Date: April 2002
Q: Why don't they
compete in endurance? Are they this expensive?

A: Some Akhal-Tekes do compete in endurance, but so far no Akhal-Teke has reached the top levels in any western country. One might consider how many Arabian horses it takes to make one national Champion? It probably takes 100 Arabian horses to create a national endurance champion. In Sweden we have at the moment 20 Akhal-Tekes. When we talk about the dressage and show jumping disciplines it takes more than 1000 horses to create an international top level horse. We do not even have 1000 Akhal-Tekes in the west yet.
In other words we need to breed more Akhal-Tekes, and not only more but excellent horses. The interest for the breed is growing steadily and people from all disciplines are interested in competing tekes. We must be able to meet this needs with excellent Tekes.