardless of how well they run around the yurt during the various festive occasions.
In contrast, mature stallions are known to have received high honors and valuable
elaborate decorations for each successfully completed raid, and their success was glorified
and remembered for generations within each family and beyond. It appears that stallions
had to prove themselves first, not only by their speed and stamina, but also by their spirit,
intelligence and willing cooperation. And after several such raids they were eventually
allowed to breed the mares in hopes of producing equally strong and useful young
replacement stallions.
In my interview I did not say that “racing is simply good fun”. I said “when Europeans
brought Tukmen horses back to Europe, racing fun became a dead serious money
producing business.” Business based on the large crowds paying for mass attendance at
the races, and on huge revenues generated from public gambling.
I agree with Mr. Klimuk that the use of short distance racing is a very good selection tool
when breeding horses, IF the breeder wants to produce faster horses for short distance
races. Over the centuries this selection tool was successfully used in producing English
Thoroughbred horses, with increasingly faster speeds in each successive generation.
Question is, do we really want to produce another racing sprinter from the small and
closed genetic base of Akhal-Teke horses? If we do, it will take many generations of
serious breeding to get even close to the speed of existing Thoroughbreds, and I doubt that
we could ever compete with the Jockey Club. And what are we going to advertise now as
a strength of Akhal-Teke horses, the fact that our race horses cannot sprint as fast as the
Thoroughbreds?
In my youth, I also frequently heard Mr. Klimuk’s assertion that “racing … is a harsh and
most telling test for the heart, the lungs, the muscles, tendons and joints, and the nervous
system of a young horse.” It is a harsh test all right, but with the new scientific knowledge
we now know that it is “telling” us only if a young horse probably does, or does not, have a
genetic makeup and predisposition to be a fast sprinter. And, I do worry about the
purpose and the goal of using racing results as a performance yardstick, worry about the
type of future finished horses that this test would produce. Most races, with very few
exceptions, are run on a flat ground and over short distances. The winners show explosive
burst of energy propelling them within just a few short minutes toward their finish line.
Human athletes engaged in similar sport are known as sprinters. It is now a well established
fact that sprinters posses their ability to excel in short distance sprints not as a result of
vigorous training, but because of their inherited genetic makeup. Of course they need to
train hard, but without their specific genes they would never excel as sprinters. And no
matter how hard they would train, they would never perform well in a marathon. At the
other end of the genetic spectrum, successful marathon runners are born with a different
genetic makeup, that sustains them well during long periods when they cover long distances
with minimum effort, but which also makes them very poor sprinters.
Of course we all know that this inherited predisposition is due to the inherited genetic
blueprints that give each individual different amounts of the fast twitch and slow twitch
muscle fibers. These fibers are the basis of genetically inherited differences in running
abilities. While humans have on the average about 50% of each type, Olympic sprinters are
known to have up to 80% of fast twitch muscle fibers, and marathon runners have up to
80% of slow twitch muscle fibers. Thoroughbred horses are claimed to have 80% of fast
twitch muscles, and Quarter horses that run even shorter distances have more than 90%.
On the other hand, Arabians with their excellent endurance records are listed as having
larger proportion of slow twitch fibers.
While vigorous training may convert a portion of the intermediate fast twitch Type IIa fibers
to a slow twitch metabolism, experiments show that the slow twitch Type I fibers, and the
fast twitch Type IIb fibers do not substantially change even with intensive training. In short,
each individual is born with ability, or inability, to run marathon, and they pass that ability or
inability to their offspring. If you eliminate marathon runners from a population, you cannot
get marathon runners in future generations. Complex biochemical reactions, functions, and
chemical requirements of the Type I are fundamentally different than those of the Type II. I
can simplify that here by saying that each muscle fiber type has it’s own specific
biochemical pathways by which it utilizes different chemical sources of energy, and releases
that energy in different amounts for muscle contractions. The need for oxygen in Type I,
and the release of energy by anaerobic reaction without oxygen by Type II, is also
completely different. There is also a difference in the total generated work output,
accumulation of chemical waste in the muscles, and onset of fatigue.
By applying selective pressure on a horse population when using a quick sprint (race track)
as a measure of quality, fastest sprinters with the highest percentage of the fast twitch Type
II muscle fibers, and thus with the lowest genetic predisposition for endurance, are being
favored and selected for breeding, to the detriment of horses with predominantly slow
twitch (fatigue-resistant/endurance) Type I genetic makeup. Contemporary Akhal-Teke
horses, whose legendary ability was to cover effortlessly long distances and endure many
days of grueling travel, are for several generations now systematically tested only as
sprinters, and fastest sprinters among them are selected to produce largest numbers of
foals. By contrast, horses with the highest percentage of slow twitch fibers, with their best
biochemical and physiological abilities for endurance, are being systematically culled out of
the population. They are culled because their large percentage of slow twitch Type I
endurance fibers makes them fail as sprinters in the short flat races.
Thus over the recent decades, Akhal-Teke population is being systematically shifted and
transformed from the original ultimate endurance runners to a breed of rather mediocre
sprinters. If we want to preserve the original famous Akhal-Teke/Turkoman horses, the
endurance horses, horses that went from Fergana to Beijing, from Ashkhabad to Moscow,
horses that for thousands of years ruled over the vast spaces of Central Asia, then we need
to combine ancient history and modern science to identify and preserve those fundamental
qualities that made Turkoman horses so famous. We need to carefully preserve and
expand that part of the population that still possesses this vastly superior genetic ability to
endure. We need to salvage what is left, and do it fast.
Decades ago Vladimir Shamborant intuitively realized how important it is to preserve the
original Ahkal-Teke qualities, when he advocated expulsion of all foreign thoroughbred
blood from the breed. A century ago a Thoroughbred was crossed in to increase short
distance racing speed, but this infusion resulted in a loss of unique original qualities and in
mostly inferior performance of the crosses; thus most of the thoroughbred blood was
subsequently expelled from the breed. In Shamborant’s time, nothing was known about the
slow twitch muscle fibers, and only little about genetics. Yet he knew instinctively that pure
Akhal-Teke blood was unique, precious, and in need of preservation. Today we have that
scientific knowledge. So why are we still selecting against those unique original Akhal-Teke
genes? Why don’t we test our horses to see what percentage of slow twitch Type I
muscles they still have, and start selecting for that? It’s likely that our horses still have that
unique muscle and body composition of a true marathon runner, composition that is not
found in any other horse breed. Historically they certainly had it. It may be that they still
have the best marathon genes of any horse breed, genetics of the ultimate Olympic athlete.
And here we are, instead of carefully preserving their original genes, we are pushing our
horses into a warm blood mold, and into a sprinter mold, and then we wonder why their
round peg doesn’t fit in the square hole.
A fully agree with Mr. Klimuk that we should not allow Akhal-Teke to become a purely
decorative breed. In the end we may decide to protect other Akhal-Teke traits, not their
exceptional endurance. But I think that we need to re-evaluate all attributes of our ancient
horses, and then try to salvage and preserve them by the best possible means. I also think
that we need to openly discuss our breeding goals, breeding experiences, genetic defects,
grading and performance tools used for selection, and then come to a conclusion that
would give us all a more unified and historically and scientifically proper tools and goals. I
am convinced that we all have welfare of the breed on our minds, even though we may be
using different and sometimes conflicting ways of getting to that same goal. We just need to
find a common will, common language to communicate, and then work together toward
that goal.