♘امیرحسین♞
♘ مدیریت انجمن اسب ایران ♞
Written by Rosalind Mazzawi
One of the most detailed descriptions that we have of the Akhal-Teke horse in its indigenous habitat dates from the 1882 memoirs of Henri Moser, a Swiss citizen living in St. Petersburg. He visited Central Asia several times and was much impressed by the horses he saw there. (See Aramco World, January (February 1985.) He wrote:
The Turkmen horses have acquired the highest reputation, even beyond the frontiers of Central Asia. Already in the time of Alexander the Great the horses of Sogdiana were famous. Marco Polo said that their hooves were so hard that they did not need shoes. [Indeed, Akhal Tekes are rarely shod today].
Over the centuries their blood has been renewed from outside at times; thus Timur, wishing to improve it, distributed 5000 Arabian mares to the Turkmen, and in the nineteenth century Nasr al-Din gave them 500. Nevertheless, the Teke resembles the English thoroughbred rather than the Arabian horse; tall, clean cut, with slender legs, narrow-chested, he has a long thin neck, very prominent withers, and a large and sometimes disproportionately heavy head, with the hindquarters comparatively light. The high tail carriage of the Arabian is completely lacking here; the Teke has sloping quarters which means that the tail does not fall gracefully. On the other hand the eyes are remarkably large.
There are no horse breeding farms among the Tekes; the horse is brought up among the tents or houses, and only the mares follow the flocks and herds of the shepherds to pasture; they are very little ridden, being used only to transport riders for short distances. The stallion, brought up amongst human dwellings, is gentle toward his rider, and extremely intelligent.
A Turkmen proverb says "To turn a colt into a horse, the owner becomes a dog" [i.e., the owner makes sacrifices]. But the curry comb and brush are unknown; grooming is here reduced to its most basic expression. Armed with his knife, the Turkmen scrapes the horse's coat in the direction of the hair, from front to back, and then polishes it with the sleeve of his robe or a piece of felt. The colt is covered night and day with pieces of felt whose number is increased with his age. Two or three felts, shaped like a saddle blanket, cover the withers of the adult horses, usually pitted with the scars of ancient wounds, and are only lifted up with the greatest care; the Teke maintains that air and light are harmful to this delicate part of the spine.
Upon these felt blankets is placed the horn and wooden saddle, with no panels, and a very long pommel. The first blanket, a multi-colored mixture of silk and cotton, covers the horse from the base of the neck to the quarters, going over the saddle and crossing on his chest; a second, larger, felt blanket covers him from the ears to the base of the tail, and finally a third, usually white and richly embroidered, completes his accoutrement. There are five openings in all these, for the saddle pommel, the stirrup leathers, and the girth which goes around the circumference of this vast envelope, which is only removed for important races; the rest of the time, summer and winter alike, day and night, the desert courser remains under his warm coverings. The Tekes say that "the fat of our horses must melt." Indeed, they have only muscles. On account of all these coverings, the skin and the hair are finer than in any other horse. The shining coat has unbelievable colors, metallic bronze and old gold, which have an astonishing effect in the sunlight.
The Tekes understand horse training very well; whilst developing the animal's action, they manage to reduce his food, and particularly the water, to an unbelievable minimum; dried lucerne [alfalfa] is replaced by chopped straw, and our oats by barley flour mixed with mutton fat.
When the horse is unsaddled, the blankets are kept in place by a girth which goes four times around the body: the first in the place where we girth the horse, and the second crossing under the belly below the kidneys. Thus clothed, the horse is fastened with a long rope or chain near the entrance of his owner's dwelling. On account of the continual rubbing of the blankets against the neck, the mane grows sparsely, or not at all, and is cut back with scissors where it does appear. The Teke leaves only the forelock to develop naturally; the tail is long, but not very thick. The curb bit is unknown; a thin snaffle is used, and neither spurs nor a crop, useless anyway because of the blankets covering his mount. The tiny whip he carries is only a toy.
He rides with loose reins, leaving his horse quite free; with his naturally elegant head carriage the horse chooses his way with remarkable instinct through the rugged mountain passes. Perched high up on the saddle, the blankets oblige the rider to keep his legs wide apart and straight, with the feet thrust into the stirrups. At a gallop the rider stands up in his stirrups, the body leaning forward. The Teke horse has only two gaits, the gallop, and a walk which becomes a pace or a single foot running walk. At this gait the Turkmen make their long journeys of eight days, about 200 versts [about 200 kilometers, or 120 miles] per day, staying in the saddle for 20 hours out of the 24.
Since he is never beaten, this animal is extremely gentle with humans, although fierce with his own kind; when a stallion manages to break loose he gets into terrible fights, extremely dangerous for anyone who may be near. It is useless to try and separate them if the owner is not present; he, on the other hand, can, with a simple "Dour, dour," ("gently, gently") usually manage to calm his steed, where a stranger might break his neck.
When a woman marries, she brings as a dowry a certain number of felt blankets that she has made and embroidered herself. Amongst them there has to be a very fine cover for the saddle of her husband's horse.
