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Minutes of meetings of the Association Akhalteke Horsebreeding Russia (AATK) 2009 Inspection of Akhal-Teke horses Questions to Dr. Tatiana Riabova
Minutes of meetings of the Association Akhalteke Horsebreeding Russia (AATK) On February 6-7, 2010, the election meetings of the Association Akhalteke Horsebreeding Russia (AATK) were held in the town of Pyatigorsk. Attending were most members of AATK, including Ryabova TN, Abramova NV (VNIIK), Ismoilov Avaz (Horse Factory "Uz-Begim, Uzbekistan), Klimuk AS, (Stavropol stud), Timchenko VI (Krasnodar Region), Sirotenko VI (Rostov oblast), Gasanov R. (Dagestan stud), Karachi, and G. (stud im.naiba Idrisova). Also in attendance were breeders from Dagestan, Kalmykia, Chelyabinsk and Moscow (Sovereign Racing Club, horse farm "Gurtbil", "Gels", Compound "Irene" and others) regions, along with Petersburg (LEU "Manege", and others), and the Konnovladeltsy breeders. At the meeting it was decided to amend the Constitution, and elect a new Bureau and President of the AATK, which is as follows: Bureau: AATK, Kulygin IG, Aliev AA, Ryabov, TN, NV Abramova, Ismoilov A., Klimuk AS, Asmann A. Kulygin IG (Sovereign Racing Club) was elected President of the AATK.
Dr. Tatiana Riabova of the All-Russian Institute of Horse Breeding VNIIK, and Dr. Gus Cothran of the Texas A&M University met during Dr. Riabova’s recent visit to Texas to discuss future cooperative research between the two research institutions. The research will focus on central Asian horses, with primary interest in the genetics and unique attributes of the ancient Akhal-Teke horses. As soon as the cooperative research agreement is signed by both institutions, the individual research topics shall be selected and announced.
2009 Inspection of Akhal-Teke horses
On November 22nd of this year, Dr. Tatiana Riabova of the All-Russian Institute of Horse Breeding VNIIK, together with Ms. Natalia Pontecorvo, Dr. Milena Stoszek and Dr. Tito Pontecorvo of The Akhal-Teke Horse Registry, Inc., concluded their visit to the Akhal-Teke horse owners in Virginia, North Carolina, Florida and Texas. The purpose of their visit was to inspect pure bred Akhal-Teke horses, and to help owners with registration and inclusion of the horses in the upcoming 11th Studbook. A total of 15 Akhal-Teke horse owners and a number of their friends prepared horses for presentation to the Chief Breed Adviser Dr. Tatiana Riabova. There were some 80 horses inspected, photographed, and measured at eleven different locations.
The stud farms visited were: *The Akhal-Teke Stud at Shenandoah Farm in Virginia, owned by Mr. Philip D. Case, where he presented his horses, and also horses owned by Mr. Adam Dixon. *The Central Asian Equines in Virginia, owned by Ms. Allegra Steck *North Carolina, where Ms. Jacqueline Munn presented her horses
*Ms. Shirley Schulz, at her and her husband Karl’s lovely SSS Farm in Florida, where in addition to presenting her own horses for inspection, Shirley organized a meeting with Ms. Francine Anderson, Mr. Jurg Ragaz, and Mr. Tony Patricelli who brought their horses for inspection from more distant locations. *The farm of Ms. Dasha Cole in Florida *The Colonel Russel’s Equestrian Center in Texas, where the horses of Mr. William Askins and Ms. Jo Reser were presented for inspection. *The farm of Ms. April Kersey in Texas *The AkhalTexas farm of Dr. & Ms. Tito and Natalia Pontecorvo in Texas
This Inspection Tour was made possible through the generous sponsorship of Mr. Philip D. Case, Mr. & Mrs. Karl and Shirley Schulz, Dr. & Mrs. Tito Pontecorvo, Ms. Jo Reser, Ms. Francine Anderson, Mr. Tony Patricelli, Dr. Milena Stoszek, and others.
Before her departure, the representative of the All-Russian Institute of Horse Breeding VNIIK Dr. Tatiana Riabova signed an agreement with the president of The Akhal-Teke Horse Registry, Inc., Ms. Natalia Pontecorvo, offering a one time amnesty on registration fees for the pure bred Akhal-Teke horses. This amnesty pertains to all pure bred Akhal-Teke horses, allows their registration and inclusion in the General Studbook, with registration number assigned to each horse, and shall be free of charge. The amnesty shall end on April 1st, 2010. The requirements for registration remain in place without change, and the following documents are required: filled registration application form (obtain the form from this website), DNA test (or DNA and blood test if both parents do not have a DNA test on the file), good conformation photographs one from each side of the horse, and a close up picture of all markings on the head or other parts of the body, plus a hair sample pulled from the mane or the tail and placed in a clean mailing envelope marked with the name of the horse and the name of the owner.
Please contact The Akhal-Teke Horse Registry, Inc. at: Email address: info@akhal-tekehorseregestry.com The Registry Natalia Pontecorvo P.O.Box 460 Stockdale TX 78160 Telephone: 830 214 4838 Or Milena at 208-882-5033 to take advantage of this amnesty.
