Akhal Teke UK
©Black Fox 2007-2011
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"Purity – fact or fiction?"
The concept of purity came home to roost two weeks ago, when I was riding across Exmoor: a
short distance away from me were half-a-dozen ponies poking their mealy noses from behind
the heather. Tufty manes, little piggy eyes, identical colour, identical size – like peas in a pod.
You can’t get more pure than this ancient breed of semi-wild natives but then Exmoor has had a
rather uneventful history compared to Central Asia.
In his article “The Last Drops from the Original Source” Alexander Klimuk writes: “It appears
that even the wild predecessor of the Akhal-Teke horse was already fundamentally different
from the Przhevalski horse and the now extinct Tarpan. A dry continental climate of Central
Asia with little snow in the winter and ample grazing, rich in nutritious species (lucerne is native
to Central Asia!), aided the development of a relatively large, fast horse, less dependent on its
ability to lay down fat for cold winter months, the ability which was critical to the survival of
horses in the more Northern steppes. ”
The Turcoman tribes who carried the tradition of selective breeding into the modern age were
nomadic and did not have writing. It is known, however, that the knowledge of pedigrees, with
emphasis on paternal lines, was an integral part of the Turcoman oral tradition. Alexander
Klimuk again: “From the ancient times the breeding pairs were selected individually, sometimes
with purposeful inbreeding. The mares were led to famous stallions, known to every Turcoman,
across hundreds of miles, with no expense to spare. Sometimes, a stallion owner would ride
around the settlements (the “auls”) himself, offering his stallion for breeding. This was the case
with the famous Bek Nazar and his stallion Bek Nazar Dor.” Klimuk continues: “The Akhal-
Teke horse has evolved as a result of breeding on a small scale. Even the wealthiest Turcoman
could not afford to keep more than five horses – feeding lucerne and barley both of which had
to be bought in, was expensive! But even the poorest tribesman had to have a war mount, for
war was the main occupation of the Turcoman people who either served as mercenaries or
took part in raids (the “alamans”) on the neighbouring people.”
The first crisis to threaten the ancient tradition in modern times came in the 1880s, after the
annexation of Central Asian territories by the Russian Empire and the subsequent ban on
alamans which made selective horse breeding uneconomical. This period can be seen as the end
of the ancient tradition of Turcoman horse breeding.
The revival and the gradual formation of the Akhal-Teke as a modern breed begins at the turn
of the 20th century when the Russian officers, stationed on the frontiers of the Empire, come
across the few remaining original Turcoman horses and, with the aid of the Central Government
grant, succeed in setting up in 1897 the Transcaspian Stud. They recognise the unique value of
the ancient breed but their programme is modern in its very essence. They quiz the Turkmen
elders about the pedigrees, record these carefully into the first hand-written studbook, and
assemble a selection of breeding mares and best stallions on the same physical site – a wholly
European concept! The selection of the breeding stock is made partly on the basis of their own
understanding of the merits-to-look-for-in-a-riding-horse – the judgement they were well-
qualified to make, being themselves experienced cavalry men – as well as by taking into account
the opinions of the few remaining “seis” (Turkmen horse trainers).
The Turkmen tribes recognised several types of horse within their own culture. “From the
beginning of the 19th century, all the sources available to us point to the fact that the best
Turkmen horses belonged to the Teke tribe, and the most valuable ones - to the Teke tribe in
the Akhal region,” says Alexander Klimuk in his interview with Akhal-Teke UK. “The
Commission tasked with assessing the state of horse breeding in Turkmenistan in 1896
concluded that “of all the Turkmen horses, the Turkmen themselves particularly value the
Yomud and the Akhal-Teke. The horses the Turkmen consider the most valuable of all, are the
purebred examples of the latter.”
Thus the concept of purity stems from the Turkmen tradition itself where two terms exist to
distinguish between a purebred (“asyl”) and a partbred (“alasha”). This concept has been
challenged more than once in modern times, sometimes officially and other times by stealth. The
best known and most critical challenge came in the early 1930s when horse breeders in Soviet
Turkmenistan were encouraged to experiment with their native breed, designated to be their
Republic’s contribution to the Soviet economy, by adding Thoroughbred and other blood to
produce a “bigger-and-better” horse for the military. The famed 1935 ride from Ahskhabad to
Moscow was organised as a comparative test of stamina of pure- versus partbreds, a contest
which purebreds won. It took many years after the Second World War, and the efforts of
devout breed fanatics such as Shamborant to weed out the horses with “English” blood from the
Akhal-Teke Studbook.
