♘امیرحسین♞
♘ مدیریت انجمن اسب ایران ♞
By ALESSANDRA STANLEY
Stalin is usually associated with the most brutal Soviet crimes, but
in Turkmenistan it is the memory of Khrushchev that makes people shudder.
In this sand-swept Central Asian republic, Khrushchev is reviled as
the Communist Party boss who ordered the slaughter of thousands of
Akhal-Teke horses, a breed that had been ridden by desert nomads for
thousands of years.
Khrushchev said our horses were useless because they gave neither milk
nor meat," said Meretov Bazarbay, deputy director of the Turkmen
Akhal-Teke Horse Association, the main state horse-breeding farm in
Ashkhabad. "He said that now that we have tractors, the horses should
be made into sausage."
Akhal-Tekes came close to extinction under Soviet rule. Four years
after independence from Moscow, Turkmenistan has reclaimed them as its
national symbol. The Government and a few private horse breeders are
seeking to replenish the stock and return the almost forgotten breed
to prominence.
There are close to 2,000 Akhal-Teke horses in the world, about half of
them in Turkmenistan. (There are about 100 in the United States.) The
Akhal-Teke is bred for beauty and stamina rather than speed. With its
shimmering coat, thin, sensitive face, slender legs and long swanlike
neck, the Akhal-Teke is quirkily elegant, Audrey Hepburn to the Kim
Novak-like thoroughbreds that dominate the Western racing world.
Many historians believe that it was on the steppes of Central Asia,
4,000 years ago, that the horse was first domesticated, and there that
horse-breeding began.
"The Akhal-Teke is the first pureblood horse in history," said
Jonathan Maslow, who wrote a book, "Sacred Horses," about his efforts
to ride the Akhal-Teke in Soviet-ruled Turkmenistan. "It is the direct
ancestor of the English thoroughbred. "
In its eagerness to promote the Akhal-Teke, official Turkmen
literature tends to make wild claims. One pamphlet insists that a
Akhal-Teke stallion sold for $50 million in 1986, an assertion that
makes even Turkmen breeders snicker. Another states that Alexander the
Great's famous steed, Bucephalus, was an Akhal-Teke.
"How can anyone say for sure without the bones?" scoffed Geldy
Kyarizov, one of Turkmenistan' s first private horse breeders and
chairman of the International Association of Akhal-Teke Breeders.
Mr. Kyarisov began secretly buying Akhal-Tekes in the 1980's from a
local horse-lover who clandestinely traded nags for state-owned
Akhal-Tekes assigned to the slaughterhouse. He now owns a little more
than 100 horses, and is a tireless champion of the breed.
"Look at his color, the softness of his coat," he said as he stroked a
glinting gold stallion. "English breeders only value one feature --
they'll let a horse look like a cow as long as it is swift."
Horse races are immensely popular in Turkmenistan, a desert nation of
4.5 million, and the main attraction at traditional weddings and
circumcision ceremonies. But Turkmen breeders complain that the
Akhal-Teke is still misunderstood and underestimated in the West.
And so do Akhal-Teke breeders in the United States.
"This horse is very people-oriented, very athletic and so elegant,"
said Philip Case, who spotted the Akhal-Teke in a coffee-table book
and bought his first in 1978 at a Moscow auction. He and his wife,
Margo, train 30 purebreds on their farm in Staunton, Va., in dressage,
jumping and endurance racing.
"But we haven't had much commercial success yet," he said. "The
Akhal-Teke is smaller than the fad, and nobody knows the horse." He
said they sell in the West for about $6,000 to $10,000.
Turkmenistan is not Deauville or Kentucky -- Mr. Kyarisov's horses
graze alongside camels in a arid, sandy paddock littered with rusted
car parts and broken pipes. Only the stable, clean and strewn with
fresh hay, suggests the esteem in which the Akhal-Teke is once again held.
President Saparmurad Niyazov, the former Communist Party boss who now
rules Turkmenistan by personality cult, is perhaps the Akhal-Teke's
most shameless booster.
Though he does not ride, Mr. Niyazov owns at least 16 of the horses.
And like the former Shah of Iran, he is fond of horseflesh diplomacy.
He presented Prime Minister John Major of Britain with a gift
stallion, which was accepted with some embarrassment and quietly
dispatched to the stables of the Queen's Guards.
Mr. Niyazov's portrait hangs on the walls of every hotel, office
building and bank. The only other permitted national icon is the
Akhal-Teke's haughty profile, which is woven into carpets, banners and
even banknotes.
But in the desert, the Akhal-Teke is not so much revered as relied on.
"This? This is transportation, " Ishan Burunov, 75, said as he patted
Kyovalighyr, the Akhal-Teke he uses to herd his sheep and camels near
his small village, Kyzilsakal. "It's better than a car or motorbike.
