Swan Farm Akhal-Tekes

12/31/2024

Dear Friends of Akhal-Tekes,

This is it for the Akhal-Tekes... for 2024. Saving the root stock breed of modern athletic horses is a big job.

And frankly, we need your help.

Thanks to a generous donor, all contributions made before midnight tonight will be matched — so your gift today will be doubled!

Since the Akhal-Teke Foundation is an all-volunteer public charity, the Akhal-Teke horses at our national Akhal-Teke Center depend on the support of the community of Akhal-Teke lovers.

Please help our precious new foals, like the next little Sayda, to survive and thrive. Can we count on you for $25 before midnight to meet our 2024 goal?

Donate here for 2024:

https://bit.ly/akhalteke2024

Donate for 2025 here:

https://akhaltekefoundation.networkforgood.com

We’ve all had an unexpected and uncertain two years – and we’re wishing you and yours a healthy, safe, and joyful 2025!

P.S. Setting up a recurring monthly donation helps to budget your gift over the next year—for you and for us. And our donor will match the full amount for the year right now! Please consider making a recurring contribution today.

https://bit.ly/akhalteke2024

Donate for 2025 here:

https://akhaltekefoundation.networkforgood.com

Checks can be written to "Akhal-Teke Foundation" and be mailed to...

Akhal-Teke Foundation
2989 Maury River Rd
Lexington, VA 24450

Contributions are tax-deductible. The Akhal-Teke Foundation is an award-winning, all-volunteer 501(c)3 public charity for preservation of the rare and amazing Akhal-Teke horses.

There's more about Akhal-Teke Foundation programs online here...
https://www.akhaltekefoundation.org/programs.html

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

12/31/2024

“Are you ready for 2025?”

What better way to say goodbye to 2024 and welcome in 2025 than by making a gift right now to help save the Akhal-Teke horses!

With your generosity, five new Akhal-Teke foals and their moms will start the year with everything they need to survive and thrive.

And if we make it to our $2700 end of year fundraising goal, we'll know that conservation breeding of outstanding Akhal-Tekes is getting the community support these magical horses truly need.

PLUS! An anonymous donor will DOUBLE YOUR IMPACT with a 100% match for EVERY DONATION made to the all-volunteer Akhal-Teke Foundation by midnight on December 31, 2024.

Donate here:

https://bit.ly/akhalteke2024

And in 2025…

https://akhaltekefoundation.networkforgood.com

Thank you in advance for being so generous.

And enjoy a wonderful New Year!

P.S. Setting up a monthly donation helps to budget your gift over the next year—for you and us! And the full amount for the year will be matched right now!! Please consider making a recurring contribution by clicking here:

https://akhaltekefoundation.networkforgood.com

📷 The Buckskin Bunny is now grown, with her first foal on the way. Your donation goes to support the new foals of this Akhal-Teke girl and her sisters at the nonprofit Akhal-Teke Center.

12/28/2024

“Why do we fight for the Akhal-Tekes?”

The number of these rare and amazing horses is just too low. The ancient Akhal-Teke breed is slipping toward oblivion, right before our eyes.

Together, we can turn this around.

First, we have to understand that commercial breeding will not sustain a rare breed. The painfully low numbers show that breeding and selling horses is not sustaining the Akhal-Tekes in North America.

Most young horses who are bred and sold go to riding homes, rather than breeding homes. This is natural — only a small fraction of horse people are horse breeders — and Akhal-Tekes are terrific riding horses! The riding horse market is essential for commercial, sales-based breeding.

And even if most breeders lose money supporting this market — as they do — the riding horse market provides a valuable income for breeders to keep going.

But with most horses going into the riding market, there are simply not enough active broodmares to sustain the breed. We’ve seen just ten to 12 foals born per year in all of North America, for the last several years — when the replacement rate, just to maintain our current subpopulation of Akhal-Tekes, would be more like 25 foals born per year.

And of those recent foals, around half have come from our horses — from an Akhal-Teke Foundation stallion or mare… or both. In a way, we're already propping up the regular commercial market for Akhal-Tekes.