“How did he know who was who? After all, they didn’t test horses until the 1970s…” I asked
Leonid Babaev, one of Shamborant's pupils.
“It was easy,” says Leonid, “first of all, Soviet bureaucracy helped: collective farms in those
days were obliged to keep records during covering seasons, there was no shortage of
paperwork, you just needed patience to look. But over and above that, people knew: a groom,
a stable hand, a trainer – people had the knowledge of which stallions were used in which studs
and, when challenged, were willing to divulge the information”.
“But what about Agat,” I asked “he was pronounced impure yet you claim he wasn’t. So
mistakes did creep in, didn’t they?”.
“Agat was a purebred,” asserts Leonid, “we have proven it.”
“But would you then want to re-instate his off-spring into the Studbook, if you had control over
it?”
“No, there is no point. Hardly any of his off-spring are around anymore.”
“What about Babakhan?”
“He isn’t all that stunning.”
In a highly critical response to the interview with T.N. Riabova on www.akhaltekekuk.com
Babaev is less generous towards Riabova on the subject of Agat:
“You have shown incredible stubbornness about Agat, a truly great horse, by ignoring the
obvious proof of his purebred origin. We found four cases of buckskin foals out of chestnut and
bay mares by Agat. This can only be because Agat had a dilute gene which he inherited from his
sire Askol to whom he bore a strong resemblance. Agat himself was dark buckskin with a
golden tint… Shamborant had swept out all the impure horses from the Ahskhabad stud but he
stood up for Agat and fought for him while he was alive. If Agat had been allowed to remain in
the Studbook, the speed of 2min 40 seconds over 2400 metres would have today been the
norm. Agat was one of those horses who define the face of the breed…. It was paramount to
torture for the great breeder to see one of his greatest achievements discarded.”
If speed records were lost as a result of Agat’s expulsion from the Studbook, there is bitter
irony in the fact that racing speed has been the main driver for adding TB blood back into the
breed by stealth in the more recent past.
“All the breeders today know how we in Turkmenistan had to weed out the cross-breds from
the Akhal-Teke breed between 1997 and 2002”, writes Geldy Kiarizov in his Open Letter to
the Executive Committee of the World Akhal-Teke Organisation, the body whose legitimacy is
challenged by many in the global Akhal-Teke community but which, nevertheless, has some
influential Committee members.
At the time to which Kiarizov refers he was the “Minister of the Horse” in Turkmenistan and
had the power to bar certain horses from Ashkhabad race meetings. The story of his downfall,
and the subsequent campaign to free him from prison, have been widely covered in the media.
While the horrendous injustice of his sentence has never been in doubt (as Brough Scott put it
“Geldy was accused of stealing his own horses”) it is also widely recognised that his fall from
grace during the reign of Turkmenbashy - the Father of All the Turkmens - was, in no small
part, due to his strained relations with fellow horse breeders. To what extent his passionate
belief in keeping the breed pure encouraged those around him to plot against him is difficult to
ascertain, but his sharp criticism of those who chose to contaminate the Akhal-Teke with TB
blood could not have endeared him to the breeders who engaged in such practice. The Open
Letter to WATO, also published on the prominent Russian internet forum “Odnoklassniki”, pulls
no punches:
“Why are we incapable of stamping out the evil which devalues our breed and our personal
material and intellectual investment into it? …the breed attracts new people, not always wholly
decent and sometimes openly criminal, in their essence and in their past dealings. This situation
is an affront to those who have dedicated several decades of their lives to this breed…. As
soon as we relax, the influx of cross-breeding returns with a vengeance…. a whole new
category of private breeders has emerged in Turkmenistan and the whole breed is now saddled
with their lack of taste and sense of responsibility. Why are the leaders of cross-breeding of the
last 20-30 years the same people who make registration services act as an easy-to-persuade
ready-to-oblige prostitute who happily works for a remuneration? De facto, the breed is split: I
do not mean geographical divide, nor the quality of horses, nor the division by bloodlines. I am
talking about the division between purebred horses - asyl, and the partbreds - alasha.”
Kiarizov continues in the similar vein for several pages, naming the culprits and describing their
devious ways:
“ Such breeders as Ovliakuli Sharipov and Sadyk Berdymuhammedov aren’t so stupid as to
stand a Thoroughbred stallion at their studs and use him officially. They don’t need much. All
they want is to be able to keep back a few half-bred and high-bred mares, to ensure good
racing results. They have reviewed their breeding programmes. They are engaged in pure
breeding, to produce and to show beautiful horses with faultless parentage. But none of those
are going to be raced. Take stallion Khanbergud. Look at the racing lists: has he raced much?
