Makka Shael in Holland (retro 2011)

Author Maria Marquise Baverstock

In October 2010, a Russian rider Vitaly Andrukhovich and his Akhal-Teke stallion Makka Shael arrived at Stal Sprengenhorst to spend three months with Rien and Inge Van Der Schaft at their dressage training facility in Apeldoorn, Netherlands. Towards the end of their stay, the verdict from the trainers - some of the most respected in Europe - was: “We need two more years for you to reach the Olympic standard.”

Is Makka-Andrukhovich combination a short-lived sensation in the Akhal-Teke breed or are they setting a standard to which this legendary breed should aspire?

“Any serious project with Akhal-Teke horses is only possible at the top professional level”, says the breeder of Makka Shael, Leonid Babaev. “At any other level, our breed is too complicated, too hot, too limited in numbers and all too often of insufficient quality. I see dressage as the only sport in which the Akhal-Teke can compete against modern sports horse breeds. In other disciplines the best qualities which Akhal-Teke horse has in abundance are not in demand or not required. I have made it my goal to produce the Akhal-Teke against the highest possible parameters: presence, elasticity of gaits, elegance, power and harmony. I am convinced that we can “put on the conveyor belt” horses fit for top-level dressage.”

“What is your impression of this breed”, I ask Inge van der Shaft at the end of one training session.

“This is the first Akhal-Teke I have met, so I cannot draw any conclusions about this breed. But I can say that this one is a very good horse”.
 

What do the Dutch see in him?

“Exceptional intelligence. And a fabulous walk – this horse really walks ‘for nine’.”

“Does your Akhal-Teke have the same walk?” asks Rien van der Shaft an Akhal-Teke owner in Holland who came to watch Makka in training. “No”, she says modestly, “I am afraid I can’t say that mine has as good a walk as Makka”.

“Our stud has produced excellent horses before Makka”, says Leonid Babaev, “but their fate was not so lucky and they didn’t find their Vitali. We had Kaitag, Shammay. We saw good jumping potential in Saad, Aidemir and Otman. The latter might have excelled in dressage too. But these and other horses left the stud and I have no influence upon their careers. But I do place high hopes on Makka’s former stablemate Duag, and the younger ones - Oyun, Gaon, Tsair, Shumer, Hasman. I hope to produce consistent horses with a dressage potential at the highest level”.

The Akhal-Teke breed is plagued by myths. The two most enduring ones are those of the dressage stallion Absent who “conquered Rome” at the 1960 Olympic Games and of the 1935 ride from Ashkhabad to Moscow, 4000km in 84 days, the ultimate feat of endurance. The obvious contrast between Olympic dressage and this gruelling trek is one of the defining characteristics of the Akhal-Teke breed: its versatility, a nebulous concept which fuels the breeders’ debate:

“Should we select the Akhal-Teke for specific qualities required for a particular discipline, or will this lead us down the utilitarian road of purpose-bred sportshorses?”

“At what point does emphasis on type become detrimental to selection for performance?”

There are still voices that will defend ewe necks, narrow chests and poor bone as typical Akhal-Teke breed characteristics but these are best ignored (though one often wishes they could be silenced altogether!). I was equally taken aback by one breeder’s scornful comment about Duag Shael (Gazyr-Djagali) who scored 70%+ at the Young Horse Evaluations in Russia as a six-year-old: “Leonid has finally succeeded in producing an “Akhal-Teke warmblood”. Those less hostile to Babaev, might still question whether by producing an Akhal-Teke capable of competing on a par with a European warmblood in dressage we somehow compromise the integrity of this ancient breed.

These are not the questions which Vitali Andrukhovich ponders at the end of each day during his stay at Stal Sprengenhorst. His day begins at 7am when he arrives at the stables, cleans out Makka’s box, brushes the stallion and prepares him for the daily training session at 9am. Rien and Inge take turns on alternate days instructing the pair who work in the covered arena alongside one or two other horses. Needless to say, there are no behaviour issues. We are watching a session with Inge. They work on softness in the rider’s body: “Ride with his movement, Vitali”, she says, “do not sit too stiff. Yes, sometimes we have to apply a stronger aid but as soon as the horse responds, the rider must merge into the horse’s movement and ride with the horse. In Dutch, we have two words: “Controleren [control] and Beheersen [guide, direct]”. Yes, we must be in control of the horse but to ride dressage we should guide the horse, not restrain it. After all, dressage is a kind-of dance.”

After teaching Vitali, Inge rides herself on one of their advanced Dutch horses and the contents of Makka’s lesson unfold in front of our eyes.

If Inge’s instruction is more about transitions, the overall flow and impression, Rien’s sessions are focused on the quality of execution of specific movements. But this remarkable husband&wife team is unanimous about the need to nurture “soft contact in the two reins”, “keeping the horse moving forward” and “not shortening the neck”.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=012OQ09NvTA

The Dutch have a reputation as “hard” dressage riders nowadays, yet we hear Rien repeat time and time again: “Let go of your hands”, “Don’t fight him”, “Don’t use your strength”. When he rides Makka himself, he intersperses demanding work with stints of rising trot and emphases the need to relax the horse first: “I think it is important to let the horse loosen up and settle into his natural way of moving, and then, from this natural movement, I try to make the movement better”.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTDtBokehPM

After the ridden session, Vitali rugs Makka for an hour or so and leaves him tied up, to stop him from rolling while hot, then the stallion is unrugged (he is the only one without a rug in the whole stable), let loose in his box and allowed to enjoy the view of the yard and fresh air from the back window of the stable. At 12pm horses are fed while Vitali cleans tack, has lunch and prepares for the 45-minute afternoon session in-hand, this time in the outside arena. He works Makka in double bridle with a long schooling whip, practicing half-passes, piaffe and passage.