To reach sustaining numbers, though, the breed needs substantially more mares for years to come, who are focused on breeding more Akhal-Tekes, rather than on riding, whether for sport or pleasure.

And the commercial market just can’t support this. Breeders who survive by selling young horses can’t also afford to keep enough of their own fillies to substantially grow their production — even if they had the room and the resources to operate at a higher volume. It just doesn’t pencil out.

Wishing and cajoling for more horses doesn’t change this hard reality for a rare breed. Without a different approach, Akhal-Tekes will continue to dwindle.

Fortunately, there is an alternative to the inherent limitations of commercial breeding. It’s called “conservation breeding.”

It’s breeding for the horses, not the horse market.

This is why the Akhal-Teke Foundation, a 501(c)3 nonprofit public charity, is growing a conservation breeding herd of selected horses at the Akhal-Teke Center. The current Akhal-Teke Foundation herd of 20 purebreds includes descendants of 29 originally-imported purebred Akhal-Teke horses, imported from eight countries between 1979 and 2008, representing 11 sire lines.

With the support of a broad community of Akhal-Teke lovers like you, the foundation can actually grow the Akhal-Teke population, while maintaining excellence and preserving the essential root stock genetic diversity.

The rare and amazing Akhal-Teke horses need your support to survive and thrive. Our goal is to raise $2700 by the end of this year, matched by an anonymous donor to reach $5400, to support the new foals at the nonprofit Akhal-Teke Center.

Can the Akhal-Tekes count on you?

Donate:

https://akhaltekefoundation.networkforgood.com

Thank you!


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

More about ATF programs here…
https://www.akhaltekefoundation.org/programs.html



📷 Ellen L Chappell Photography

12/17/2024

The Akhal-Teke Foundation is an award-winning all-volunteer non-profit for preservation of the rare & amazing Akhal-Teke horses.

12/13/2024

More than a hundred pages of gift ideas for all kinds of Akhal-Teke horse people... 😊

Thinking about holiday gifts for the and in your life?

The “Plaid Horse 2024 Holiday Gift Guide” seems to have you covered, with categories for stocking stuffers, for the horse, for the home & stable, for the body, for the mind, and for the heart…

https://bit.ly/plaidhorsegiftguide2024

The Akhal-Teke Foundation is honored to participate, with an Akhal-Teke page in the “for the heart” section (p111). And you can jump straight to our Akhal-Teke gift offering here…

https://bit.ly/sponsoranakhalteke

To quote editor Piper Klemm:

“As you explore this year’s wonderful Gift Guide, take a closer look at the non-profits. Take a closer look at the brands who have supported our community. Take the opportunity to help our community do-and be-better.

“Thank you to everyone in our community who aspires to make it better!

“Happy Holidays,

“Piper Klemm, PhD, Editor in Chief”

📷 Akhal-Teke mare Arima (Arim x Annuschka, 2014), by Irina Kuzmina

12/03/2024

Today is the day!

UPDATED UPDATE: Thank you so much to all the great supporters who have donated over $2152 so far toward our goal. Those donations get matched, making it over $4304 raised so far!

And there’s still time to pitch in, for the horses:

People around the world are coming together today to celebrate generosity and make an impact. At the all-volunteer nonprofit Akhal-Teke Foundation, we have a goal to support 20 for a month. And with your help, we can make this a reality.

Your gift can also make TWICE the impact, thanks to a generous donor who will match the first $7,000 raised, dollar-for-dollar!

$10 = Feed an Akhal-Teke for a day
$32 = 50 lbs of Mare & Foal feed
$75 = Vaccinate a Pregnant Mare
$100 = Half bundle of Orchard Grass hay
$378 = Bundle of Alfalfa hay

Will you help us feed the Akhal-Tekes?

Give Now:
https://bit.ly/Akhal-Teke_Giving_Tuesday_2024



📷 Ellen L Chappell Photography

12/02/2024

Son of Ehyr Atlaz 💖

12/02/2024

Seems like quite a range of diversity for a small all-volunteer nonprofit program.

