KaraKum Stud Blog | Memoirs of a Horsegirl- Chapter 1 The infatuation

Friday 2nd, September 2005

Memoirs of a Horsegirl- Chapter 1 The infatuation 09/02/2005 02:38 PM

How did you get to know the breed, is a question posed to many of us Teke owners. My first contact with the Tekes is similar to so many other Tekelovers, a picture in a book.

In 1976 I was 12 years old and obsessed by horses. Every free minute I spent with horses, and if I wasn't with horses I thought of horses.
For Christmas present I got a book about horses by my grandmother Anna-Lisa. On the first page of the book there was a picture of a golden stallion. He was tall, proud and perfect, his color was pure gold. I wanted that horse. In the book it said that the horse was a Russian breed called Akhal-Teke. I loved that horse, every day I looked at him, I made drawings of him to get to know every detail, head, neck, torso the beautiful legs, long and dry.
What I did like most though, was his aura of calm friendliness and at the same time the mystical oriental look of eternal wisdom.

When, not if, I find my golden stallion, I frankly told my parents, I will ride him from Russia to Sweden, a long trip but not impossible, at least when you are 12 and live on horseback.

Reading that the breed was Russian had made me think that the mission to find an Akhal-Teke wasn't impossible. My mother is a Russophile and I had already met several Russians as guests in our home, they where always very nice, they brought Russian perfume to all women in the house, (my mother always warned us not to open the bottles though). My brothers and me used to spy on the omnipresent politruks that where watching over our guests. It was very exciting, and we felt very much Bond, James Bond.

On my first visit to St Petersburg I had noticed several big posters of the same man, I asked my mother if he was a pop star and taxi driver, as he wore a taxi driver cap and seemed to be very popular. "No dear" , my mother told me, "his name is Lenin and he his neither pop star nor taxi driver." This was my first encounter with a dictator, little did I know how much sorrow and pain another dictator would cause my family and me many years later.

The quest for Akhal-Tekes in Russia had begun. At that point I didn't know what was waiting along the road I had to travel to find the golden horses of Central Asia. Neither did I know that this remarkable breed of horses had been sought after by so many before me since ancient times.

In the beginning of the 80's my mother had found out more about the breed via Russian news bureaus, she read about the probegs from Ashgabad to Moscow and got touched by the loyalty those beautiful and proud horses showed their riders. I was happy, my mother was hooked on the breed to. My mother published an article in the Swedish equestrian magazine, Ridsport, in 1988 about the breed and its extraordinary achievements.

None of us could have imagined who would read the article and contact us one year later.

Picture: My mother and me on a warmblood preparing for the long ride in the summer of 1978. I had almot forgotten the ugly but safe "Jofa-helmets" we where supposed to wear in the 70's and 80's.

A picture named M2

Comments :

1. Maria09/08/2005 17:06:10

I am just trying out a comment... it wasn't working before. CAn I post a picture on the blog? I can scan an old Soviet postcard with a Teke on it. It was in a series about horse breeds and it made me remember the word Akhal-Teke which 25 years later I typed into the internet search to find Akhalteke Network website.

2. Jessica 09/08/2005 21:03:18

The Akhal-Teke world is small isn't it! Try to add a picture, I am new to this software myself, I just blog away. I'd love to see the picture that somehow brought us together.

3. maria09/28/2005 18:23:28

Reading this comment from Leonid - We waked up at 5 o'clock and standed on a waiting list for petrol. We had joke: " host asks guest: "Do you want tea with sugar? Yes. So let wash hands without soap". - made me remember vividly getting up even earlier, trudging through the snow to the metro station and travelling for an hour and a half to get to the Riding School of he Moscow Hippodrome.

Jessica, have I ever let you read the story I wrote about it?

4. Jessica 09/28/2005 19:58:26

Maria, Yes I read your story, but I would very much like to read it again. Why don't you publish it as a comment here!

5. Jacquelyn Bratis02/16/2006 13:56:06

I am wondering if there are any older-ten and up-Tekes available for sale within the US or more specifically close to so. California? Please let me know.
Thank you

6. Heather Van Hattem07/12/2006 21:10:30

i remember when i first saw these amazing animals. i took one look at them and i have loved them ever since.

7. Darya08/14/2006 10:15:32

I've always loved horses as far as I can remember myself, especially Tekes. A few days ago my dream has come true!!! I have bought my first two Teke horses! Stallion Dominik (Dzhamna-Melezor) line Gelishikli and mare Oinam (Opera-Maksut2) line Fakirpelvan are coming to their new home in England in the end of September! I'm so happy! Hopefully we will have our first foal in spring (sire Podarok(Aksona19-Padishah) line Peren)

8. Kerri-Jo Stewart04/30/2007 17:08:03
Homepage: http://Akhal-Teke.ca

OK Jessica - so where is the rest of the story??

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