KaraKum Stud Blog | Open letter to Mr Elwyn Hartley Edwards

Friday 4th, November 2005

Open letter to Mr Elwyn Hartley Edwards11/04/2005 11:29 AM

Mr Elwyn Hartley Edwards is an English author of many books about horses, riding, equipment, horse breeds etc. His breed descriptions are for many a source for information about different horse breeds, to many, reading the breed descriptions it might be a first encounter with a new breed.
My daughter got one of Ewards books,The Encyclopedia of the Horse, 1994 translated to Swedish in 1998 ISBN 91-0-057062-1 in birthday present. I was scanning the book a few days ago and found the breed description of the Teke. The description of Tekes made by E.H. Edwards contains errors.
The translation from English to Swedish is poor but I think that the breed description more tells me about E.H. Edwards private opinion about Tekes, to a certain exctent explained by his open admiration for the Arabian breed.
I will below, reply to some of his statements about the breed and only hope that E.H. Edwards in his next production of breed descriptions will have some accurate information about the breed so that he will not have to fill in with his, obviously subjective, misrepresentations about the breed.

The modern Akhal-Teke is a widespread breed with many admirers, the need for marketing/information of this unique breed is bigger than the budget. A real waste of money and efforts is that we do not only have to work with the promotion of our breed to new markets, we also have to fight against some prejudice against this breed that is, to a large extent due to the information spread in book like those of Mr Edwards. It happens far to often that people that meet Tekes at our stud farm react on; what a great temperament our horses have, on contrary to what they have read, what a great trainability, and workability these horses have eventhough they have read that Tekes are more or less unrideable with a dysfunctional conformation.

For all of us that work with Tekes and have done so it is really, really frustrating to see, even today when Tekes are not that rare anymore, our breed being deprived of their right role in the development of the riding horse and their true abilities and traits. The Tekes with their extreme features will never be loved by everyone or become a commodity like the Arabian horse, but it will always be deeply loved and admired, because they are extraordinary horses, by not so few proud owners and lovers, at least show us som respect next time you describe our breed.

I would like to respond to the following statements made by E.H. Edwards in the above mentioned book (E.H. Edwards statements are in italic):

From Origin
"The official Russian version, that is not easy to verify, claims that the Akhal-Teke is a pure bred, breed, and also claim that the Akhal-Teke is as old as the Arabian horse."...."The question is if it is the Muaghi Arabian that have influenced these horses from Turkmenistan or the opposite is worth discussing."

My reply:
The Teke is a pure bred breed with studbook, managed by the Russian Horse Breeding Institute, that keeps records of the breed, horses that are inscribed into the closed section must have both parents inscribed into the stud book in order to be considered an Akhal-Teke, that is for a fact a studbook for a pure bred breed. In other words Akhal-Teke is a breed and it is bred pure from other breeds. That fact can easily be verified.
That the Akhal-Teke is the last remaining pure bred breed that originates from the Massaget, Parthian, Nisean and Turkmen horse is without doubt as there are no other breeds from the area where these horses where developed that are bred pure today ( pure bred in the modern sence with the breed records kept by a studbook.) The forefathers of todays' Akhal-Tekes existed long before the Arabian horse, this is today a fact not a topic. Every horse inscribed into the closed section of the mother studbook of the Akhal-Tekes can trace their origins to Akhal-Teke horses born and bred by Turkmens in Turkmenistan.

Below a few citations from hippologists from the 19th and 20th century:

It is a fact that there were no horses on the Arabian peninsula BC. Ridgeway writes in his classical work The Origin and Influence of the Thoroughbred Horse (Cambridge University Press 1905) p. 201 "....the fact that whilst wild camels where found both in Upper Asia and Arabia, the horse, though indigenous in the former region, was not a native of the latter. The reader will probably be startled by this last statement, inasmuch as it has hitherto been generally held that Arabia is the original and not merely the adoptive, mother of the famous steeds that bear her name. But the testimony of the great geographers Eratosthenos (flor. B.C. 300) and Strabo (flor A.D. 1) would itself be sufficient to put it beyond all doubt that the Arabs did not breed, or even possess, horses until after the beginning of the Christian era." p. 194 "As the Parthian horses, which were both grey and also commonly dun, were descended from the Nisean breed, and resembled it in appearance, we may conclude that the Persian horses of the fifth century B.C. were dun, white or grey. But we have just seen that dun and white especially characterised the horses of Upper Europe and Upper Asia in classical and Medieval times. From this it would appear that the Nisean horses bred in Armenia were of the Upper Asiatic, i.e. Turcoman stock"......

