Historical Reference

The Turkmen by Demetrius Charles Boulger
THE TURKMEN Part 9

Turkmen Part 1 - Turkmen Part 2 - Turkmen Part 3 - Turkmen Part 4 - Turkmen Part 5 - Turkmen Part 6 - The Turkmen Part 7 - Turkmen Part 8 - Turkmen Part 9 - Turkmen Part 10 - Turkmen Part 11 - Turkmen Part 12

While taking this no hay is given to him, and this food is much liked by the horse. After four days of this food he is considered to be in prime condition, and capable not only of attaining the greatest speed but also of sustaining the most protracted fatigue. Then the yaboo is discarded and left in the rear, while the Turkmen on his charger goes forward to carry out the design which has occasioned the whole enterprise. It is said that when in this high state of training the Turkmen horse can perform a daily journey of one hundred miles, and continue the same degree of sustained speed for several days. There is no valid reason for doubting this statement, and the performance of this almost unequalled feat rests upon testimony of the most unequivocal kind.

The grand secret of the treatment of their horses by the Turkmen is undoubtedly to be found in the fact that they most carefully prevent their taking any green food. The character of the soil of Kara Kum is peculiarly favorable to the practice of this sound theory, for it produces only during the spring anything green at all. During that period the Turkmen are always quiescent; but in the month of August, and sometimes before, the horse is put upon his regular allowance of dry food, viz. seven pounds of barley mixed with dry chopped straw, lucerne, and clover hay.

This treatment undoubtedly tends to give the horse a stamina and higher temperature than any other horse of which we know, not excepting the Arab. The horse is also treated by these people with quite as much sympathy and affection as he is in Arabia. He is never ill-treated, and any Turkmen who attempted to ill-use him would be visited with the scorn of all men. The feeling is clearly traceable to the companionship which exists between the master and his horse from the time when the latter was a foal; and as the Turkmen's safety often depends exclusively upon the good qualities of his charger, it is intelligible that that affection should become stronger with age instead of weaker.

The Turkmen horse is no doubt a cross-breed between some indigenous animal and the Arab. At various known periods it has been strengthened by a fresh importation of Arab blood; such was the case when Timur distributed more than four thousand mares amongst the tribes, and again when Nadir gave six hundred to the Tekes, of whom his own clan of Afshar was an off-shoot. But it probably owes its innate excellence to the more remote period when the Arab conquerors advanced into Persia and Turkmenia. Be that as it may, however, there can be no question that in personal appearance it is much inferior to the pure Arab, although in its useful qualities, doubtless attributable alone to the method of treatment adopted by its masters, it equals its rival.* The neck, which is long and straight, is proudly curved and slender, but the head is decidedly too long to be in just proportion. The chest is also too narrow to please an English eye, and the legs are long and apparently ill-adapted for carrying the exceptionally big body at any high degree of speed. The task that this animal accomplishes falsifies its appearance, and its merits and fame rest on what it has done. There are, however, degrees of excellence among even the horses of the Turkmen tribes. Those of the Tekes, and particularly of the Akhal Tekes, are considered to be the best; perhaps this is to be attributed to the present of Nadir Shah. Then come those of the Salor and Ersari, then the Yomuds — whose political importance has now grown so much less — then the Goklans, and lastly the Sarik. Much, however, of the influence of the Salor and Sarik tribes has become merged in the Tekes, and it is possible that when the former lost Merv they were also deprived of many of their belongings, particularly (See Ferrier's “Caravan Journeys," and the “Travels of Sir Alexander Burnes.") of their horses. Among the Turkmen the Tekes possess confessedly the best. The Uzbeks of Afghan
Turkestan have also a horse which, although smaller than the regular Turkmen, possesses great qualities of endurance and speed.

A useful horse may be purchased from the Turkmen for as small a sum as thirty pounds, and a mediocre horse will now and then be parted with for five times that sum. The best breed of all is never sold, and very rarely do the Persians succeed in capturing one. When they do, it is always reserved for the Shah's stable. While the Turkmen horse is better cared for, more fully appreciated, and more thoroughly developed than any European horse, in one point he suffers from the ignorance of his owners, and that is in medical treatment. As M. Ferrier says, "custom takes the place of science," and when coping with disease custom is a very inefficient guide. The common diseases are similar to those from which English and other horses suffer, glanders, wind galls, etc. The Turkmen have, however, a strange plan of dealing with any young animal which suffers from loss of appetite. They make an incision in its nose and remove a kind of cartilage which grows inside. There is also a terrible disease called by the Persians nakhoshi yaman the wicked disease which is always incurable and generally fatal in a few hours. It appears to be similar to hydrophobia, but its exact nature is not as yet known.

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England and Russia in Central Asia by Demetrius Charles Boulger, Demetrius Charles de Kavanagh Boulger

London, W.H.Allen & Co., 1879 8vo. 2 vols.

As seen on: http://books.google.com/books?id=cKABAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA223&dq=teke+salor#PPA221,M1

A special note this is drawn from Boulger's England and Russia in Central Asia. I have taken to edit it and standardize spelling. For instance Boulger mentioned two spellings Turkmen or Turcomans and proceeded to use Turcomans. I elected to change it to Turkmen since it is the more correct usage today. If this bothers you please read some other version since I am doing this or me rather than for you.