Akhal-Teke Center

11/21/2024

Hi Kiergen!

11/20/2024

11/16/2024

11/11/2024

Akhal-Teke mare Sayda and her dam Arima this morning.

Both are in foal for 2025, by Kiergen and Anduma.
(Gidasp x Arima, 2019)
(Arim x Annuschka, 2014)



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https://www.akhaltekefoundation.org/email_list.html

11/11/2024

Lest we forget. Remembrance Day. ❤️

11/04/2024

Just watching the Akhal-Teke girls at the big barn sauntering in for a water break. They spread out wide when grazing, then gradually bunch together when there’s consensus to move. In this case, which starts already partly bunched, it’s Kizy, then finally Nusha, taking up the rear.

Zenus has the first foaling date, in March, so we’ll be getting her off fescue soon.

11/04/2024

“Training horses well in ways that don’t scare, injure or force them is a well established body of knowledge, and the better teachers and clinicians all advocate one or another version of this mindset.”

“Learning (Something) The Hard Way”

It’s a familiar saying. Often it’s said critically, when someone fails to take advice, as in, “Well, I guess you’re just going to have to learn it the hard way.”

What it means is that it will involve learning by failure or through some similarly unpleasant outcome that could theoretically have been avoided “if only you’d have listened.”

How unpleasant can range from mildly annoying to destruction and death.

Why so many humans have to lesrn the hard way is probably bound up in something my friend Walt Gervais told me many years ago. Walt was a tough man, a WW2 and Korea Navy veteran, a good athlete, and someone who had learned through experience more than through a classroom. He said, “Denny, the only people who are going to take your advice are the ones who agreed with you before they heard it.”

Humans tend to hear what they want to hear and to avoid what they don’t. Whether from indoctrination, ego, stubbornness, distrust, a long list of reasons. Now learning the hard way isn’t always so bad. We often remember those hard lessons better, and try not to repeat them. But I watch this tendency in the horse world, and it makes me wonder why some people even bother to take lessons or go to clinics, or buy books and videos, if they never take the advice that they are given.

Training horses well in ways that don’t scare, injure or force them is a well established body of knowledge, and the better teachers and clinicians all advocate one or another version of this mindset.

Yet so many humans still approach the training process as if it was some sort of competition, human versus horse. And the results of doing this "the hard way” will be scared and damaged horses, and that could and should have been avoided “if only he/she had been willing to listen.”

11/01/2024

Uygon, a 24-year-old Nez Perce Horse, and his buddy Ulduze, a purebred Akhal-Teke gelding, grazing after breakfast this morning.

BTW… since the geldings aren’t direct contributors to the ATF conservation breeding program, they are supported by direct private funding, separate from the nonprofit.

10/31/2024

Five month chestnut foals Robbie and Ruby want in on the action during a big vet morning at the center today, with various pregnant mare vaccinations & pregnancy rechecks on eight mares, plus vaccinations for dog Tilly and barn cats Mia and Tigger.

&

10/30/2024

Hey there, Anduma!

(Agades x Goldka, 2011)
https://www.akhaltekefoundation.org/at_stud_anduma.html

10/30/2024

Akhal-Teke mares at the big barn this morning. ❤️

We see you, Abby! 😍

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https://www.akhaltekefoundation.org/email_list.html

10/27/2024

Celebrating seniors! 💖

Tina and Annuschka on Saturday evening.

These two lovely senior Akhal-Teke girls have had a dozen purebred foals between them — along with other adventures — and they’re now happily retired at the Akhal-Teke Center.

Pallas Athena
https://beta.allbreedpedigree.com/pallas-athena-R3PdrCg5/pedigree

Annuschka
https://beta.allbreedpedigree.com/annuschka-lQfoPEUx/pedigree



Read about Akhal-Teke Foundation programs here…
https://www.akhaltekefoundation.org/programs.html

Join our email list here…
https://www.akhaltekefoundation.org/email_list.html

10/23/2024

Akhal-Teke girls on Wednesday afternoon. ❤️

Ally, Abby, Kizy, Dory, Kebelek, & Zenus

10/21/2024

at pasture on Saturday afternoon. ❤️

10/10/2024

Akhal-Teke girls at pasture after breakfast.

Looks like Ally, Abby, Tina, Kebelek, Zenus, Dory, and Sarka. ❤️

10/09/2024

Akhal-Teke girls Anadana and Delguli this evening. 💙