No, he acts as their smoke screen, used as a decoration. What happens at Sharipov’s stables is
only known to himself and to a few of his grooms…same for Berdymuhammedov. The
purebred horses are presented to visitors and taken to shows but one is unlikely to see them
racing. Perhaps you might, after this letter has been made public… But more likely, it will be
the off-spring of partbred mares who will go to the racetrack.”
Big deal, I hear you say. Do we, Akhal-Teke owners in the West, care who the Turkmen
punters choose to spend their money on? If admission to races is what it’s all about, do we
really care? Especially, as one of the accused (Ovliakuli Sharipov) openly declared at the 2008
WATO Conference in Moscow:
“If you come to me and I tell you that my horses are pure, what reason do you have to
disbelieve me? Yes, of course, in my country there have been instances of purebred horses
being bred to non-purebreds, these crosses are mostly used for races or for baiga. But if I say
“my horses are pure”, why would you, as a buyer, not believe me?”
Kiarizov’s statement that the breed is split along the lines of purity, rather than geographical
divide, conveys only one part of the story. At the 2001 Ashkhabad International Akhal-Teke
Conference, shortly before he was deposed, Kiarizov proposed that the General Studbook
should be moved from Ryazan to Ashkhabad. “Why is it, when the USSR is no more,”
appealed to the delegates Kiarizov “is the Studbook for our native Turkmen horses still based in
Russia?”
The foreign delegates were asked to vote and, on the last day, to sign a document to endorse
the handover. Understandably, they asked for deferment on the grounds that they would first
need to consult their associations’ members. Even if they had signed, there was a glaring
omission in the contingent of participants: none of the Russian breeders, nor, most crucially, T.
N. Riabova, the Chief Registrar of GPK, were in attendance.
To many people’s surprise, despite Kiarizov’s forced departure from Turkmen Atlary in 2001,
the “Turkmen Studbook project” went ahead, supported by an EU grant which helped to set up
a DNA laboratory in Turkmenistan. Perhaps less surprisingly, the laboratory never worked and
was never in the position to apply for ISAG approval. Yet the independent Turkmen Studbook
was born and began to maintain records of the Turkmen Akhal-Teke population. What started
off as a nationalist sentiment led to the most profound schism in the history of the breed: the
untested Turkmen horses (a mixture of asyl and alasha) versus the mostly-tested rest-of-the-
world horses in the Russian GPK. As the horse population in Russia and other Central Asian
states grew in numbers and, arguably, in quality, the Akhal-Teke breed has, de-facto, migrated
beyond the borders of its historical homeland.
Whether a consequence of a political change or the weakening of the nationalist tendencies, in
the last year negotiations ensued between Turkmen Atlary and VNIIK, in which Turkmen
Atlary has expressed a wish on the part of the Turkmen breeders to “return to the fold” by
getting the Turkmen Akhal-Teke population tested and re-inscribed into GPK. This
development should probably be seen as part of a global trend: in the last two years, countries
such as UK, USA, Switzerland, Germany, Benelux and China have all signed agreements with
VNIIK to register their horses centrally, as well as nationally.
Naively, one might have supposed that the prospect of VNIIK-Turkmen Atlary reunion would
be met with approval from the major Akhal-Teke breeders. Far from it. Rather than welcome
the return of the lost tribe, they are alarmed by the threat of impure horses re-entering the
Studbook:
“Undoubtedly, we should applaud the onset of discussions with Turkmen Atlary and its intention
to test the parentage of the Turkmen horses and their subsequent inscription into GPK.
Turkmenistan does, indeed, have some very valuable stock. However, as we know there are
also cross-bred horses with falsified parentage. You remember, no doubt, the mare they
brought to Piatigorsk for the President’s Race. The introduction of partbred horses into GPK
will cause untold harm to the breed and devalue the Studbook itself.” (Klimuk to Riabova)
“I regard the Kiarizov family as an authority on this subject – these people have devoted their
whole life to our breed. They have recently published the names of impure horses, about 20 of
them in total, originating from two stud farms. A number of questions arise: 1) How many of
partbreds are there in the country and how many off-spring do they have?
2) I am unhappy that parentage testing will be done using blood-typing as it gives only 80%
accuracy, compared to 100% accuracy from DNA;
3) Many of the Turkmen horses’ parents are dead now and themselves had never been
tested… If our Studbook is a closed book, these horses cannot be legitimately inscribed in the
book, otherwise the whole point of purity is lost.
