I have read the comments about breed purity and the work of the national breed association with interest. From the comments I understand that there are different ways of defining breed and also the different expectations people have from breed associations. The Akhal-Teke breed is like many ancient breeds surrounded by myths and legends that are very much the part of the breed. But, since the end of the 19th century the breed has a very well documented history.
The modern (1880 ca - 2005)  Akhal-Teke breed was founded by a group of Russian scientists and Turkmen breeders appointed by the Agricultural Ministry of the Soviet Union. The mission of the group was to inventory a few specific Central Asian breeds and in case the breeds was of interest for the Soviet Union apply modern breeding techniques and stud book standards to the breeds that was selected.
The Akhal-Teke breed was one of the breeds that came under the wings of the Soviet Union program of animal breeding. The breed was considered ancient and of value to save for future generations as well as being tested for its traits as army horses either as pure bred or as part breds.
(In the Soviet Union most breeds are evaluated as pure breds and as crossbred potentials.  The Soviet Union breed management was performed according to that times state of the art for herd book keeping as well as breed improvement.
Whatever politics was involved reading the documentations from that time there is no doubt that the work was conducted stricltly according to a defined system and method that was had already seen the birth of the English Thoroughbred and made the Arabian breed what it is today.  

In the documentation you can read about the status of the breed at that point as well as about how the foundation animals where selected. I would say that no one could have done it better under the circumstances and that all of us that owns Akhal-Tekes today should be grateful for that someone spent the efforts on creating a modern breed out of the remains of the horses that once where the Argamaks of Central Asia.

A stud book was created by the scientists and the Turkmen breeders and horses where entered with or without full pedigrees. The concept of stud books and modern breed improvement methods where at that point unknow to the Turkmen breeders but it is described how the Russian scientists encouraged the Turkmen breeders to feed their young horses better to improve growth by arranging breed shows where the breeders could win money.

A state stud was created in Ashgabad to efficiently work with the breed at the same time as Turkmen breeders bred horses that competed with the state stud horses in shows as well as being entered into the stud book.

A few English TB stallions where used on Teke mares in order to improve the overall conformation of the breed. Surprisingly enough the infusion of TB blood did not give the results in conformational improvement the stud book management had planned and the decision was made to not use English TB horses on Akhal-Tekes.  The strategy would be to work with selection for type, conformation and constitutional tests within the breed.

The General Stud book for the Akhal-Teke breed was closed to horses that could not trace both parents to the foundation stock in 1935.
The horses that were entered into the stud book before 1935 can be considered foundation stock, this also includes some the Akhal-Tekes that had unknown parentage as well as the TB stallions and TB crosses.
 
After the fall of the Soviet Union the Russian State has via The Horse Breeding Institute in Ryazan, Russia  continued to manage the breed by employing a group of scientists to continuously work with record keeping for the breed as well as breed improvement following proven methods for animal breeding.

The General Stud book is the mother stud book for the breed and is the only body that has the right to decide who is a pure bred Akhal-Teke or not.

This is the reality for all Akhal-Teke owners and breeders. When you get into the breed you must be aware of the fact that the breed has a documented history, an owner ( a country, state, private stud book, etc ) in order to work with the breed you must as a breed comply with certain basic rules set up by the owners of the breed.

Eventhough a breed will have registries in countries outside the country where the mother stud book is kept, in order to use the breed name the breed associations must follow rules set up by the mother stud books.

To use an earlier example The American Hanoverian Association does not work with the American Hanoverian, they work with Hanoverians, and they can only call their horses Hanoverians if the comply with the mother stud book rules.

The Swedish Quarter Horse Association works with Quarter Horses not Swedish Quarter Horses, they can do so as long as they comply with the mother stud book rules.

Anyone can start a new breed and create a stud book, there are numerous examples, especially in the USA, Morgans, Palominos, Curlies, you name it.
If there is a large enough group of breeders here in the USA that strongly believe that there are horses bred here that have such traits that they should be used for producing sport horses of Akhal-Teke type my suggestion is to start a stud book for these horses and call them something else than Akhal-Tekes.
In this way those horses can be given the status that the owners think they deserve and they can be marketed for their unique traits and abilities.

You must as breeder of a non national breed understand that the main work with the breed will be performed by a mother stud book somewhere else, this stud book is managed by methods and systems that might be unknown or not approved of by you. Of course a constructive dialogue with the mother stud book is always possible but this dialogue must be kept within the range of what will benefit the whole breed.

The most successful work with the breed today is performed in Russia by Russian breeders and under the mother stud book rules.  You must always ask yourself being outside the mother stud book country with a breed how much importance your matters are for the total breeder's community as well as for the mother stud book.
I myself must say that the breed have developed really, really good in Russia and is becoming increaslingly popular, the Russian breeders invest a lot in ther horses when it comes to breeding material, showing and testing their animals.

I also think that the somewhat introvert discussion about whether some individual Akhal-Tekes in the USA that are registered as part bred should have the right to be inscribed as pure breds is of very little interest to most of the Akhal-Teke community, me included. I also hope that the mother stud book spends resources on more important matters than this matter.  

