Kitabı oku: «The Majesty of the Horse: An Illustrated History», sayfa 2

TARPAN
PREHISTORIC – POLAND, RUSSIA – EXTINCT IN TRUE FORM

HEIGHT

Up to 13.2 h.h.

APPEARANCE

A heavy head with a convex profile and long ears that angle slightly to the outside. Short neck, deep chest, flat withers, and a long back with a sloping croup. Shoulders are well conformed and sloping, and legs are long, fine, and notably strong.

COLOR

A primitive dun or grullo, with a dorsal stripe, black lower legs, and often zebra markings.

APTITUDE

Riding, light draft

THE PREHISTORIC CAVE PAINTINGS in Lascaux, France, depict, with astonishing detail, two very different types of horse. One type strongly reflects the characteristics of the Asiatic Wild Horse (Przewalski); the other type, seen in a striking procession of three fine-limbed, elegant horses, bears much in common with another of history’s important breeds, the Tarpan.

The Tarpan (Russian for “wild horse”) occupies a central role in the development of horse breeds and is widely considered to be a closer relative to the modern horse than the Przewalski. Despite their physical differences, the two breeds have occasionally been confused, primarily because both wild horses roamed across a slightly similar area. The Tarpan spread across western Russia and throughout Eastern Europe and formed the basis for the chariot-driving stock of ancient cultures, from the Greeks to the Egyptians, Assyrians, Scythians, and Hittites. The prepotency of its influence can be seen particularly in the light horse breeds of Eastern Europe and Eurasia, whereas the Przewalski’s influence spread through Central Asia, down into China, and east to Japan. In particular, the Tarpan can be connected to the magnificent but diminutive Caspian horse, though perhaps of greater significance is the link believed to exist at a founding level between the Tarpan and the desert breeds of Central Asia, and possibly even the Arabian. In Europe, the Tarpan’s influence can clearly be seen in the Portuguese Sorraia—which in turn formed the basis for the majestic Iberian breeds—and in the Romanian Hucul and Polish Konik.

The Konik is the closest descendant of the Tarpan, to which it bears a strong physical resemblance. In fact, it is largely to the Konik that the modern-day Tarpan owes its existence. Like the Przewalski, the Tarpan in its pure form was hunted to extinction—the last wild Tarpan was accidentally killed in 1879 during a capture attempt, and the last Tarpan in captivity died in a Russian zoo in 1909. Several attempts have been made to breed a reconstituted Tarpan, including one by the Polish government, which established breeding herds from stock that most closely resembled the Tarpan. These herds were primarily made up of Konik ponies, and in 1936 Polish professor Tadeusz Vetulani used these Koniks to establish a program to try to re-create the Tarpan. Around the same time, Berlin Zoo director Lutz Heck and Heinz Heck of the Munich Zoo also began a breeding regimen using Konik, Icelandic, and Gotland mares with a Przewalski stallion. Eventually a fixed type of Tarpan physicality was established, with the horses referred to as Heck horses. A Heck stallion and two mares were imported to the United States in the 1950s, where they now have a dedicated following. A further horse of Tarpan characteristics, the Hegardt, was developed in the United States by Harry Hegardt (and previously Gordon Stroebel) based on crossing Mustangs with Tarpan-like ponies, also probably of Konik descent.

Despite the Tarpan’s importance, it was not actually recorded and described until around 1768, when German naturalist Samuel Gottlieb Gmelin (1744–74) captured four of the wild horses in Russia. He provided a detailed account of its appearance, which was further recorded in a drawing of a Tarpan colt in 1841. In 1912, Helmut Otto Antonius, director of the Scholbrunn Zoological Gardens in Vienna and one of the first scientists to recognize the importance of the Tarpan in the development of modern domestic horse breeds, named the Tarpan Equus caballus gmelini in recognition of Gmelin’s description; now the breed’s correct scientific name is accepted as Equus ferus ferus.