4) If the process of parentage testing and registration of Turkmen horses is not transparent, I do
not consider the decision making-making by one person to be legitimate.
(Kamal Mirkhodzhaev to WATO Executive Committee)
“If Riabova does not dance to their tune who would finance her trips to Turkmenistan?”
(Kiarizov in his Open Letter)
The suggestion is that T.N. Riabova, though herself not in favour of letting alasha into the
General Purebred Akhal-Teke Studbook, might not be able to withstand the pressure from
those Turkmen breeders who could insist on getting their suspect horses inscribed into the
book. As it stands, Riabova who is 73 this year, has got her work cut out for her: there is
upward of a thousand untested breeding animals in Turkmenistan, all in need of getting blood
taken and analysed, and, in many cases, also that of their parents. Would Riabova be inclined to
compromise in a few individual obscure cases of good, typical horses whose origin she cannot
prove for the sake of reinstating unity within the breed?
WATO has proposed that a Committee is formed, to help Riabova in her endeavours to re-
integrate the Turkmen horses into the Studbook. Since WATO has never been in Riabova’s
good books, following the confrontational way in which it was born, her response is dismissive:
“It’s too early to create any Committees, the work hasn’t started yet, there is a long way to go
with unraveling it all. I don’t understand why everyone is so het-up suddenly and how this
Committee can help. I doubt that these horses will make it into vol 11, probably not even into
volume 12, there are piles of work to do first... There are some rumors flying around that there
are, allegedly, 20 impure horses, in a list hung up by Geldy somewhere. Why hasn’t anyone
forwarded this list to me? As to Geldy, I would advise him, before he is included in any
Committees, that he should establish good relations with breeders and owners at home,
otherwise we will dig ourselves a big hole and nothing will come of our good intentions. This
whole undertaking could die a death before it’s even born. Is that what you want to happen?
Would you be happy with such an outcome? Anyway, I struggle to understand the reasons for
this global anxiety about the purity of the Akhal-Teke right now. Why now? Why not before?
Everyone is trying to discredit me and the Studbook without any good reasons. I was tasked
with managing this breed in 1973 and I will be responsible for it while I am alive.”
It is a well-known fact that the Akhal-Teke studbook was created as a closed studbook and
only those horses whose parents are inscribed into it are eligible for inclusion. Yet the concept
of purity is interpreted and understood by major breeders as more than just biologically-
confirmed parentage:
“ ‘Pure blood’ is an older, more traditional concept than ‘closed studbook’ ”, writes Leonid
Babaev in his article Unique Responsibilities of Pure Breeding. “Without a doubt, the tradition
of pure breeding developed over time and eventually purebred horses began to be entered into
studbooks, and not the other way around: horses in studbooks did not start to be called
purebreds.”
This view is echoed by Alexander Klimuk in the interview with Akhal-Teke UK:
“Purity of the breed is not determined by DNA testing or blood-typing. It is a concept steeped
in history and tradition. Purity tells us about the high degree of perfection achieved by selective
breeding, and of the role a breed has played in the world-wide context. Pure breeds are those
selected according to the principles of pure breeding. But absolute purity can, of course, only
be achieved when breeding gnats in laboratories.”
So is purity about parentage verification by the best available means (oral tradition of the
Turcoman tribes, hand-written books of Gorelov and Mazan, collective-farms’ type-written
breeding records of the 1950s, blood-typing from the 1970s until recently and finally DNA) or
is it about excellence in selecting for type and performance, presence and beauty, breeding the
best to the best? And if it is the latter, has the Akhal-Teke breed lived up to the high standards
of purity advocated by its proponents?
Certainly in the West, it is an undeniable fact that we buy what we can afford and breed what
we have bought. For understandable reasons, we don’t take our mares to famed stallions over
hundreds of miles and the technically-purebreds we produce look much more diverse than the
Exmoor ponies which got me thinking about purity. But now it is alleged that the greatest threat
to purity is going to invade the Akhal-Teke breed from Turkmenistan, its historical homeland
where TB stallions are used on purebred Teke mares for the sake of winning a carpet! So much
for those ideologically confused Westerners (you hear me, Else Weiss!) who blame the
Russians for distorting and corrupting the glorious ancient Eastern tradition!
I shall continue to follow with interest the heated purity debate from the land of the Pure Pony.
short distance away from me were half-a-dozen ponies poking their mealy noses from behind
the heather. Tufty manes, little piggy eyes, identical colour, identical size – like peas in a pod.