One of the most detailed descriptions that we have of the Akhal-Teke horse in its indigenous habitat dates from the 1882 memoirs of Henri Moser, a Swiss citizen living in St. Petersburg. He visited Central Asia several times and was much impressed by the horses he saw there. (See Aramco World, January (February 1985.) He wrote:
The Turkmen horses have acquired the highest reputation, even beyond the frontiers of Central Asia. Already in the time of Alexander the Great the horses of Sogdiana were famous. Marco Polo said that their hooves were so hard that they did not need shoes. [Indeed, Akhal Tekes are rarely shod today].
Over the centuries their blood has been renewed from outside at times; thus Timur, wishing to improve it, distributed 5000 Arabian mares to the Turkmen, and in the nineteenth century Nasr al-Din gave them 500. Nevertheless, the Teke resembles the English thoroughbred rather than the Arabian horse; tall, clean cut, with slender legs, narrow-chested, he has a long thin neck, very prominent withers, and a large and sometimes disproportionately heavy head, with the hindquarters comparatively light. The high tail carriage of the Arabian is completely lacking here; the Teke has sloping quarters which means that the tail does not fall gracefully. On the other hand the eyes are remarkably large.
There are no horse breeding farms among the Tekes; the horse is brought up among the tents or houses, and only the mares follow the flocks and herds of the shepherds to pasture; they are very little ridden, being used only to transport riders for short distances. The stallion, brought up amongst human dwellings, is gentle toward his rider, and extremely intelligent.
A Turkmen proverb says "To turn a colt into a horse, the owner becomes a dog" [i.e., the owner makes sacrifices]. But the curry comb and brush are unknown; grooming is here reduced to its most basic expression. Armed with his knife, the Turkmen scrapes the horse's coat in the direction of the hair, from front to back, and then polishes it with the sleeve of his robe or a piece of felt. The colt is covered night and day with pieces of felt whose number is increased with his age. Two or three felts, shaped like a saddle blanket, cover the withers of the adult horses, usually pitted with the scars of ancient wounds, and are only lifted up with the greatest care; the Teke maintains that air and light are harmful to this delicate part of the spine.
Upon these felt blankets is placed the horn and wooden saddle, with no panels, and a very long pommel. The first blanket, a multi-colored mixture of silk and cotton, covers the horse from the base of the neck to the quarters, going over the saddle and crossing on his chest; a second, larger, felt blanket covers him from the ears to the base of the tail, and finally a third, usually white and richly embroidered, completes his accoutrement. There are five openings in all these, for the saddle pommel, the stirrup leathers, and the girth which goes around the circumference of this vast envelope, which is only removed for important races; the rest of the time, summer and winter alike, day and night, the desert courser remains under his warm coverings. The Tekes say that "the fat of our horses must melt." Indeed, they have only muscles. On account of all these coverings, the skin and the hair are finer than in any other horse. The shining coat has unbelievable colors, metallic bronze and old gold, which have an astonishing effect in the sunlight.
The Tekes understand horse training very well; whilst developing the animal's action, they manage to reduce his food, and particularly the water, to an unbelievable minimum; dried lucerne [alfalfa] is replaced by chopped straw, and our oats by barley flour mixed with mutton fat.
When the horse is unsaddled, the blankets are kept in place by a girth which goes four times around the body: the first in the place where we girth the horse, and the second crossing under the belly below the kidneys. Thus clothed, the horse is fastened with a long rope or chain near the entrance of his owner's dwelling. On account of the continual rubbing of the blankets against the neck, the mane grows sparsely, or not at all, and is cut back with scissors where it does appear. The Teke leaves only the forelock to develop naturally; the tail is long, but not very thick. The curb bit is unknown; a thin snaffle is used, and neither spurs nor a crop, useless anyway because of the blankets covering his mount. The tiny whip he carries is only a toy.
He rides with loose reins, leaving his horse quite free; with his naturally elegant head carriage the horse chooses his way with remarkable instinct through the rugged mountain passes. Perched high up on the saddle, the blankets oblige the rider to keep his legs wide apart and straight, with the feet thrust into the stirrups. At a gallop the rider stands up in his stirrups, the body leaning forward. The Teke horse has only two gaits, the gallop, and a walk which becomes a pace or a single foot running walk. At this gait the Turkmen make their long journeys of eight days, about 200 versts [about 200 kilometers, or 120 miles] per day, staying in the saddle for 20 hours out of the 24.
Since he is never beaten, this animal is extremely gentle with humans, although fierce with his own kind; when a stallion manages to break loose he gets into terrible fights, extremely dangerous for anyone who may be near. It is useless to try and separate them if the owner is not present; he, on the other hand, can, with a simple "Dour, dour," ("gently, gently") usually manage to calm his steed, where a stranger might break his neck.
When a woman marries, she brings as a dowry a certain number of felt blankets that she has made and embroidered herself. Amongst them there has to be a very fine cover for the saddle of her husband's horse.