It doesn't need spare parts or gasoline."
Stalin is usually associated with the most brutal Soviet crimes, but
in Turkmenistan it is the memory of Khrushchev that makes people shudder.
In this sand-swept Central Asian republic, Khrushchev is reviled as
the Communist Party boss who ordered the slaughter of thousands of
Akhal-Teke horses, a breed that had been ridden by desert nomads for
thousands of years.
Khrushchev said our horses were useless because they gave neither milk
nor meat," said Meretov Bazarbay, deputy director of the Turkmen
Akhal-Teke Horse Association, the main state horse-breeding farm in
Ashkhabad. "He said that now that we have tractors, the horses should
be made into sausage."
Akhal-Tekes came close to extinction under Soviet rule. Four years
after independence from Moscow, Turkmenistan has reclaimed them as its
national symbol. The Government and a few private horse breeders are
seeking to replenish the stock and return the almost forgotten breed
to prominence.
There are close to 2,000 Akhal-Teke horses in the world, about half of
them in Turkmenistan. (There are about 100 in the United States.) The
Akhal-Teke is bred for beauty and stamina rather than speed. With its
shimmering coat, thin, sensitive face, slender legs and long swanlike
neck, the Akhal-Teke is quirkily elegant, Audrey Hepburn to the Kim
Novak-like thoroughbreds that dominate the Western racing world.
Many historians believe that it was on the steppes of Central Asia,
4,000 years ago, that the horse was first domesticated, and there that
horse-breeding began.
"The Akhal-Teke is the first pureblood horse in history," said
Jonathan Maslow, who wrote a book, "Sacred Horses," about his efforts
to ride the Akhal-Teke in Soviet-ruled Turkmenistan. "It is the direct
ancestor of the English thoroughbred. "
In its eagerness to promote the Akhal-Teke, official Turkmen
literature tends to make wild claims. One pamphlet insists that a
Akhal-Teke stallion sold for $50 million in 1986, an assertion that
makes even Turkmen breeders snicker. Another states that Alexander the
Great's famous steed, Bucephalus, was an Akhal-Teke.
"How can anyone say for sure without the bones?" scoffed Geldy
Kyarizov, one of Turkmenistan' s first private horse breeders and
chairman of the International Association of Akhal-Teke Breeders.
Mr. Kyarisov began secretly buying Akhal-Tekes in the 1980's from a
local horse-lover who clandestinely traded nags for state-owned
Akhal-Tekes assigned to the slaughterhouse. He now owns a little more
than 100 horses, and is a tireless champion of the breed.
"Look at his color, the softness of his coat," he said as he stroked a
glinting gold stallion. "English breeders only value one feature --
they'll let a horse look like a cow as long as it is swift."
Horse races are immensely popular in Turkmenistan, a desert nation of
4.5 million, and the main attraction at traditional weddings and
circumcision ceremonies. But Turkmen breeders complain that the
Akhal-Teke is still misunderstood and underestimated in the West.
And so do Akhal-Teke breeders in the United States.
"This horse is very people-oriented, very athletic and so elegant,"
said Philip Case, who spotted the Akhal-Teke in a coffee-table book
and bought his first in 1978 at a Moscow auction. He and his wife,
Margo, train 30 purebreds on their farm in Staunton, Va., in dressage,
jumping and endurance racing.
"But we haven't had much commercial success yet," he said. "The
Akhal-Teke is smaller than the fad, and nobody knows the horse." He
said they sell in the West for about $6,000 to $10,000.
Turkmenistan is not Deauville or Kentucky -- Mr. Kyarisov's horses
graze alongside camels in a arid, sandy paddock littered with rusted
car parts and broken pipes. Only the stable, clean and strewn with
fresh hay, suggests the esteem in which the Akhal-Teke is once again held.
President Saparmurad Niyazov, the former Communist Party boss who now
rules Turkmenistan by personality cult, is perhaps the Akhal-Teke's
most shameless booster.
Though he does not ride, Mr. Niyazov owns at least 16 of the horses.
And like the former Shah of Iran, he is fond of horseflesh diplomacy.
He presented Prime Minister John Major of Britain with a gift
stallion, which was accepted with some embarrassment and quietly
dispatched to the stables of the Queen's Guards.
Mr. Niyazov's portrait hangs on the walls of every hotel, office
building and bank. The only other permitted national icon is the
Akhal-Teke's haughty profile, which is woven into carpets, banners and
even banknotes.
But in the desert, the Akhal-Teke is not so much revered as relied on.
"This? This is transportation, " Ishan Burunov, 75, said as he patted
Kyovalighyr, the Akhal-Teke he uses to herd his sheep and camels near
his small village, Kyzilsakal. "It's better than a car or motorbike.
It doesn't need spare parts or gasoline."