You can’t get more pure than this ancient breed of semi-wild natives but then Exmoor has had a
rather uneventful history compared to Central Asia.
In his article “The Last Drops from the Original Source” Alexander Klimuk writes: “It appears
that even the wild predecessor of the Akhal-Teke horse was already fundamentally different
from the Przhevalski horse and the now extinct Tarpan. A dry continental climate of Central
Asia with little snow in the winter and ample grazing, rich in nutritious species (lucerne is native
to Central Asia!), aided the development of a relatively large, fast horse, less dependent on its
ability to lay down fat for cold winter months, the ability which was critical to the survival of
horses in the more Northern steppes. ”
The Turcoman tribes who carried the tradition of selective breeding into the modern age were
nomadic and did not have writing. It is known, however, that the knowledge of pedigrees, with
emphasis on paternal lines, was an integral part of the Turcoman oral tradition. Alexander
Klimuk again: “From the ancient times the breeding pairs were selected individually, sometimes
with purposeful inbreeding. The mares were led to famous stallions, known to every Turcoman,
across hundreds of miles, with no expense to spare. Sometimes, a stallion owner would ride
around the settlements (the “auls”) himself, offering his stallion for breeding. This was the case
with the famous Bek Nazar and his stallion Bek Nazar Dor.” Klimuk continues: “The Akhal-
Teke horse has evolved as a result of breeding on a small scale. Even the wealthiest Turcoman
could not afford to keep more than five horses – feeding lucerne and barley both of which had
to be bought in, was expensive! But even the poorest tribesman had to have a war mount, for
war was the main occupation of the Turcoman people who either served as mercenaries or
took part in raids (the “alamans”) on the neighbouring people.”
The first crisis to threaten the ancient tradition in modern times came in the 1880s, after the
annexation of Central Asian territories by the Russian Empire and the subsequent ban on
alamans which made selective horse breeding uneconomical. This period can be seen as the end
of the ancient tradition of Turcoman horse breeding.
The revival and the gradual formation of the Akhal-Teke as a modern breed begins at the turn
of the 20th century when the Russian officers, stationed on the frontiers of the Empire, come
across the few remaining original Turcoman horses and, with the aid of the Central Government
grant, succeed in setting up in 1897 the Transcaspian Stud. They recognise the unique value of
the ancient breed but their programme is modern in its very essence. They quiz the Turkmen
elders about the pedigrees, record these carefully into the first hand-written studbook, and
assemble a selection of breeding mares and best stallions on the same physical site – a wholly
European concept! The selection of the breeding stock is made partly on the basis of their own
understanding of the merits-to-look-for-in-a-riding-horse – the judgement they were well-
qualified to make, being themselves experienced cavalry men – as well as by taking into account
the opinions of the few remaining “seis” (Turkmen horse trainers).
The Turkmen tribes recognised several types of horse within their own culture. “From the
beginning of the 19th century, all the sources available to us point to the fact that the best
Turkmen horses belonged to the Teke tribe, and the most valuable ones - to the Teke tribe in
the Akhal region,” says Alexander Klimuk in his interview with Akhal-Teke UK. “The
Commission tasked with assessing the state of horse breeding in Turkmenistan in 1896
concluded that “of all the Turkmen horses, the Turkmen themselves particularly value the
Yomud and the Akhal-Teke. The horses the Turkmen consider the most valuable of all, are the
purebred examples of the latter.”
Thus the concept of purity stems from the Turkmen tradition itself where two terms exist to
distinguish between a purebred (“asyl”) and a partbred (“alasha”). This concept has been
challenged more than once in modern times, sometimes officially and other times by stealth. The
best known and most critical challenge came in the early 1930s when horse breeders in Soviet
Turkmenistan were encouraged to experiment with their native breed, designated to be their
Republic’s contribution to the Soviet economy, by adding Thoroughbred and other blood to
produce a “bigger-and-better” horse for the military. The famed 1935 ride from Ahskhabad to
Moscow was organised as a comparative test of stamina of pure- versus partbreds, a contest
which purebreds won. It took many years after the Second World War, and the efforts of
devout breed fanatics such as Shamborant to weed out the horses with “English” blood from the
Akhal-Teke Studbook.
“How did he know who was who? After all, they didn’t test horses until the 1970s…” I asked
Leonid Babaev, one of Shamborant's pupils.