Afterwards, there is more grooming in store for Makka and more mucking out for Vitali, and then it’s back to the hotel to “play back” in his head the lessons learned that day and watch the grand masters of dressage on youtube.

Vitali Andrukhovich was born in 1969 in Moscow. He started riding at the age of four, while visiting grandparents in the countryside. The village herd of cattle were looked after by mounted shephards and Vitali spent all day with them, from dawn to dusk. “My parents came looking for me, threatening to thrash me with stinging nettles. I used to gallop past them so fast that their heart would skip a beat”.

In 1980 an Olympic Equestrian complex was being constructed at Bitsa on the edge of the Russian capital. Vitali was mesmerised watching the stable block go up. Then the first horses arrived, the site gates were locked, so he had to climb onto the perimeter wall, to get closer to the horses, until he succeeded in persuading a foreign rider to show him around the stables. After the Olympics, he joined the riding school that was set up at the complex, with the intention to develop the potential of young riders for future Olympic events. At 13, he gained the Soviet sports qualification “Candidate to Master of Sports”, concentrating mostly on show-jumping. “I knew nothing about riding then”, says Vitali, “I was just fearless”. He didn’t make many friends at the school where success was obtained more through ingratiating oneself with the school authorities than by actual equestrian achievements. He left and became a co-founder of another riding school (set up on the grounds of a large poultry farm!), where he started to event and obtained a higher-level Equestrian Diploma. In 1988 Vitali was conscripted into the Army and after demobilisation came back to his original riding school at Bitsa but this time as a riding instructor. Again, he couldn’t stick the authorities and in 1994 left to become freelance.

It was then that Andrukhovich met with the Akhal-Teke breed. “I was involved in organising riding holidays for foreign visitors at the Akhal-Teke Studfarm in Dubna, we used to ride the Pontecorvo Tekes along the banks of the river Volga. That’s when I first “noticed” this breed”.

“What was your main impression?”

“It was their brain, and the possibilities it offered to the rider. Then comes everything else: excellent conformation, elastic movements, good work ethic, bravery. Since then I have been committed to this breed – I worked with them in all disciplines: dressage, jumping, eventing, even circus”.

It was then that he decided to take a risk and buy one. “It was a large, good-looking grey, I can’t even remember his name now.”

“Later on I had an offer from a wealthy businessman to create a “stallion collection”. The intention was to gather talented horses of good breeding potential, peformance-test them and make them available for breeding to the best studfarms in Russia. Amongst that collection were Gazyr, Gayaz, Karar, Yas Yar. Today I work with their descendants.”

Makka Shael was born in 2004 in Vladimir region (Russia) at the Shamborant stud “Shael-Teke”, founded by Leonid Babaev and Sharip Galimov. His sire Gayaz (Gaigysyz-Pampa) had spectacular natural movements (from Pampa, according to Vitali) but did not match these in his work under saddle. His ridden career was short-lived due to a hock injury. Retrospectively, Andrukhovich feels, he was not ready for the demanding training at that point in time, which, in turn, was the cause of his resistance. Makka’s dam was a Fakirpelvan-line mare Melana, daughter of Omar. Babaev divulges a rare breeder’s secret: “Omar is the main ingredient. The best foals are the result of the inbreeding on Omar or just those who have his blood.”

Makka is endowed with superb leg conformation, characteristic of many of Gayaz children: long, broad, “meaty” forearm, very short cannons, ample bone all around, strong pasterns and good feet.

He has powerful, free shoulder, straight action and effortless trot extentions with a high toe and a big swing. His movements are loose and electric, active and exact. Impulsion, rhythm, precision.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qd7eyYSCbHA

For a Teke, he has a fairly heavy way of landing but the ample energy reserves propel him forward to create the overall impression of power and elegance.

“It was amazing to see him fly through the riding hall”, says a Dutch Akhal-Teke owner Anne Stuart who is inspired to continue her dressage work with her own horse, “He looks like a butterfly dancing his way past the other horses”.

Makka has established basics, shows excellent collected canter on a small circle with transition to half-pirhouette and is almost completely secure at the PrixStGeorge-level elements. He is starting to learn piaffe and passage and working on three- and four-time changes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcGbWl2Dqfk (Rien teaching passage out of rein-back)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-nyOpRY4Nns (Vitali rein-back to passage)

The combination is hoping to return to the Netherlands this summer for another 3-months stay and this time to enter some of the Dutch national Opens. The economics of travelling from Russia and back coupled with expenses of staying abroad are daunting but to do this horse justice, Andrukhovich feels it is essential to overcome insularity and work at the European level. Interestingly, he finds the Dutch way of teaching positive and uplifting. “In Russia, I am constantly told “Your problem is…”. Here they just get on with it, working on this movement or that”. Interestingly, while Andrukhovich himself feels the horse’s weakness is his relative lack of strength overall and particularly in his hind quarters to carry himself forward in 3-4-time changes, Rien Van Der Schaft doesn’t see this as a weakness in the horse, just an inevitable stage any horse has to go through to reach the top level.

Back at home, there is the breeding season in store for Makka, before he returns to the Netherlands. Meanwhile, at the Shamborant Stud outside Moscow Leonid Babaev has several up&coming youngsters to match Makka’s talent. The next one to move to the Army Club stables where Andrukhovich trains, is Oyun (the son of the fairly recently “discovered” Garant) who scored well at the evaluations as a 4-year-old.

There are still years of hard work before Makka can claim the high accolades in dressage but he certainly sets an impressive example to which the Akhal-Teke breed today can aspire. May the wind be in his sails.