Questions to Dr. Tatiana Riabova
1./ What changes did you see in American Akhal-Teke horses since your last visit 7 years ago?
Yes really, it was 7 years ago when I was in America and I was very interested to see the change over that time period. This time I inspected horses in Virginia, North Carolina, Florida, and Texas. Altogether I inspected and measured 80 horses of different ages. Among them were 14 breeding stallions with medium measurements of 157.7 cm tall, body length 161.4 cm, chest circumference 175.5 cm, and cannon bone circumference 19.22 cm. The medium grading of the type was 7.6 points, and conformation 8.3 points. There were 34 brood mares inspected and on the average they were 156.2 cm tall, body length 161.8 cm, body circumference 180.5 cm, and cannon bone 18.47 cm. The median type was 7.65 points and conformation 8.05 points.
After I analyzed all the data, I can say that there is quite enough type and also correct conformation in American horses inspected thus far, but we need in the future to select horses to make them taller and make their body length a little shorter. We also need to pay attention and increase the bone mass.
I can better evaluate whole American population of the Akhal-Teke horses only after I’ll get to see all of them.
2./ When do you plan to come back again?
The next visit will come as soon as you invite me.
3./ On your website, you are talking only about the purebred Akhal-Teke. What about the partbreds?
We register not only the pure bred horses, but also Akhal-Teke crosses with other breeds. We are very interested in the crosses because we know that good horses with Akhal-Teke blood often are used in various sports for competition and they help spread the knowledge of the Akhal-Teke breed’s sport abilities among the people.
4./ What exactly do you search for in a blood test?
Of course, the individual chemical parameters associated with various genes, and direct analyses of DNA may provide us with information of heritable genetic diseases, but in the tests routinely run and required by the registry at this time our interest is centered mainly on positive identification of parentage. In the future, when we have collected more material, we plan to look at inheritance patterns and genetic markers for various diseases, body type, size, and other characteristics of interest. The beginning of this work already exists, as we now already know of differences in the type between various lines.
5./ When you say that the leg bones are too thin, what does that mean in cm? When you say the back is too short, what does that mean in cm? When you say that the croup is too short, what does that mea in cm? How much importance do long ears have when evaluating the type? How long in cm the ears need to be to be called typey?
The animals need to be proportional, parts of the body need to be symmetrical. The croup and the ears we do not measure in centimeters. But the professional who saw a large number of Akhal-Teke horses sees the proportions of the body and in his mind he keeps all the plusses and minuses of the conformation. What about the ears? Long ears are one of the characteristics of the breed. Ideally the Akhal-Teke horses have long high positioned and agile ears. The Turkmen say that the ears need to be like the leaves of the cattails, long and thin. The professional looking at a horse of course includes in his rating the size and the shape of the ears.
What about the bones? That is a very serious factor, that will tell you how strong is the conformation. But if we measure the bone of a yearling, 17.5 cm – that’s not bad, but if we get that same bone measurement on an adult animal, that of course is bad. For a mare 18.5 cm is normal, for a stallion it’s not enough.
6./ Do you have any scientific articles that investigated the kind of performance limitations of a horse that has a weak loin? Or a swayback?
There is no scientific research about this problem, but among the horse breeders there is an opinion that a long and so called “soft” back shows that the horse has a weak conformation, and that this “construction” of the body leads to the quicker deterioration of the animal.
In horse breeding there is a full understanding of indexes of the body structure, in other words the body measurements must proportionately correspond to the height of the horse. If this index grows too large, then it distorts proportions of the Akhal-Teke horse.
7./ What is your vision of the AT breed 10 years from now?
In 2010 the 10-year plan of the breed selection work will be ending, and the serious analysis of the breed will be done as a foundation for the new 10-year plan. What would I like to see in the next 10 years? First of all, friendly collective of the owners and breeders who understand the goals and the problems that we have with this breed. And who understand and are willing to work together to make changes and correct those problems to make better horses. I would like to see the horses of this unique breed to have more type, be taller, with good conformation, quick on the race track, winners in jumping events, in dressage, and in endurance. We know that this horse can successfully compete in these competitions with other breeds that are already established as good sport competition horses. We need to remember that the old military experts and travelers knew these horses to be of good size.
8./ When will the next 11th studbook be printed?
To speed up completion of the 11th studbook, the Selection Center of the VNIIK decided to enter all horses in the studbook without charging a fee, from now until the April 1st 2010, if the horse owners send in all required information for registration: DNA test of the horse and of his parents, color, date of birth, name, description of the markings, photographs showing all markings. For the mares and the stallions that need to be entered in the studbook as breeding stallions or breeding mares, the owners need to send complete information of the breeding activity for all the years, including all breedings, live foals born and their sex, name and color, foals born dead, foals aborted, resorbed embryos, mares not bred, and for each entry the name and the registration number of the stallion, or the name and the breed of the stallion if not pure bred Akhal-Teke. If the horse has already died, then include the date of death; if the horse was sold, include the name and the address of the new owner. For all horses used in any kind of sport, please include sport competition type and the results achieved, for inscription in the studbook.
When I will make the inspection of the horses, I will evaluate them and measure them.
With best regards and with hope to work together with all of you, Dr. Tatiana Riabova.
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