Akhalteke

In 1935, when Stalin ruled the old Soviet Union, the ancient Akhalteke horses of the Soviet-governed republic of Turkmenistan were threatened with extinction. To prove the worth of keeping them as a separate breed, twenty-eight riders took Akhaltekes from the Turkmen capital of Ashkabad to Moscow, a distance of more than 2,500 miles, in eighty-four days, including three waterless days across the Kara Kum desert. The Akhaltekes proved their worth; the only horses that arrived in bad condition were Anglotekes, Akhaltekes that had been crossbred with modern English thoroughbreds.

Horses, however, were not a priority of the Soviet Union. A tractor was said to be worth a hundred horses. Under the Soviets, the size of the Akhalteke herd in Turkmenistan dwindled to about 700. But Akhaltekes once again became the pride of Turkmenistan with the collapse of the U.S.S.R. and the arrival of independence in 1991. The "golden horse" is on the currency and the state emblem. The herd now numbers well over 2,000, and international auctions of Akhaltekes are now a major annual event in the country.

The Akhaltekes are known as "horses that sweat blood." They aren't as big, as strong, or as fast as the Arabian and English horses that are their descendants and that dominate horse breeds in the world today. But they have intelligence and unsurpassed endurance. Like camels, they are not daunted by extreme temperatures and salty water. For thousands of years they have been bred to thrive and move fast on the desert that occupies more than three-quarters of Turkmenistan.

The horse is named for a famous place in Turkmenistan, the Akhal Teke oasis of the Teke Turkmens. It was first bred nearly 2,500 years ago, and it is said that Bucephalus, the horse of Alexander the Great, was an Akhalteke.

Turkmen belongs to the Turkic branch of the Altaic language family. It is spoken by about three and a half million people in Turkmenistan, three-quarters of the population, and by an additional million in Iran. Akhalteke is the only word of Turkmen that has been imported into English.