A quick overview of the Akhal-Teke population including part breds tells me that the most typey animals are pure bred and so are the best  performers.


   

1. Leonid09/15/2005 09:03:06
Homepage: http://www.shael-teke.ru

Bravo!!!

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2. Jessica 09/15/2005 21:25:24

Leonid, welcome to my blogcosmos!

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3. Leonid09/16/2005 02:09:07
Homepage: http://www.shael-teke.ru

Thank you, I'll try, but my English too poor.

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4. maria09/19/2005 18:44:04

Lenia, you can write in Russian and we will translate. We want to hear from you! Masha - i Mualim

If anyone would like to receive a short video entitled Mualim and The Green Umbrella and doesn't mind a file 7,000KB (I don't think it's very big) - let me know.

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5. Leonid09/20/2005 11:28:51
Homepage: http://www.shael-teke.ru

May be will be better to answer for concrete questions?

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6. Jessica 09/20/2005 13:16:45

Ok Maria, you are herebye appointed official Russian/English translator of this blog. Thank you very much for offering to help our Russian friends to participate. We have very much to learn from them.

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7. maria09/20/2005 18:19:02

OK, what shall we ask Lenia??

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8. Jessica 09/22/2005 19:48:44

A comment written by Leonid in Russian, kindly translated by Maria and now published by me. Read and react!

On Grading

In the annual publication focused on information and analysis entitled “Akhal-Teke Inform” for the year 2005 Tatiana Riabova had published an article under the heading “What is Grading?”. The article prompted me to think critically and make a few observations which I feel are quite important.

First of all, the necessity of grading in relation to purebred horses, of which we consider Akhal-Teke to be an example, is in itself puzzling. I struggle to imagine the English Thoroughbred, categorised not according to race records but by a grading committee. Certainly, if a purebred horse is destined for use in applied breeding [for “applied” read “sports horse breeding” -translator’s note], then a complete set of grading rules must be adhered to, as appropriate for the given type of the partbred horse [for “partbred” read sportshorse – translator’s note]. Categorisation of purebreds used in pure breeding constitutes, in my view, internal stud farm information, whose public disclosure is equal to industrial espionage.


But let us return to the critique of the article in question. “The precursor of the modern grading were remonterskie reglamenty rules of judging of horses”. In other words, in reality this is a strictly applied approach which, as a matter of principle, is unacceptable in relation to purebred horse. [“applied” as in the expression “applied sciences”, as opposed to theoretical science].

To continue the practice of grading means to place the Akhal-Teke horse in the realm of partbreds and within their scope of usage. For the Akhal-Tele to be placed in the position of having to compete with the sportshorse [“partbred” in the original] means a considerable disadvantage, due to the strong specialisation of the latter in the sportshorse market.

The article goes to say that “As in remonterskoi praktike, grading by experts influenced the price of the horse. Further in the attached rules “1. Grading is performed by the suitably qualified experts from the Institute of Horse Breeding.”

How is one to interpret this? Only as an officially accepted collusion between the seller and the buyer and as an introduction of monopoly in the Akhal-Teke horses’ market.

What role is allocated to the Association? [I assume AATK is mean here].

“2. The results of grading are used … in compiling breeding-and-selection programmes, when issuing passports, while conducting price estimates…”. It would be interesting to know who in the today’s market has a stake in having breeding-and-selection programmes issued by the Institute? The monetary estimate is only valid for tax and insurance purposes, otherwise it is a commercial secret. And what is the method used during this monetary estimate? Note that this, again, is done by the qualified experts of the Institute.

“6. Akhal-Teke horse is considered purebred if it satisfies the following criteria:

· The origin of the horse must be confirmed by the immuno-genetic examination of the blood


· All the ancestors of the horse must be present in the General Stud Book of Akhal-Teke Purebred Horses, and the horse under examination must be registered in the Youngstock Register.

What can one say here? The ban on the use of bio-technologies in Akhal-Teke pure breeding, adopted by AATK, have been flagrantly ignored. It is another spite at our Association’s resolutions. This is particularly insulting in view of the birth in 2004 of the colt Samovar, by Gindarkh out of Senova, obtained as a result of the embryo transfer technique at the farm of Allegra Steck in the US.

I also no longer understand why purebreds are those Akhal-Teke who are inscribed in the General Russian Stud Book. So what do we do now with the horses, born outside of Russia? Is it not time to create a collective Associations’ Stud Book?

Such were the numerous questions which were posed by this article. It is time to give them some thought.

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9. Allegra Steck09/23/2005 18:22:48

Leonid,

I, nor as far as I know any other American, is a member of AATK, which as I understand is an Association for Russian Akhal-Teke breeders. Therefore, we are not bound by the archaic rules which you choose to adopt. The Akhal-Teke Association of America allows the use of embryo transfer, with sensible limitations, as do most other breed's associations at this date.

You will be interested, I am sure, to learn that Samovar is not the first purebred Akhal-Teke to be born in the US as a result of embryo transfer. At least two other breeders here have embryo transfer foals on the ground older than mine.

DNA testing does not lie. A purebred foal is a purebred foal, regardless of how it is produced and whether or not you personally approve of those methods.

Allegra

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