“It was easy,” says Leonid, “first of all, Soviet bureaucracy helped: collective farms in those
days were obliged to keep records during covering seasons, there was no shortage of
paperwork, you just needed patience to look. But over and above that, people knew: a groom,
a stable hand, a trainer – people had the knowledge of which stallions were used in which studs
and, when challenged, were willing to divulge the information”.
“But what about Agat,” I asked “he was pronounced impure yet you claim he wasn’t. So
mistakes did creep in, didn’t they?”.
“Agat was a purebred,” asserts Leonid, “we have proven it.”
“But would you then want to re-instate his off-spring into the Studbook, if you had control over
it?”
“No, there is no point. Hardly any of his off-spring are around anymore.”
“What about Babakhan?”
“He isn’t all that stunning.”
In a highly critical response to the interview with T.N. Riabova on www.akhaltekekuk.com
Babaev is less generous towards Riabova on the subject of Agat:
“You have shown incredible stubbornness about Agat, a truly great horse, by ignoring the
obvious proof of his purebred origin. We found four cases of buckskin foals out of chestnut and
bay mares by Agat. This can only be because Agat had a dilute gene which he inherited from his
sire Askol to whom he bore a strong resemblance. Agat himself was dark buckskin with a
golden tint… Shamborant had swept out all the impure horses from the Ahskhabad stud but he
stood up for Agat and fought for him while he was alive. If Agat had been allowed to remain in
the Studbook, the speed of 2min 40 seconds over 2400 metres would have today been the
norm. Agat was one of those horses who define the face of the breed…. It was paramount to
torture for the great breeder to see one of his greatest achievements discarded.”
If speed records were lost as a result of Agat’s expulsion from the Studbook, there is bitter
irony in the fact that racing speed has been the main driver for adding TB blood back into the
breed by stealth in the more recent past.
“All the breeders today know how we in Turkmenistan had to weed out the cross-breds from
the Akhal-Teke breed between 1997 and 2002”, writes Geldy Kiarizov in his Open Letter to
the Executive Committee of the World Akhal-Teke Organisation, the body whose legitimacy is
challenged by many in the global Akhal-Teke community but which, nevertheless, has some
influential Committee members.
At the time to which Kiarizov refers he was the “Minister of the Horse” in Turkmenistan and
had the power to bar certain horses from Ashkhabad race meetings. The story of his downfall,
and the subsequent campaign to free him from prison, have been widely covered in the media.
While the horrendous injustice of his sentence has never been in doubt (as Brough Scott put it
“Geldy was accused of stealing his own horses”) it is also widely recognised that his fall from
grace during the reign of Turkmenbashy - the Father of All the Turkmens - was, in no small
part, due to his strained relations with fellow horse breeders. To what extent his passionate
belief in keeping the breed pure encouraged those around him to plot against him is difficult to
ascertain, but his sharp criticism of those who chose to contaminate the Akhal-Teke with TB
blood could not have endeared him to the breeders who engaged in such practice. The Open
Letter to WATO, also published on the prominent Russian internet forum “Odnoklassniki”, pulls
no punches:
“Why are we incapable of stamping out the evil which devalues our breed and our personal
material and intellectual investment into it? …the breed attracts new people, not always wholly
decent and sometimes openly criminal, in their essence and in their past dealings. This situation
is an affront to those who have dedicated several decades of their lives to this breed…. As
soon as we relax, the influx of cross-breeding returns with a vengeance…. a whole new
category of private breeders has emerged in Turkmenistan and the whole breed is now saddled
with their lack of taste and sense of responsibility. Why are the leaders of cross-breeding of the
last 20-30 years the same people who make registration services act as an easy-to-persuade
ready-to-oblige prostitute who happily works for a remuneration? De facto, the breed is split: I
do not mean geographical divide, nor the quality of horses, nor the division by bloodlines. I am
talking about the division between purebred horses - asyl, and the partbreds - alasha.”
Kiarizov continues in the similar vein for several pages, naming the culprits and describing their
devious ways:
“ Such breeders as Ovliakuli Sharipov and Sadyk Berdymuhammedov aren’t so stupid as to
stand a Thoroughbred stallion at their studs and use him officially. They don’t need much. All
they want is to be able to keep back a few half-bred and high-bred mares, to ensure good
racing results. They have reviewed their breeding programmes. They are engaged in pure
breeding, to produce and to show beautiful horses with faultless parentage. But none of those
are going to be raced. Take stallion Khanbergud. Look at the racing lists: has he raced much?
