On Lines and Progress

I got to know Akhal-Teke horses in 1971. Ever since and up to now I keep hearing questions and statements such as "What line does this horse belong to" or "I need to find a stallion of “this” line". I am sure another 50 years will have passed and the same questions will be asked. I’ve been a breeder for nearly 50 years and am still struggling to understand such statements and what information the person who asks these questions is hoping to receive and what problems they hope to solve if they receive an answer.

Almost all the lines recognised by VNIIK trave back to the beginning of the last century. Some of them -–for example, Mele-Kush line – is over a hundred years old. Some of them were formed in the 20s, 30s, 40s: El, Kir-Sakar, Ak-Sakal, Everdy-Teleke, Posman, Karlovach. In the 1960s Gelishikli and Fakir-Pelvan were introduced. There is no point to list them all, and yet they are driving modern selective breeding. Vast majority of our contemporaries never met the line founders and are not familiar with their real traits. Their names are present in the 10th generation or more in today’s horses’ pedigrees, and yet we cling to these historic names that have become fetishes while they lack any practical information for the modern breeding. In any case, genes from maternal and auxiliary lines have long ago diluted whatever characteristics the historic sires may have originally possessed. Every horse that have appeared in the pedigree of an Akhal-Teke living today has contributed to the modern Akhal-Teke breeding and it is unreasonable to attribute to some individual building block some sacred meaning. The forefathers who appear in the forth generation or older have almost no influence on the off spring born today. So why is this game still being played amongst breeders and horse lovers?

Undoubtedly, to produce outstanding individuals, selective breeding should make a note of key breed representatives. These should be well known, outstanding horses who have earned the breed fame by displaying certain qualities. Their presence in a pedigree can influence the status of a given animal and implies that the horse has certain desirable traits. Such influential ancestors may well be stallions but only those in the last four generations should count.

They may or may not be called “lines” but breeders should strive for pedigrees with modern heroes in them, not with some legendary, semi-mythical beasts from the past centuries.

In the last 100 years, horse breeding criteria have changed dramatically. 100 years ago saddle-bred horses were produced for cavalry. Horses needed stamina and be low-maintenance, to make their usage viable in the times of war. Horses with ground-covering economical gaits and ability to negotiate natural obstacles and readiness to go forward into the heat of battle and risk its own life were in greatest demand. Today, such qualities are no longer in demand. Horses are used in sport where first and foremost they need to make an impression on spectators, draw and keep their attention on the action in competition. Therefore, selective breeding follows the direction set by spectator sports. Today, we don’t need to conserve the horse’s energy, nor to risk its life in battle. “The show must go on”, and to satisfy this condition horse should display all its spectacular qualities in one “explosion” at the highest possible level during 5-10 minutes in an indoor setting. The horse needs to be built in such a way as to enable it to display the extremes of its ability in an effortless way in a short period of time. Whether we like it or not, these are the demands set by the market of today. Modern selection should be based on the outstanding modern near ancestors and not on the fetishes from the past just because these old names bear some sacral meaning for some humans. In fact, modern horse breeding is referred to as “sports breeding” and it should therefore be using horses with outstanding sports qualities. It is a matter of choice, of course, whether to follow the above-mentioned trend or to choose to kneel on the altar of old fetishes.

As a result of the latter, Akhal-Teke horses have practically disappeared from the top-level sport and it is unlikely that we will be able to enter it unless we radically change the state of play. We are in danger of being preserved as a frozen-in-time artefact… though, it must be said that there are plenty of people who would favour this state of play.