HUCUL
ANCIENT – POLAND, ROMANIA, CZECH REPUBLIC, SLOVAK REPUBLIC – COMMON

HEIGHT

Up to 14 h.h.

APPEARANCE

Robust in build with a rectangular body frame; short, strong, clean limbs; and an attractive head with large, kind eyes. Strong back, with a well-formed, muscular croup. Heavy through the neck and front end, with a broad, deep chest.

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, a racing strain. In view of the very great antiquity of the Turkmenian it is likely that this horse was one of the earliest hot-blooded horses, along with the Caspian, that evolved within the same geography. With the spread of this horse through Turkestan and down into Saudi Arabia and across to Africa it is a small step to consider it influencing the development of the Arabian and also the North African Barb, which in turn was fundamental to the development of the Iberian breeds. The Turkmenian was also influential in the development of the English Thoroughbred through the Thoroughbred foundation sire, the Byerley Turk, who is thought to have been a “Turk,” and through the large number of Turkmenian horses imported to England during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, when the Thoroughbred was evolving. The Turk, or Turkoman, breed is one of the modern descendants of the ancient Turkmenian horse, which also gave rise to the Akhal Teke and Iomud. Confusingly, the terms Turkoman and Turkmenian are often interchanged, with horses bred in Turkmenistan referred to as Turkmenian and those bred in Iran referred to as Turkoman. There is, however, little difference between them.

The Akhal Teke, directly descended from the ancient Turkmenian, and in a sense the modern reincarnation of this breed, has with little exception been bred pure. In the twentieth century there was the introduction of some Thoroughbred blood to the Akhal Teke, to try to increase the size of the breed, but this was a largely unsuccessful experiment. The Akhal Teke (meaning literally “pure” or “oasis” from the Teke tribe) has been bred by the Turkmene people systematically and stringently, living in the difficult desert climate in the oases of Turkmenistan. Ashkhabad, the capital of Turkmenistan, has been a center of breeding for the Akhal Teke and its ancestors since 1000 B.C.E. and is still a major breeding center, although the horses are also bred in Kazakhstan, Dagestan, Russia, and in the northern Caucasus, as well as in small pockets of the United States, the United Kingdom, and parts of Europe. Traditionally, only the fastest progeny were bred so that the qualities of speed and endurance are ultimately fixed within the breed. The horses are quite unique in appearance, particularly when compared with the European warmblood. The Akhal Teke should be a “meatless” animal: there should be no excess fat, and the horse’s muscle mass should be long and unpronounced. To condition the horses, the nomadic tribesmen would wrap them in thick felt blankets to sweat them out during the day, and work them in the mornings and evenings. The young stock would be started at just under two years old even though the breed does not mature until around five.

The Akhal Teke’s endurance is legendary; no breeds can match it in terms of speed and stamina. Like its relative the Iomud, the Akhal Teke is also able to exist on minimal water and food. Although most famous as an endurance breed, the Akhal Teke is extremely athletic and has a natural aptitude for jumping. The horses have also excelled in dressage, as demonstrated by Akhal Teke stallion Absent’s gold medal win in 1960 in Rome—they are one of the most talented and least recognized of breeds.

The Akhal Teke has tragically suffered a huge reduction in numbers, but efforts to stabilize and increase the breed since 1980 have been relatively successful, although it can still be considered rare.

Rarer still is the Iomud, a breed that is a close relative of the Akhal Teke but little known outside Turkmenistan, its country of origin. The Iomud has much in common with the Akhal Teke: it is a desert-bred horse with tremendous endurance and stamina, though it lacks the Akhal Teke’s quality and is not as fine or elegant. The Iomud has a heavier frame with a thicker, shorter neck and an attractive head. Its coat is fine and most often gray or chestnut, and the mane and tail hairs are sparse. Though not as fast as the Akhal Teke, the Iomud is famed for its quick recovery rate after endurance racing.