How many original-import Akhal-Teke horses are represented in the breeding herd at the Akhal-Teke Center?

It’s relatively well known that Senetir was the first Akhal-Teke stallion imported to the U.S., that he had great offspring in both numbers and quality (with two sons long-listed for the Olympic Team in eventing), and that he’s well represented in the horses at the nonprofit Akhal-Teke Center.

What might be under the radar is all the other original-import horses represented in the ATC breeding herd.

Check this out. The Akhal-Teke Foundation is breeding living descendants of 20 different original-import Akhal-Tekes, and three additional original import horses are represented at the ATF by frozen semen only. 23 different original-import Akhal-Tekes.

In many cases, these original-import horses are the direct parents of, or only one or two generations back from the current and upcoming breeding horses. Annuschka is a vital leader in the mare herd, herself.

Original-import horses, grouped by country (with selected current descendants):

Estonia
- Kuwwat (Swan Kyzyl Kometa, Swan Altyn Kamat-F)

Germany
- Annuschka (Arima, Swan Yurekli Sazada, Swan Ak Kepderi)
- Dunja (Doblet-F, Koublet-F)
- Marenka (Anadana)
- Marishka (Marakan-F)
- Melechan (Marakan-F)
- Pan Tau (Ehyr Atlaz-F, Swan Kyzyl Kometa, Robbie, Ruby)

Kazakhstan
- Gigant (Swan Akylly Baytal, Swan Yurekli Sazada, Anduma)
- Gindarkh (Gavinka, Adamek, Delguli)
- Mergen (Kiergen, Swan Ak Kepderi, Swan Ysk Doretmek)

Russia
- Agnyia (Adamek, Anikit)
- Arim (Arima, Swan Yurekli Sazada, Swan Ak Kepderi)
- Arik (Sarka, Swan Ysk Doretmek)
- Gavan (Gavinka, Robbie, Anduma)
- Goklen (Kebelek, Goklen-F)
- Kushka (Kurinka, Kashman-F)
- Mamuk (Swan Kyzyl Kometa, Robby, Ruby)
- Oliva (Zenus, Sengar-F)
- Sephard Shael (2025 Gavinka Foal)
- Zirehgeran (Zenus)

Sweden
- Rosanna (2025 Gavinka foal)

Switzerland
- Samira (Sarka, Swan Ysk Doretmek)

Turkmenistan
- Senetir (Kiergen, Sengar-F, Kashman-F, several mares)

Original-import horses from seven countries, including at least nine of the traditional Akhal-Teke stallion lines.

And a strong base of diverse original Akhal-Teke genetics, for conservation breeding with thoughtful sport selection, combined.

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

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

11/22/2024

Have you heard of ? It’s a global day of giving, and it’s a great opportunity to make a difference by donating to the causes you care about. This year, join all of us at the Akhal-Teke Foundation as we rally with people around the world to raise money for our favorite causes.

Giving Tuesday is the Tuesday after U.S. Thanksgiving, so, December 3rd this year. With your help, the Akhal-Teke Foundation will work to raise $7000, which will go toward supporting five pregnant mares at the nonprofit national Akhal-Teke Center.

Your support will make the births of five sparky new Akhal-Teke foals possible. We hope you’ll join us with a Giving Tuesday donation, to make that goal a reality!

https://bit.ly/Akhal-Teke_Giving_Tuesday_2024

📷 2024 Akhal-Teke foals Robbie & Ruby with a volunteer at the nonprofit Akhal-Teke Center in Lexington, Virginia.

11/09/2024

🐴😍

Have you seen an Akhal-Teke horse today?

