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Re: [RC] did AHA give in or did they have no choice (History of theAkhal Tekes) - Katrina O'NealActually, what happened with the Tekes is alittle more complicated. Because racing was very popular in Russia (which had taken over Turkmenistan in the 1800's, which was the country of origin for the Akhal Tekes) and TBs were faster, around the turn of the century it became very popular to cross TBs with Tekes. Although the horses were faster, the lacked the stamina and bone which is the hallmark of the Akhal Teke. In 1935 a group of horsemen from the Teke tribe became concerned enough about this practice to stage a ride from the capital of Turkmenistan (Ashkahbad) to Moscow, a distance of 2700 miles. Each rider had only one horse ~ most were Akhal Teke, afew were Yomuds, which are another Turkomen horse. The riders carried all they needed with them, except what they could hunt or gather along the way. The terrain was varied, and included mountains, swamps and 225 miles of the Kara Kum desert, which had virtually no water. All of the riders AND all of the horses completed the ride...it took 84 days...which meant they did a minimum of 32 miles a day, EVERY day for almost three months.This so impressed the Russian government that they appointed a committee to gather up 300 or so Akhal Teke horses (and afew Yomud) to begin the first studbook. Many of these horses had known pedigrees (and did have TB in them), but about 25% did not...they looked and moved like Tekes but their parentage was unknown. Several years later the studbook was closed. However, the practice of breeding Tekes to TBs continued. Since no bloodtesting was done, no one doubts many so-called "purebred Akhal Tekes" were actually had some TB blood. Meanwhile, around 1980 the new director of the Akhal Teke studbook "cleaned house" and tossed out a large number of horses she claimed had TB blood. There were still no bloodtests done, and in a number of cases the evidence was very shaky (in one case the sole piece of "evidence" was a letter written by a groom who had worked at the stable twenty years before).. It was pretty widely known that in one or two cases, the breeders who had horses suddenly declared "impure" were those most vocal in their disagreement with the new director. Remember, this was Communist Russia, not America. But in some cases I'm sure the accusations were correct. Of course, by the time of the purge, a number of the descendants of these (now) "impure" horses had left Russia for America and Europe. When they left, they had purebred papers. Naturally, they produced foals, who in turned produced foals. Finally, it became known that theses horses were not considered pure in their native country. In 1998 the American Teke Registry voted to place all these so-called "impure" Tekes in a different book and called them "Catagory II's). This was a big blow to many breeders ~ one had over 40% of his stock declared "impure" in one fell swoop. The sad part is that many of these so-called impure horses have great type and are super performance animals. And this is a breed that doesn't have a large genetic base to draw from. The issue is still be hashed out among Teke breeders around the world.... Katrina On May 14, 2005, at 7:53 AM, Becky Huffman wrote: My information on the Akhal Tekes is admittedly second-hand, but it was my =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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