The Iomud’s extreme qualities are a product of both early breeding and the arid desert and semi-desert regions in which the horses are raised. As a result of these harsh conditions, Iomuds are extremely tough and able to exist on minimal rations of water. Early in the breed’s development, there would have been crossbreeding with other hardy breeds from the Central Asian steppes, such as the Mongolian and Kazakh, and it is likely that this influence continued throughout its history. There has also been some Arabian influence, and since the 1920s some Akhal Teke blood has been introduced to help preserve and improve the breed. Today, however, numbers are extremely low.

CASPIAN
PREHISTORIC – IRAN – RARE

HEIGHT

10–12 h.h.

APPEARANCE

A small, fine head with an Arabian-like look; the occipital bone gives a slightly hooded look. Nostrils are wide but low on the nose and the ears tiny. A very sloped shoulder and very defined withers, with markedly slender though dense bone in their legs. Extraordinarily tough, oval-shaped hooves.

COLOR

Bay, chestnut, gray, or black.

APTITUDE

Riding, light draft, showing, dressage, jumping

THE TINY, BEAUTIFUL CASPIAN is totally unique among horse breeds, and one of the oldest and most important breeds still in existence. All breeds of light horse are thought to descend from the Caspian and its ancestors, and as such it provides a tangible link between early Equus and the modern horse.

These exquisite creatures lived undiscovered in northern Iran for centuries, subsisting among the rocky mountains and dense forests and leading a largely undisturbed life until they were “rediscovered” in 1965 by the American Louise Firouz, who had established a small riding school in Iran. It was on a trip to the southern shores of the Caspian Sea, looking for suitable ponies to use in her school, that she came across three magnificent but tiny horses. Despite their diminutive size, they were decidedly horses and not ponies, exhibiting horse-like conformation and character; today the Caspian is still recognized as a small horse, not a pony. Firouz realized the importance of these animals, which bore a striking resemblance to those seen on the Seal of Darius (c. 500 B.C.E.) and other ancient artifacts, and instigated a five-year study of the horses in their environment. Through dedicated searches and study it was estimated that approximately fifty of these horses were living all along the south coast of the Caspian Sea. Because the area in which they were found was so large, it was also conjectured that they could not be totally purebred, but had retained the strong genetic base of their predecessors.

Extensive study and research has been undertaken into the history of the Caspian, and skeletal examination has revealed that the horses have certain unique characteristics among modern breeds, and that they also bear a significant resemblance to the postulated Horse Type 4, theorized by leading experts on equine prehistory F. Ebhart, J. G. Speed, E. Skorkowski, and R. d’Andrade. Further, many artifacts, such as the Seal of Darius, which depicts the Persian king in a chariot pulled by two minute but magnificent horses, and artifacts of the Oxus Treasure (fifth to fourth century B.C.E.) testify to the existence of a very small, fine and beautiful breed of horse in use during prehistory. Tracing this link reveals that it is possible that the Caspian and its ancestors were also the ancestors to the Arabian horse and the breeds of fine, desert horses that ranged across Eurasia from prehistory to the present. The frequency with which they are mentioned or appear in pre- and ancient history is not insignificant and attests to the great value placed on them. Despite their small size they were widely used for chariot racing and were as prized for their speed and endurance as they were for their appearance.

Unlike other breeds of horse the Caspian reaches its full adult height very rapidly, often within the first six months of life, and then gradually fills out and matures. They reach sexual maturity at under two years old, and most significantly mares tend not to ovulate after foaling for up to a year, which makes continuous breeding programs difficult. Louise Firouz established a stud for breeding the Caspian in Iran, but in 1976 her herd was attacked by wolves. To ensure the safety and continuance of the breed, which was extremely rare at that stage, some of her herd were flown to a stud in Shropshire, England, where they were successfully settled. Today the Caspian horse is a greatly refined model of its prehistoric ancestor, but retains the essential elements that make it such an extraordinary animal. They are wonderful athletes and make fantastic show ponies, but of more importance is their immense historic significance and their impact on the development of modern light horse breeds.