"The official Russian version" of the origins of the Akhal-Teke breed is partly based on the work of W. O. Witt Horses of Central Asia from 1937 writes on p. 52 "4. The type of war horse of the ancient Orient preserved in pictures and descriptions of ancient authors is a noble, lean creature with a splendid neck and noble head, rather long legged, with a comparatively slender body, and of clearly defined, leptosomal fast moving type." "5. These points as well as the special golden color which is genetically distinct from all other colors and is not found among the local breeds of northern Asia and Europe, the horse of northern Iran and Middle Asia has preserved to this day." "6.Both Greek and Roman authors as well as the Chinese all refer to the same centers of breeding of the most valuable types of horses in the ancient world. These where the northern provinces of the Mede-Persian state (the famous Nessian horse) and the independent states of Parthia and Bactria formed subsequently (the triangle Ashgabad-Meshed-Balkh)."
W.O. Witt refers to sources such as Ridgeway, Duerst, Meissner, Pluvinel, Wrangel, as well as the Roman, Greek and Chinese sources that also Ridgeway refers to. Those sources are hardly difficult to verify for anyone.

The modern approach to the history and influence of the Arabian horse has changed and adopted to what science has proven.
Gudrun Waiditschka writes in her article "Ex Oriente Equus- The horse comes from the East" in Araber Journal from June 2003 "Russian researchers reported findings of the Pazyryk horse, which was found in a burial mound dated 700 BC. This horse was taller than others and distinguished itself by its unusual height. He may indeed belong to the line of horses, whose name changed over centuries: From Massaget to Parthian, Nisean, Persian and Turkmen. Some see in this type of horses the ancestors of todays' Akhal-Teke. Although one may wonder about the Nisean relief (author refers to picture) with its roman nosed horses and compare with the far more elegantly built Akhal-Tekes, it should be pointed out that at least the roman nose is still present in some strains of the Akhal-Teke (here the author refers to a picture of Stavropol's Pampa). " Nevertheless, it may have been these horses, who found their way from todays' Turkmenistan through Persia into Mesopotamia. Alexander Klimuk, expert in Akhal-Tekes, believes that the Turkmen tribes preserved the original type of horses due to their isolation in the oasis of Turkmenistan (which was a part of the ancient Persian Empire) until today; this breed is now called Akhal-Teke. "Turkmene horses in Iran are no longer pure, but crossbred with English Thoroughbreds to increase their speed."

Just a few lines also the Tekes' influence on the English Thoroughbred.

Alexander Mackay-Smith writes the following in his book Speed and the Throughbred - The Complete History 2000 ISBN 1-58667-040-9 "The Godolphin Arabian was obtained (c. 1730) through diplomatic channels by the Duke of Lorraine, through his alliance with the Austrian royal family. The prepotence of this stallion was miraculous. Sigly he passed on his part-Turcoman and part-Arabian bloodlines, his conformation, his temperament and his middle distance speed genes, not only to his immediate descendants but also to the entire Thoroughbred breed. Like Place's White Turk more than a half-century earlier, the Godolphin Arabian contributed Turcoman-Arabian middle distance speed bloodlines-the third and final source of Thoroughbred speed. The Godolphins deep and sloping shoulders, passed on to his descendants, enabled greater extension and greater speed at the gallop." ......The veterinary surgeon, William Osmer, in his 1756 Dissertation on Horses wrote: there never was a horse so well entitled to get racers as the Godolphin Arabian: for, whoever has seen this horse must remember, that his shoulders were deeper and lay further into his back, than any horse ever yet seen."

I want to compare the above description of Godolphin Arabian with E.H. Edwards breed description of the Arabian horse in his book Horses-The visual guide to over 100 horse breeds from around the world. "shoulders are less sloped than those of other breeds."

Only looking at the shoulder of a breed typical Arabian and a breed typical Teke will tell you which breed that has the long sloping shoulders.

I think it is old fashioned and outdated to continue feeding the myth that the Arabian horse was created by divine intervention and is the fountainhead to all existing breeds today. Modern readers want to know facts not fiction, especially when they read books called "The Encyclopedia of the Horse".
I read in your book Horses - The Visual guide to over 100 horse breeds from around the worldon p. 174 "The Arabian horse is the most beautiful of all, at once unmistakable and unforgettable in appearance." I do not agree with you E.H. Edwards, the beauty is in the eyes of the beholder, let people decide themselves by giving them objective, reliable information, there are enough horse lovers around for all horse breeds, show a little respect to those who have other taste in horses than yourself.

Needless to say your books are removed from the "General Equestrian" shelves and moved to the "Fiction" shelves in our library.

The biggest stud farm is in Ashgabad, but the breed is also bred in Lugov Kazakhstan, Gubden in Daghestan and Tersk in north Caucasus.