No, he acts as their smoke screen, used as a decoration. What happens at Sharipov’s stables is
only known to himself and to a few of his grooms…same for Berdymuhammedov. The
purebred horses are presented to visitors and taken to shows but one is unlikely to see them
racing. Perhaps you might, after this letter has been made public… But more likely, it will be
the off-spring of partbred mares who will go to the racetrack.”
Big deal, I hear you say. Do we, Akhal-Teke owners in the West, care who the Turkmen
punters choose to spend their money on? If admission to races is what it’s all about, do we
really care? Especially, as one of the accused (Ovliakuli Sharipov) openly declared at the 2008
WATO Conference in Moscow:
“If you come to me and I tell you that my horses are pure, what reason do you have to
disbelieve me? Yes, of course, in my country there have been instances of purebred horses
being bred to non-purebreds, these crosses are mostly used for races or for baiga. But if I say
“my horses are pure”, why would you, as a buyer, not believe me?”
Kiarizov’s statement that the breed is split along the lines of purity, rather than geographical
divide, conveys only one part of the story. At the 2001 Ashkhabad International Akhal-Teke
Conference, shortly before he was deposed, Kiarizov proposed that the General Studbook
should be moved from Ryazan to Ashkhabad. “Why is it, when the USSR is no more,”
appealed to the delegates Kiarizov “is the Studbook for our native Turkmen horses still based in
Russia?”
The foreign delegates were asked to vote and, on the last day, to sign a document to endorse
the handover. Understandably, they asked for deferment on the grounds that they would first
need to consult their associations’ members. Even if they had signed, there was a glaring
omission in the contingent of participants: none of the Russian breeders, nor, most crucially, T.
N. Riabova, the Chief Registrar of GPK, were in attendance.
To many people’s surprise, despite Kiarizov’s forced departure from Turkmen Atlary in 2001,
the “Turkmen Studbook project” went ahead, supported by an EU grant which helped to set up
a DNA laboratory in Turkmenistan. Perhaps less surprisingly, the laboratory never worked and
was never in the position to apply for ISAG approval. Yet the independent Turkmen Studbook
was born and began to maintain records of the Turkmen Akhal-Teke population. What started
off as a nationalist sentiment led to the most profound schism in the history of the breed: the
untested Turkmen horses (a mixture of asyl and alasha) versus the mostly-tested rest-of-the-
world horses in the Russian GPK. As the horse population in Russia and other Central Asian
states grew in numbers and, arguably, in quality, the Akhal-Teke breed has, de-facto, migrated
beyond the borders of its historical homeland.
Whether a consequence of a political change or the weakening of the nationalist tendencies, in
the last year negotiations ensued between Turkmen Atlary and VNIIK, in which Turkmen
Atlary has expressed a wish on the part of the Turkmen breeders to “return to the fold” by
getting the Turkmen Akhal-Teke population tested and re-inscribed into GPK. This
development should probably be seen as part of a global trend: in the last two years, countries
such as UK, USA, Switzerland, Germany, Benelux and China have all signed agreements with
VNIIK to register their horses centrally, as well as nationally.
Naively, one might have supposed that the prospect of VNIIK-Turkmen Atlary reunion would
be met with approval from the major Akhal-Teke breeders. Far from it. Rather than welcome
the return of the lost tribe, they are alarmed by the threat of impure horses re-entering the
Studbook:
“Undoubtedly, we should applaud the onset of discussions with Turkmen Atlary and its intention
to test the parentage of the Turkmen horses and their subsequent inscription into GPK.
Turkmenistan does, indeed, have some very valuable stock. However, as we know there are
also cross-bred horses with falsified parentage. You remember, no doubt, the mare they
brought to Piatigorsk for the President’s Race. The introduction of partbred horses into GPK
will cause untold harm to the breed and devalue the Studbook itself.” (Klimuk to Riabova)
“I regard the Kiarizov family as an authority on this subject – these people have devoted their
whole life to our breed. They have recently published the names of impure horses, about 20 of
them in total, originating from two stud farms. A number of questions arise: 1) How many of
partbreds are there in the country and how many off-spring do they have?
2) I am unhappy that parentage testing will be done using blood-typing as it gives only 80%
accuracy, compared to 100% accuracy from DNA;
3) Many of the Turkmen horses’ parents are dead now and themselves had never been
tested… If our Studbook is a closed book, these horses cannot be legitimately inscribed in the
book, otherwise the whole point of purity is lost.
4) If the process of parentage testing and registration of Turkmen horses is not transparent, I do
not consider the decision making-making by one person to be legitimate.
