Swan Farm Akhal-Tekes

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

06/15/2024

💔

Akhal-Teke stallion Ehyr Atlaz (Pan Tau x Pallas Athena, 2013) passed away yesterday, Thursday, June 13, 2024, at 2pm at the Virginia-Maryland Veterinary Teaching College (at Virginia Tech).

On Wednesday evening, Ehyr seemed fine, the only anomaly being that he ate half his dinner. That was not uncommon with the distraction of co-resident mares Anadana and Delguli, who he was breeding.

On Thursday morning, however, he presented as a sick horse, with low affect and nasal drainage. Upon a morning visit from a local emergency vet which found deteriorating vital signs, we rushed him to Virginia Tech, where the teaching hospital staff diagnosed congestive heart failure, including a cardiologist consult.

Ten years and eleven months old, apparently Ehyr Atlaz had been using his complete warrior steed resources to hold it together until the very end. He called out one last time to the mares in the hospital, walked slowly to the designated place for euthanasia, then utterly collapsed, with a hastened drug delivery only cushioning his quick but dramatic end.

Speculation on the etiology of this catastrophe is pointless until the Akhal-Teke Foundation receives the full necropsy report, expected in about ten days.

Bred by Amrita Ibold in Washington, born and raised at Swan Farm in Oregon, and started under saddle by Kevin Matthews with the support of the LBCC equestrian program, Ehyr is survived by the stallion Akyldar in North Dakota (Ehyr Atlaz x Annuschka, 2019), and 2024 foals Robbie and Ruby at the Akhal-Teke Center. He is likely to have from one to three foals in 2025 from this year’s pasture breeding program, and his semen has been frozen.

Ehyr Atlaz was a dear friend to us, an ever-present leader on the farm, and in the words of a Virginia Tech veterinary professor, he was a magnificent horse. We are shocked at his sudden loss, and he is so sorely missed.

Donations in Ehyr’s memory can be made to the general fund of the Akhal-Teke Foundation:

https://akhaltekefoundation.networkforgood.com

💔

06/04/2024

Kurinka and her filly by this evening. ❤️

05/18/2024

How do a bay ( ) and a buckskin (Gavinka) produce a chestnut c**t?

Ehyr Atlaz has color genetics of Ee Ax NN. Bay.

Gavinka has color genetics of Ee Ax CrN. Buckskin, same as bay but with one cream dilution.

E = black base, dominant
e = red base, recessive
A = agouti, dominant, which suppresses black on the body, leaving black legs & tips
x = unknown
Cr = cream dilution, dosage-based
N = non-dilution

An offspring gets one gene from each parent, from each of these three groups.

And Little Red got ee xx NN. The genetic code for chestnut. 😊

(His agouti genes are undetermined, because agouti has no effect on a red base.)

**t

05/06/2024

Success Story!

One year ago, the nonprofit Akhal-Teke Foundation posted this fundraiser for trying to breed Gavinka, Kurinka, and Kebelek. Folks stepped up and donated, and with that help, two days ago Gavinka had her first foal, that sweet little red c**t!

Kurinka is pregnant too, and she’s due in a couple of weeks!

All with the help of your donations!!

Can you give $10 today for these special mares, and help this fundraiser reach our goal?

Donate here:

https://akhaltekefoundation.networkforgood.com/projects/195035-save-these-akhal-teke-bloodlines

Thank you so much, whatever you can give!!!🙏

“Help Save These Akhal-Teke Bloodlines”

You are the last chance for these special mares!

Three mares rescued from Shenandoah Farm have come back from leases to Akhal-Teke Foundation foster care, and they should be bred this year to recover the Akhal-Teke breed, and continue their special bloodlines.

You and the Akhal-Teke community are the last chance for these special mares!

With only some ten Akhal-Teke foals born last year in North America, the mission to raise the low numbers and to maintain the genetic diversity of this rare & ancient breed, and to carry forward the priceless genetic legacy of historic Shenandoah Farm, is more critical than ever.

The Akhal-Teke Foundation is grateful to be working with the top equine reproductive specialist in the Pacific Northwest — who is also providing us very reasonable fees.

In addition, all the stud fees for breeding these mares are being donated to the Foundation by the stallion owners.