My reply
One of the bigger stud farm might be Niazov in Ashgabad, it is difficult to say as few if anyone knows how many Akhal-Tekes they do produce there annually. Few have heard of Gubden in Daghestan and Tersk does not breed Akhal-Tekes, Lugovskoy is dispersed.

According to the western view the Akhal-Teke is far from perfect, which is also pointed out in the breed standard. With a height over the wither of ca157 cm it often has a long back with a tendency to open flanks and lacks the skanks that our riders appreciate. .....A special trait within the breed, that is not appreciated in the west, is that the head is held above the hands of the rider. That way of positioning the head is called above the riders hands and makes it difficult for the rider to communicate with the horse.

My reply
The breed standard does not point out that the Akhal-Teke is supposed to be unperfect nor does it encourage faults in the horses. As can be read above the Akhal-Tekes have been created over millenias for a purpose, that purpose was not to satisfy E.H. Edwards view on what makes the perfect riding mount. An objective description of the breed's characterisitcs is NOT to compare it to the modern sport horse. Each typical trait in every horse breed we see today is there due to selection for these traits. Who would ever describe to feathers of the Friesians as faults as they are not liked by the Olympic dressage riders. I think the breed description above by W.O. Witt is excellent, it describes the ancient and modern Akhal-Teke accurately.
The typical Akhal-Teke has no problems collecting himself and does not work in a form where he carries the head above the riders hands. The traditional riding style of the Central Asians is the free, light style where the horse is allowed to carry his head higher than in the classical riding, but that is another story.
There is no evidence that a typical Akhal-Teke cannot perform to the FEI dressage standards. Will the judges/market/riders ever adopt the "leptosomal fast moving type of Centra Asia? that is not even relevant in a breed description of one of the oldest cultured breed kept into modern times true to type and color.

The back is often to long

My reply
What Teke literature do you refer to in the above statement. Akhal-Tekes are supposed to have long backs but not to long.

The winner of the gold medal at the Olympics in Rome 1960, the stallion Absent, was an Akhal-Teke and son to a show jumper with high fences as a speciality. We must presume that Absent was an expception to the rule, as he in order to win the Olympic Games, had to be able to position his head the normal way"

The father of Absent did not only jump high fences, he also participated in the Ashgabad-Moscow ride you refer to in your text, so not only did he as a five year old manage the ride he also competed successfully in show jumping in the former Soviet Union he also sired an exceptional son, Absent. Absent won three Olympic medals at three different Olympic games he did it with two different riders, so his one golden medal was not a coincidence, he obviously dominated Olympic dressage for a decade. I agree that Absent was not of the best Teke type, but he was type, pure bred and he and his father was an excellent example of the versatility of the breed, not only did they excel, they made unique achievments in disciplines such as endurance, show jumping and dressage. This, we must remember though, was before the era of the production of the specialised sport horses we see perform today. But nevertheless an indicator of the athletism and potential of the breed.

...."a very "own" Akhal-Teke is being developed, that is now more resembling the type you see in the other European Sport Horse breeds."

The breeding goal for the Akhal-Tekes is not to produce European Sport horse specialised in dressage or show jumping, the breeding goal is to conserve and improve the typical Akhal-Teke selected by horsemen over millenia for speed, stamina and workability.

Studfarms all over the world are focusing on breeding Tekes after their own taste and what they think Tekes do the best, from racing to endurance.
However, there is no official breeding goal or program to create a strain of Tekes that are warmblood look alikes or will compete with the European Sport Horse, creating such a breeding program would be contraproductive with the breeding goal of the Teke, this is very clear if you compare what we would have to do with the selection of Tekes to meet with measurable traits like the cannonbone circumference and height over the withers of the European Sport horse.
In Russia though, a few selected Akhal-Teke stallions, mostly from the sire line of Absent are used as improvers for the Russian Sport Horse breeds.
Their influence is positive on many sport horse traits, this is proven by the Russian Warmblood stallions Kipr and Kiset from the Akhal-Teke stallion Konok.
They are competing internaionally in dressage with quite a success.

I do hope that my short response to E.H. Edwards suggestion to discuss if the Tekes or Arabians were first have been stimulating and ecouraging to research deeper into the history of the horse. And that my additions/updates to the breed description will be of use in the next breed encyclopedia published by E.H. Edwards or others.

Comments :

1. Nickie11/13/2005 19:05:39
Homepage: http://voodoosroom.blogspot.com

I'm so glad to have found you! I love Tekes and I'll be back!

2. Darya09/02/2006 15:04:56

Jessica, this is incredible, I was reading what you wrote and I thought: this is exactly how I felt when I looked at some breed description books in UK as well. Such problem is with every book I seen and not only of Edwards. This seems to be very common and it hurts! If they call one book encyclopedia, shouldn't they stick to the facts?!!

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