Akhal-Tekes as Jumpers
Now Darginka is in a beautiful jumping barn with all these huge powerful horses and I am wondering if she is going to be able to jump.
My thoughts are that the Akhal-Tekes, probably because of their limited numbers, are not being bred for jumping and that there is no way that they can compare to the warmbloods and thoroughbreds being raised specifically for this sport. Although there do seem to be a few standouts that I have found on various web pages. I have also heard that some of Tito’s horses are in training for FEI jumping and both Metman and Salam from Freedom Run Farms are going down to Florida to compete in FEI jumping in the New Year. Perhaps the Akhal-Teke will start to shine as jumpers as they become more popular in the west or perhaps their major contribution will be in crossing with the warmbloods to provide more speed and agility for jumping.
Arab is a very famous Akhal-Teke. On Akhal-Teke Estonia’s page they post the following statement (pictures are from MAAK):
26 Arab: His line has been bred for his particular affinity to classical horse sports. He was an excellent performer in his day, a participant in the Askhabad – Moscow trek, stallion of the year at the 1945 Moscow Horse Show, many times the jumping champion of the Soviet Union and holder of a high-jump record (2.19 meters, set at the age of 16), which stood for the breed until very recently.
The athletic ability of the Akhal-Teke truly shines in this sport, for the breed does love to jump high and go fast! The purebred stallion Arab was national show jumping champion of Russia at 16 years of age and cleared 2m 12cm in the Puissance. The purebred gelding Penteli, shown at Grand Prix in Europe, was a remarkable competitor in spite of standing just 15.2hh*.
The purebred Poligon set new Puissance records over five successive years, achieving a maximum height of 2m. 25 cm.
When the long jump was an official competition, the Akhal-Teke stallion Perepel cleared 8m 78 cm. (Note: the official record acknowledged by FEI stands at 8.26 meters.)
(Penteli reportedly won every jumping event that he was entered in while with his rider, Lisizin. He was champion of the USSR twelve times in three-day eventing, and European champion on more than one occasion. Mr. Lisizin died when Penteli was fifteen years old, and after that, no one could ride Penteli to a win.)
From MAAK:
For the third year in succession (l999-2001) horses belonging to the Akhal-Teke breed (Man, Arslan, Kovum, Karamashal and others) are winning and being placed at the World Cup show jumping competition qualifiers in the countries of the Central Asian region (Bishkek, Alma-Aty, Tashkent).
ARSLAN
This dark-bay stallion was born January 14, 1987 at the collective farm «Sotcializm» of Ashkhabad region of Turkmenistan to dark-buckskin stallion Abdulrakhman (originated from Dagestan, Kaltaman-Saiat) and daughter of Pal’var, buckskin Selbiniiaz. He did not succeed in races and was sold to Uzbekistan. Arslan was a big stallion -,0, with a great «sport» pedigree, line Fakirpelvan, Arslan made the record of Uzbekistan in show-jumping – 192 cm (22.04.1994), for 2 years in a row (1999 and 2000) he was rated #1 in « Rating of the best show-jumping horses of Asia ».
See AKHAL-TEKES IN SPORT at the MAAK website
and also check out Akhal-Tekes who are currently jumping!
January 6th, 2007 at 4:00 pm
We don’t know a much about Akhal-Tekes but are really interested in learning more. They are beautiful, (although, we think every horse is beautiful!) What a great blog! We’ll keep reading!
March 2nd, 2009 at 7:27 am
Wow!Akhal-tekes can do anything from dresage to racing!