(Kamal Mirkhodzhaev to WATO Executive Committee)
“If Riabova does not dance to their tune who would finance her trips to Turkmenistan?”
(Kiarizov in his Open Letter)
The suggestion is that T.N. Riabova, though herself not in favour of letting alasha into the
General Purebred Akhal-Teke Studbook, might not be able to withstand the pressure from
those Turkmen breeders who could insist on getting their suspect horses inscribed into the
book. As it stands, Riabova who is 73 this year, has got her work cut out for her: there is
upward of a thousand untested breeding animals in Turkmenistan, all in need of getting blood
taken and analysed, and, in many cases, also that of their parents. Would Riabova be inclined to
compromise in a few individual obscure cases of good, typical horses whose origin she cannot
prove for the sake of reinstating unity within the breed?
WATO has proposed that a Committee is formed, to help Riabova in her endeavours to re-
integrate the Turkmen horses into the Studbook. Since WATO has never been in Riabova’s
good books, following the confrontational way in which it was born, her response is dismissive:
“It’s too early to create any Committees, the work hasn’t started yet, there is a long way to go
with unraveling it all. I don’t understand why everyone is so het-up suddenly and how this
Committee can help. I doubt that these horses will make it into vol 11, probably not even into
volume 12, there are piles of work to do first... There are some rumors flying around that there
are, allegedly, 20 impure horses, in a list hung up by Geldy somewhere. Why hasn’t anyone
forwarded this list to me? As to Geldy, I would advise him, before he is included in any
Committees, that he should establish good relations with breeders and owners at home,
otherwise we will dig ourselves a big hole and nothing will come of our good intentions. This
whole undertaking could die a death before it’s even born. Is that what you want to happen?
Would you be happy with such an outcome? Anyway, I struggle to understand the reasons for
this global anxiety about the purity of the Akhal-Teke right now. Why now? Why not before?
Everyone is trying to discredit me and the Studbook without any good reasons. I was tasked
with managing this breed in 1973 and I will be responsible for it while I am alive.”
It is a well-known fact that the Akhal-Teke studbook was created as a closed studbook and
only those horses whose parents are inscribed into it are eligible for inclusion. Yet the concept
of purity is interpreted and understood by major breeders as more than just biologically-
confirmed parentage:
“ ‘Pure blood’ is an older, more traditional concept than ‘closed studbook’ ”, writes Leonid
Babaev in his article Unique Responsibilities of Pure Breeding. “Without a doubt, the tradition
of pure breeding developed over time and eventually purebred horses began to be entered into
studbooks, and not the other way around: horses in studbooks did not start to be called
purebreds.”
This view is echoed by Alexander Klimuk in the interview with Akhal-Teke UK:
“Purity of the breed is not determined by DNA testing or blood-typing. It is a concept steeped
in history and tradition. Purity tells us about the high degree of perfection achieved by selective
breeding, and of the role a breed has played in the world-wide context. Pure breeds are those
selected according to the principles of pure breeding. But absolute purity can, of course, only
be achieved when breeding gnats in laboratories.”
So is purity about parentage verification by the best available means (oral tradition of the
Turcoman tribes, hand-written books of Gorelov and Mazan, collective-farms’ type-written
breeding records of the 1950s, blood-typing from the 1970s until recently and finally DNA) or
is it about excellence in selecting for type and performance, presence and beauty, breeding the
best to the best? And if it is the latter, has the Akhal-Teke breed lived up to the high standards
of purity advocated by its proponents?
Certainly in the West, it is an undeniable fact that we buy what we can afford and breed what
we have bought. For understandable reasons, we don’t take our mares to famed stallions over
hundreds of miles and the technically-purebreds we produce look much more diverse than the
Exmoor ponies which got me thinking about purity. But now it is alleged that the greatest threat
to purity is going to invade the Akhal-Teke breed from Turkmenistan, its historical homeland
where TB stallions are used on purebred Teke mares for the sake of winning a carpet! So much
for those ideologically confused Westerners (you hear me, Else Weiss!) who blame the
Russians for distorting and corrupting the glorious ancient Eastern tradition!
I shall continue to follow with interest the heated purity debate from the land of the Pure Pony.
Maria Marquise Baverstock
December 2009, Devon, UK
This article is dedicated to Katrina O’Neal and her excellent stallion Kinor who had
the misfortune of having 6% of TB in him.
December 2009, Devon, UK
This article is dedicated to Katrina O’Neal and her excellent stallion Kinor who had
the misfortune of having 6% of TB in him.