“This unique breed is not less than three thousand years old. The Akhal-Teke is a direct descendant of the horses of the Massagetae, the Bactrians and the Alans which were famous in antiquity. In ancient Persia these horses were known as Nisaean and several centuries later-as Parthian, but they were always spoken of as the best in the world. In the second century BC the Roman historian Oppian wrote of them: “These horses, worthy of the most powerful rulers, are strikingly beautiful in appearance, they move lightly under the rider and lightly accept the bit; the head with its Roman nose is carried high and their golden manes flow majestically in the wind."

https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C47&q=TURKMEN+CULTURAL+TREASURE+AND+HISTORIC+SYMBOL&btnG= =gs_qabs&t=1731067534941&u=%23p%3D5nD4eMt4zKkJ



📷 Akhal-Teke stallion Airyksha-Dacor, by Artur Baboev Horse photography

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

10/25/2024

10/07/2024

🐴💖

The ancient and amazing horses and their incredible are discussed on the BBC “Unexpected Elements” broadcast this week.

The recording is now up at the BBC. The lead-in to the Akhal-Teke bit starts at 28:42 on this cut…

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/w3ct5q2d

Shiny things that make you smile. 💖

Thank you, !

📷 metallic shine on the golden buckskin Akhal-Teke stallion Amanat-Dacor

09/19/2024

I’m trying to reach fellow blacksmith Jack Frost in Glenwood to pass along some stuff, but lost his contact info. Please PM me if you can help. Thanks!!

(Dug up this photo of my work to authenticate postings on blacksmithing groups. 😊)

08/29/2024

🐴❤️

08/12/2024

Dave Hunt’s sweet old 1940s Ferguson side delivery hay rake has gone home with Jerry Russell, who did the last big rehab on it. Bon Voyage to a great machine that we harvested well over 250 tons of hay with.

06/24/2024

“The Disappearance of the Turk”

DNA research has recently proven the pivotal influence of the Turkoman/Akhal-Teke horses on modern athletic horse breeds across Europe and worldwide, from the Thoroughbred to the Lipizzaner.

A probing essay by Donna Landry delves into how and why the foundational role of these special Central Asian horses was mistakenly attributed to “Arabians,” and thus hidden from Western history… until now.

Abstract:

“Between 1650 and 1750, the English Thoroughbred horse was created from Ottoman imports grafted upon native racing stock in an asymmetrical Anglo-Ottoman exchange, with appropriation leading to naturalisation and radical assimilation. The Ottoman Empire was a rich source of equine genetic material of the superior bloodhorse type. The Ottomans were equine multiculturalists. For Evliya Çelebi, the küheylân (Arab thoroughbred) was as Ottoman a breed as any other. Evliya never speaks of “Turk” or “Turkoman” horses as Western visitors did; instead he particularizes the breeds of the steppe, employing the Tatar term aġırmaq [Argamak] (thoroughbred), and identifying the Nogay and Karaçubuk as ‘thoroughbred’ breeds.

“Yet it was this “Turkoman” lineage of early imports such as the ‘Byerley Turk’ that was most originally formative for the English Thoroughbred, evidenced by studbook records, contemporary observers, phenotypical resemblances, and recent genome research. From the evidence of Evliya Çelebi, Jean-Baptiste Tavernier, Sir John Malcolm, Lady Anne Blunt, and others, this essay argues for the formative influence of the Ottoman “Turkoman” genotype that, as a consequence of imperial rivalries, British prejudices, and equine bloodstock politics, has been erased from history. The impact made by Ottoman imported horses constitutes an instance of collective, rather than individual, equine agency.”

Donna Landry, “The Disappearance of the Turk: The Cultural Politics ofThoroughbred Horses in the Ottoman and British Empires,” DIYÂR , pages 28-48.

https://www.nomos-elibrary.de/10.5771/2625-9842-2022-1-28/the-disappearance-of-the-turk-the-cultural-politics-ofthoroughbred-horses-in-the-ottoman-and-british-empires-jahrgang-3-2022-heft-1?page=1

https://scholar.google.com/scholar?start=10&q=akhal-teke&hl=en&as_sdt=0,38&as_ylo=2022 =gs_qabs&t=1663627242994&u=%23p%3D0JNPC5cIK2IJ

📷: stallion Yasman (Garem x Yalma, 1983). h/t Alexander Klimuk, Leonid Baboev.
http://www.akhaltekeregistry.com/Database?id=1546&searchField=Horse+name