Akhal Teke Horses
Browse through our website and find Akhal Teke horses for sale, Akhal-Teke stallions at stud and information on Akhal Teke show horses. If you are a breeder of Akhal Teke horses or would like to contribute to Stableexpress please email us at Akhaltekehorses@stableexpress.comKARA LEYLEK - AKHAL-TEKE STUD, VAN KASTEREN
We breed Akhal-Tekes, the versatile and magnificent golden turcoman horse. Do you need a sportshorse, want to start breeding or are just looking for a friend for life, name it, we will do our best to satisfy your dreams
Telephone: 00352-021142841, eMail: akhalteke@hotmail.com
Versatility of the Akhal Teke breed
DRESSAGE, DRIVING, ENDURANCE, EVENTING. HUNTING WITH HOUNDS, SHOWJUMPING, TREC
An Akhal-Teke what for, you might ask. The answer of this question is quite easy, name it and the Teke will satisfy your wishes.
Just like it's cousin, the english thoroughbred, the Akhal-Teke is an allrounder capable to achieve any duty you'll ask him. Of course, you'll have to make your choice on the peronal abilities of the horse. But this breed is, even with it's only more or less 1500 heads worldwide, so versatile and different in type and confirmation, going from the very skinny greyhound look to an almost warmblood, that there is a Teke for all tastes.
AKHAL-TEKES IN ENDURANCE
Endurance is probably the discipline where the Akhal-Teke can show its capacities at its best. Used as a racing horse in his home country Turkmenistan and having been a war horse ever since he ha sbeen risen for having extraordinary reserves of power.
ORIGINS: The birth of 3 Thoroughbreds
The Akhal-Teke, also called the Turkoman horse is the ancestor of the Arab as well as of the English Thoroughbred, though this fact is not very well known in the horse world.
From the time of Gengis Khan to Alexander the Great to the present day, the Akhal-Teke was, and is, very much appreciated. It was the fastest and could cope with the worst living conditions. Through plundering and wars which were fought on this horse and partly because of this horse, the Akhal-Teke came to the Arabian peninsula nearly 3000 years ago.
Breeding with local mares gave birth to the Arab horse. A similar situation occurred in England. The Byerley Turk as well as the Darley Arabian, two of the founders of the English Thoroughbred have proven to have been Akhal-Teke.
HISTORY: From the Caspian Sea to the rest of the world
AKHAL-TEKE: this name describes the motherland of this horse. Akhal is one of Turkmenistans regions and Teke is a Turkmen tribe who are also famous for their hand woven carpets. The geographic origin of the Akhal-Teke lies around the Caspian Sea. Exotic countries such as Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan or Uzbekistan are also the homeland of this wonderful horse.
It has long since been forgotten that this horse has contributed to ennoble the Trakehner and through the Trakehner, indirectly, many other European breeds.
During the 18th Century a few Turkmen horses came to Europe. The most famous of them was Turkman Atti, who came to Neustadt Dosse in Germany. There, he sired about 200 foals to Trakehner mares. The German Olympic jumping horse, METEOR, for example, ridden by Fritz Thiedemann, is a descendant of Turkmain Atti.
The most dramatic period for the oriental thoroughbred horse was definitely the 20th Century. During this time the Akhal-Teke almost face extinction, twice. The population fell to lower than 1000 head. In order to alert public interest some passionate owners in Turkmenistan undertook the enormous marathon ride from Ashkhabad, the capital of Turkemenistan, to Moscow . 4300 km separate those 2 cities. The trek went over mountains as well as through 360 km of desert. The convoy reached the capital in only 84 days. Through this exceptional ride the breed got the much needed publicity that helped preserve the breed from extinction.
CHARACTER AND SKILLS: The greyhound under the horse
Akhal-Tekes are extremely thin and graceful. That is why they are nick-named the "greyhounds" of the horse world. Another special characteristic of this oriental horse is its golden shining coat. All colours do exist except for coloured (paints), they all have this special golden reflection to their coat. Nature has invented this kind of sun protection as it preserves the horses with its reflection qualities against extreme temperatures.
To describe the character of the horse, it is absolute honest. A very unique relationship developed between man and horse, if the owner deserves an Akhal-Teke and gets accepted by its horse. This relationship is comparable with the relationship humans have with dogs.
As for the horse disciplines the Akhal-Teke is an allround sportshorse comparable to the English Thoroughbred. As he is originally a racehorse, he is capable to endure a high amount of stress and still gives good results. We have found Akhal-Tekes in nearly all kind of disciplines in the last 50 years. The most famous one is definitely ABSENT who won the gold medal in dressage at the Olympics in Rome. In the beginning of the 1990's MARKIZA carried its rider winning the title of World Best Rider in endurance competition. Others are doing well in jumping, eventing or western disciplines.
