The Majesty of the Horse: An Illustrated History. Tamsin Pickeral
COLOR
Chestnut, bay, black, or grullo, often with a dorsal stripe and zebra markings on the legs.
APTITUDE
Riding, light draft
STRETCHING IN A STEADY ARC across central and eastern Europe are the Carpathian Mountains, Europe’s largest mountain range and home of the highly prized Hucul, or Carpathian Pony. It was here among the rugged peaks and diving valleys that the Hucul, a direct descendant of the wild Tarpan, developed. It is also a meeting point of several countries, as the borders of Romania, the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Ukraine, Serbia, and Slovakia come together, and many of these countries either claim the origin of the Hucul or raise and breed the hardy pony. The breed’s name derives from the Hutsuls, a Ukrainian culture of highlanders who rely heavily on their horses and whose history goes back many centuries. Despite being their namesake, however, the Hucul pony existed long before and was bred by the mountain tribes of Dacians, for whom the tough and enduring ponies were essential in everyday life, for transport, packing goods, and in warfare. Though they were and are ridden, the Hucul was most widely used in a draft capacity early in its history and was able to negotiate the forbidding, mountainous terrain where other horses failed. Bas-reliefs of Hucul-like ponies—showing little difference in physicality from their present form—appear on Roman monuments depicting battles between the Romans and Dacians. Even when the Dacians fell to the Romans in the battle of Sarmizegetusa in 106 C.E. they continued to breed their indomitable Hucul ponies.
Once the breed was established, the inhospitable and inaccessible mountain habitat of the Hucul contributed to maintaining its purity. The Hucul, which is noted for its quality, is thought to have developed directly from the Tarpan (it is described in early accounts as the “mountain Tarpan”), as well as through breeding with Oriental horses, Mongolian stock introduced to the area by nomadic tribes from Central Asia, and quite possibly even the Asiatic Wild Horse. Other than these relatively infrequent outside influences, the Hucul remained largely untouched until several attempts to improve the breed were made in the late nineteenth century through the introduction of other blood. Despite this, the innate Hucul characteristics—its extreme and virtually unequaled hardiness, its strength in relation to its size, and a certain air of quality not always seen in native mountain breeds—have perpetuated.
The Hucul is particularly prized in Poland and Romania, and it was in Romania that the first specialized stud farm was established at Rădăuţi in 1856, the primary aim of which was to produce Huculs for use in the Austro-Hungarian army. After some years, the stud activities floundered, but they were reactivated in 1876, and the program expanded to establish Pietrosul, Hroby, Ghoral, Gurgul, and Oushor bloodlines, with Ghoral being one of the most important and prodigious.
In 1922, thirty-three Huculs were sent to Czechoslovakia, where a new line of Gurgul horses was established, with the breeding still focused on producing horses for use in the military. The breed suffered enormous losses during both world wars, and after World War II, in light of increasing mechanization, Hucul numbers dwindled rapidly. In the 1950s, the State Forest Directorate at Murán Plain National Park in Slovakia made efforts to increase breed numbers, and then in 1972 the Czech Republic’s Association for Protection of Nature and Landscape founded the Hucul Club to implement a more effective preservation program. The initiative has been a great success, and Poland, Romania, Ukraine, Hungary, and Austria have all joined in, while the Hucul continues to be bred in Russia.
AKHAL TEKE
ANCIENT – TURKMENISTAN – RARE
HEIGHT
14.2–16 h.h.
APPEARANCE
Long through the body, narrow, and slight; fine boned with a sloping croup. The neck is long and slender, and set and carried high. Distinctive head with a dry “desert” quality, slightly hooded eye, and a narrow face. The mane and tail hair is thin and sparse and the coat very fine and silky.
COLOR
Great range, from metallic dun to black, bay, cream, or gray.
APTITUDE
Riding, racing, endurance racing, showing, dressage, jumping
THE AKHAL TEKE IS ONE OF THE OLDEST, most important, and purest of all living horse breeds, and yet it remains little known to the larger public. The significance of this breed, not only to the development of other light horse breeds from the Arabian to the Thoroughbred but also in historic and cultural terms, is monumental.
The breed is a descendant of the now extinct ancient Turkmenian, which was in effect the superhorse of pre- and ancient history. These horses evolved in the huge region of Turkestan, which stretches across Central Asia from the Gobi Desert in the east to the Caspian Sea in the west, and from Siberia in the north to Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan in the south. This area is considered the fountainhead of horse breeds, and one of the earliest areas where horse domestication occurred. These agile horses were subjected to both selective and indiscriminate breeding by different tribes, but the overriding qualities of speed, size, and endurance were at their foundation, and these are the qualities that have remained. They were also quite different from, and superior to, the small, stocky horses of the steppes, as typified by the Mongolian horse.
These tall, quick Turkmenian horses bear a close physical similarity to the postulated Horse Type 3 from which they most probably evolved. The Turkmenians’ speed and toughness made them highly sought after in the ancient world, since they provided an enormous advantage to the warring nomads of this vast steppe landscape. Through the fluid nature of early nomadic cultures, these horses were distributed across a vast area, and word of their excellence soon spread. They are known to have formed an important part of the horse culture of the Scythians, ancient warring nomads who originated in Persia (Iran), and are recorded as being used for racing from around 1000 B.C.E. Five hundred years later the same horses defined by their body type and attributes were widely used by the Bactrian horsemen in King Darius of Persia’s cavalry. The Parthians from northeastern Iran, famous for their horsemanship and battling alike, rode Turkmenian horses as they waged wars across the steppe territory from the seventh century B.C.E., and in Greece Alexander the Great’s father, Philip II of Macedon (382–336 B.C.E.) had acquired large numbers of Turkmenian horses from Ferghana, an area in eastern Uzbekistan that was a famous horse-breeding center in the ancient world. Alexander used these horses in his army, and it is widely thought that his own famous horse, Bucephalus, who is often described as a Thessalonian, was in fact a Turkmenian. Alexander went on to obtain his own huge herd of horses from the Persians that when crossbred to native European stock produced larger, stronger, and quicker animals. These crossbred horses were later in widespread use by the Roman cavalry, which in turn spread the Turkmenian blood across Europe.
The horses from Ferghana were held with special reverence in the ancient world. They were reputed to be the fastest horses of the time and often had a golden, metallic sheen in their coat, such that they were frequently referred to as the “Heavenly Horses” or “Golden Horses.” In fact, the coat color so prized in the ancient world is still a predominant feature of the Akhal Teke. These Golden Horses further exhibited “blood sweating” (the appearance of sweating small droplets of blood), which added to their magical allure. Many theories have surrounded the blood-sweating condition, but the most plausible explanation has been put forward by Louise Firouz (who died in 2008), a leading Caspian and Akhal Teke expert, who suggested that it is caused by a parasite that lives in the Gorgan and Ferghana rivers. At a certain time in the life cycle of the parasite, it hatches out through the skin of the infected animal, causing small spots of bleeding.
Given the extent and distribution of the ancient Turkmenian it is not impossible for this breed to have greatly contributed to the development of the Arabian, particularly the Muniqi (or Munaghi) Arabian,