In turn, the all-volunteer non-profit is asking for tax-deductible contributions from the Akhal-Teke community to help cover the remaining breeding costs.

PLEASE HELP US BREED THESE IMPORTANT MARES!

Donate here:

https://akhaltekefoundation.networkforgood.com/projects/195035-save-these-akhal-teke-bloodlines

04/15/2024

Breed smart for breed conservation.

Conservation breeding of the critically-rare Akhal-Teke horses involves designing great matches for each horse according to the traditional criteria including conformation, temperament, movement, athleticism, and size, while ALSO factoring in diversity, continuation of bloodlines, and low coefficients of inbreeding.

For instance, while a commercial breeder would naturally lean toward using as few stallions as necessary to make great horses, to control costs and horse management effort, in conservation breeding we naturally lean toward using as many good stallions as feasible, to help maintain the irreplaceable genetic basis of the breed.

In this snapshot of the 2024 breeding plan for the nonprofit Akhal-Teke Center, all ten resident purebred mares of breeding age are included, to be serviced by five purebred stallions. The plan calls for three resident stallions to each have a herd of two to four mares, while three other mares will be bred by two outside stallions via cooled semen AI.

The coefficients of inbreeding (COIs) in this plan range from under 2 to around 3.5. For reference, COIs of 5 or less are recommended, to avoid ongoing loss of genetic diversity due to excessive inbreeding.

When inbreeding causes “fixation” of a particular genetic allele due to homozygosity, the alternative allele, and all its adaptative potential, may be gone forever.

Are you planning a purebred Akhal-Teke breeding? The Akhal-Teke Foundation (ATF) will happily calculate the COIs of matches you are considering, so you too can breed smart for breed conservation.



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

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

Donate here…
https://akhaltekefoundation.networkforgood.com

03/29/2024

Akhal-Teke Stallions At Stud for 2024

- Adamek - Anduma - Ehyr Atlaz - Kiergen -

The Akhal-Teke Foundation, with key partners, is offering four of the best and most popular purebred in North America at stud for 2024.

"The Stallions"

Adamek — Gindarkh x Agniya, 2005
https://www.allbreedpedigree.com/adamek
The only Prix St George dressage Akhal-Teke in the US today, as well as an eventing award winner, this great grandson of the Olympic champion Absent (Absent@3) is the hands down choice for a performance-proven Akhal-Teke stud, with quality foals on the ground. Bay, 15.2 hands, ATAA & Russian registered & tested NFS clear.
Contact: Sabine Desper, 540-292-4281, [email protected]
http://www.akhaltekefoundation.org/at_stud_adamek.html

Anduma — Agades x Goldka, 2011
https://www.allbreedpedigree.com/anduma
Anduma is stunning, well-built with lots of chrome, and he’s trained for endurance racing. Anduma is a grandson of both the famous stallions, Gigant and Senetir, and he's Absent@4, with foals on the ground including Adlumia Altair. Chestnut, 15.2 hands, ATAA & Russian registered and tested NFS clear.
Contact: Kevin Matthews, Akhal-Teke Foundation, 541-514-4766, [email protected]
http://www.akhaltekefoundation.org/at_stud_anduma.html

Ehyr Atlaz — Pan Tau x Pallas Athena, 2013
https://www.allbreedpedigree.com/ehyr+atlaz
Ehyr, aka Arrow, is a tall, beautifully-built horse, distinctively Akhal-Teke in both his mind and beautiful movement, standing 16.2 hands. Ehyr will pass his renowned Russian and German heritage forward on to both purebred foals and quality sport horse crossbreds. Sire of stallion Swan Asyl Akyldar, and foals expected in April & May 2024. Bronze metallic bay, 16.2 hands, ATAA & Russian registered & tested NFS clear
Contact: Kevin Matthews, Akhal-Teke Foundation, 541-514-4766, [email protected]
http://www.akhaltekefoundation.org/at_stud_ehyr_atlaz.html

Kiergen — Mergen x Kerki, 2005
https://www.allbreedpedigree.com/kiergen
A popular stud and grandson of Senetir, the first Akhal-Teke stallion ever imported to the United States and sire of many amazing competitors, Kiergen is intelligent and light on his feet, with Absent@4 on his other side, and he’s proven under saddle with eventing competition experience. Foals include Adlumia Amerikaly, Ak Niloufar, Kesgir Surat, Swan Ysk Doretmek, & Swan Ak Kepderi. Perlino, 15.1 hands, ATAA & Russian registered & tested NFS clear.
Contact: Kevin Matthews, Akhal-Teke Foundation, 541-514-4766, [email protected]
http://www.akhaltekefoundation.org/at_stud_kiergen.html

A portion of these stud fees go to support the nonprofit breed preservation programs of the Akhal-Teke Foundation.