There exist other famous horses, such as the stallion Prins, formerly ridden by Ludger Beerbaum or Chan, ridden by Michael Klimke, both have one of their close ancestors being an Akhal-Teke.
In 2003 Sotchi, an offspring of Sugun did win the Silver medal in the young riders team championship in eventing in Switzerland. As Sotchi and his rider jacopo Buss are both quiet young, we will surely hear about more successes about this team.
SUGUN - Akhal Teke Stallion
Sugun has competed in local eventing competitions, but was also used successfully in long distance endurance races up to 120 km. During autumn, versatile as most Tekes are, we enjoy hunting with hounds with him. He is real clever, understands that here, unlike in endurance competitions, he has not to be the first, but is a real charm and pleasure to ride.On sunny autumn days, when it is time to say goodbye to the summer, following the hounds with a horse that does not pull and accepts to stay behind , without any competition stress and accompagned with the music is to me one of the most pleasant moments to share with our horses.
SOTCHI, born in 1995 at our stud farm, now owned by the Buss family in Switzerland continues this tradition. In 2003 he won the silver medal of the swiss junior team championship. More sports news to come... hopefully Sotchi.EL, a bay stallion, is the founder of a famous Akhal-Teke breed line. He was born in 1932 at 69th Stud farm, later called Komsomol. The name EL or YEL means « Wind » or « Power ».
His mother, Elkab was the best daughter of Mele-Kusch and his father, Tugurbaj, was famous for his jumping abilities. Their son is the result of a mixture of Mele-Kusch and Baba-Achun, the most interesting sire lines of that time. This horse is a very interesting product of Bojnou inbreeding, in fact, he is a typical descendant of Bojnou, who is considered as the ancestor of the Akhal-Teke breed.
El was build with harmony, fierily , full of temperament and of dry stature. His movements were smooth and full of energy. He had a short, plain head, a long back, an excellent croup and good dry legs.
This stallion is considered to be a representative of the middle typus of the Akhal-Teke breed.
He was awarded the first degree of the Exhibition in Moscow. At Ashkabad hippodrome, he prooved to be a quality race horse. During his race carreer, he was only beaten by the mare Pel. He also stood at stud in Ashkabad. Though he sired many offspring, by 1945, only 3 foals of his remained. This is due to the fact, that many were sold and unfortunately, many were sacrified to the war effort.
The only horses remaining were the stallion Enilmez as well as the mares Elan and Elmik. These mares became themselves fondators of female lines. As for the stallion Enilmez he left one single son, Almaz. It is through Almaz, that this line continues. He had 5 sons. His most precious son was Mag, a dry horse with an extraordinary capacities. Sugun has these prestigious ancestors in his pedigree.
During decennies, this sire line was neglected, though these horses have exceptional working abilities. Their character is and jumping qualities are to be considered as exceptional. They proved their speed in races as well as their endurance in long distances.
In the recent years this line lives a reminiscence and becomes more and more popular. The lines El, Skak and Kir Sakar are presently recommended to improve the qualities of the whole Ahkal-Teke breed. Breeding recommandations are given to marry El with the lines Peren, Gelishikli, but also Kaplan or Karlavatch.
MYR
Myr, a Gelishikli stallion, is together with Maijli is the first self bred Teke of our which goes back to 1990. His mother was quiet succesful in endurance in the beginning of the 90ies.
KABUL - Grey, born in 1984 in Komsomol Stud in Turkmenistan, Kabul is another stallion we had on stud a couple of years ago, of the sire line Kaplan. Rumours say, he was worlds tallest Akhal-Teke. I don't know if it's true, fact is that he was 1,70 m tall, which is quite tall, espacially within this breed.
He raced successfully in Tbilissi and Krasnodar. The distances he competed in, were 1200-1600 meters.
ABOUT THE SIRE LINE KAPLAN - Kaplan means "Tiger". He was born in 1957 from a Kir Sakar sire named Keimir. Though he differed that much from the Kir Sakar type, he got his own sire line in 1991. Kaplan was a tremendous race horse. In six years of racing competition, he won 17 times. Enemies of this sire line pretend that his speed has its origin in the thoroughbred that has been integrated in the 1930.
We only used him twice before selling him and got a mare, Gesha vK, Born in 1998 and a stallion Kashan vK born in 2000. There is another gelding of Kabul, who was born in Russia but now lives in Luxembourg and is used in dressage.