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

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

03/21/2024

Hi there, Abby! 😘

03/09/2024

Akhal-Teke stallion Sengar (Senetir x Oliva, 1984) eventing cross-country in Virginia in 1995.

An Olympic hopeful, and one of the highest achieving eventing Akhal-Tekes to date in the U.S., his line continues today through his granddaughter Zenus at the Akhal-Teke Center.

📷 by Patricia Williams MacVeagh. Craig Thompson and horse, Sengar, October 8, 1995 at the Morven Park Trials - Advanced, Leesburg, Virginia. National Sporting Library & Museum


You can find more on the Akhal-Teke breed at our web site…
http://www.akhaltekefoundation.org/akhal-teke.html

And you can join our email list here…
http://www.akhaltekefoundation.org/email_list.html

03/09/2024

Luxury cat with an Aussie hat.

Rainy day in the barn with Mia, .

03/07/2024

“Old-school thinking and genetic preservation”

In a rare breed with small numbers, which is a reservoir of unique genes that have been lost through inbreeding across the major breeds…

Should only the very best stallions be bred? Or, on the other hand, should breeders strive to see that every decent stallion, without obvious genetic defects, gets a chance to pass along his genes?

Of course, in reality, this will be a balancing act. The best stallions should get the most breedings. And yes, breeders should strive for every decent stallion to pass along their genes.

Why try to breed every decent stallion?

Much of what contributes to the vitality and fertility of horses is invisible to the breeder, like details of the immune system, for example. Even elements of gross anatomy are being found to gradually be getting lost — obscure tendons for instance, that add up — as horse biodiversity shrinks due to hyper-concentration on just a few stallions.

Yet the concentration of stallions is such that DNA studies show a smaller “effective population size” genetically among 100,000 Thoroughbreds, than among 5000 rare Akhal-Tekes.

An eye-opening major paper from 2013 has points of interest buried deep in technical jargon, but the effective population size (Ne) shown breed by breed (in Table 2) is easier to grasp.

Effective population size of Thoroughbreds in U.S. = 163
Effective population size of TBs worldwide = 190
Effective population size of Akhal-Tekes worldwide = 302

“Genetic Diversity in the Modern Horse Illustrated from Genome-Wide SNP Data”

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0054997

The breeder’s inevitable quest for the “perfect horse” must be balanced against the real need for diversity, to ensure long term viability for each breed, and even for the horse itself.


You can find more on the Akhal-Teke breed at our web site…
http://www.akhaltekefoundation.org/akhal-teke.html

And you can join our email list here…
http://www.akhaltekefoundation.org/email_list.html

📷 by Shannon Brinkman. Akhal-Teke stallion Adamek, trained & ridden by Sabine Desper, has the top performance record of any current AT stallion in the U.S. in both eventing and dressage.

02/24/2024

mares at the Akhal-Teke Center this evening. ❤️

Sayda, Tina, Nusha, Kizy, Sarka, Arima, Abby, Dory

02/24/2024

Fashion stowaway.

Adventures of Mia, ❤️

02/14/2024

Happy Valentine's Day to you! from Ehyr Atlaz, aka Arrow, and everyone at the Akhal-Teke Foundation and Akhal-Teke Center.

And btw... should Cupid strike... Arrow is now standing in Lexington Virginia, and 100% of his stud fees go to ATF non-profit programs!

http://www.akhaltekefoundation.org/at_stud_ehyr_atlaz.html

📷 by Irina Kuzmina, frame by rawpixel.com on Freepik

02/05/2024

🦄🥰

01/31/2024

Have you seen an Akhal-Teke horse today?

Anikit (Agades x Agniya, 2009-2022) SANA 2016 North American Breed Champion http://www.akhaltekefoundation.org/at_stud_anikit.html
📷 Ellen L Chappell Photography