Akhal-Tekes at Shenandoah Farm, VA

10/16/2026

10/16/2026

Akhal-Teke stallion Dosthan, born 2023 in Turkmenistan.

To support thoughtful discussion among Akhal-Teke horse supporters and others involved with rare equine breeds, we’re sharing some of the references we’ve been considering recently at the Akhal-Teke Foundation. For accessibility, we’re posting these in topical groups, with direct links as available. Third in the series:

Akhal-Teke, horse diversity, and breed-specific genetics

Bayramdurdyyev, P. H., N. G. Gurdov, M. A. Garyagdyyev, and S. M. Charyyev. 2025. “The Importance of Lines and Families in Improving Breeding with AkhalTeke Horses.” Курманова Лилия Рашидовна, доктор экономических наук, Уфимский университет науки и технологий, p53.
https://os-russia.com/SBORNIKI/KM-99.pdf%23page=53

Cozzi, Maria C., Maria G. Strillacci, Paolo Valiati, Elisa Rogliano, Alessandro Bagnato, and Maria Longeri. 2018. “Genetic Variability of Akhal-Teke Horses Bred in Italy.” PeerJ 6:e4889. doi:10.7717/peerj.4889.
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6129384/

Librado, Pablo, Naveed Khan, Antoine Fages, Mariya A. Kusliy, Tomasz Suchan, Laure Tonasso-Calvière, Stéphanie Schiavinato, et al. 2021. “The Origins and Spread of Domestic Horses from the Western Eurasian Steppes.” Nature 598:634–640. doi:10.1038/s41586-021-04018-9.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-04018-9

Matthews, K, and P. Johnston. 2026. “The Akhal-Teke Breed: Foundation of modern sport horses.”
https://www.akhaltekefoundation.org/akhal-teke.html

Petersen, Jessica L., James R. Mickelson, E. Gus Cothran, Lisa S. Andersson, Jeanette Axelsson, Ernie Bailey, Danika Bannasch, Matthew M. Binns, Alexandre S. Borges, Pieter Brama, et al. 2013. “Genetic Diversity in the Modern Horse Illustrated from Genome-Wide SNP Data.” PLOS ONE 8 (1): e54997. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0054997.
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0054997

Ustyantseva, A. V., L. A. Khrabrova, N. V. Abramova, and T. N. Ryabova. 2019. “Genetic Characterization of Akhal-Teke Horse Subpopulations Using 17 Microsatellite Loci.” IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science341:012070. doi:10.1088/1755-1315/341/1/012070.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/337288104_Genetic_characterization_of_Akhal-Teke_horse_subpopulations_using_17_microsatellite_loci


📷 Akhal-Teke stallion Dosthan at the opening of the new national equestrian center in Turkmenistan on 9/29/2026, where he was gifted to Liu Shuqin, a member of the International Akhal-Teke Horse Breeding Association and head of the Chinese equestrian company Daqing Huiyou Breeding Co., Ltd., by Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov (National Leader of the Turkmen people) on behalf of Serdar Berdimuhamedov (President of Turkmenistan).

09/30/2026

Training in the midst of a herd of Akhal-Tekes??

09/29/2026

09/29/2026

Abby says “Hi everybody!” 🥰

09/29/2026

“Inbreeding versus Conservation Breeding”

Can a horse breed be improved by inbreeding?*

A new research paper adds to the specific, detailed science that has quantified “inbreeding depression” in horses — the accumulation of broad negative effects across many genes that happens when closely related horses are bred together.

Experts recommend that animal breeders in general should keep the coefficient of inbreeding below 5% in each pairing, to avoid accumulating inbreeding depression. In rare breeds, additional tactics are necessary, like not overbreeding popular stallions, and ensuring that rare lines do get bred.

Inbreeding can look positive to breeders in the short term, because it concentrates the preferred alleles for a few obvious traits the breeder is selecting for. However, at the same time, inbreeding magnifies the subtle effects of recessive alleles for many other traits, that are masked by positive dominant versions.

Meanwhile, inbreeding (along with not breeding) collapses overall genetic diversity in a breed, reducing the opportunities for recovery. By the time this is obvious, it can be too late.

“Conservation breeding” is not just breeding a rare breed. Conservation breeding is a collection of science-based strategies to intentionally maintain the long term quality of a rare breed.

“Our estimate that an increase of 10 percentage units in inbreeding coefficient would give 8% lower probability of starting in a race as three- to six-year-old agrees very well with the findings for Thoroughbred horses by Hill et al. (2022). They found that 10% higher genomic inbreeding coefficient was associated with 7% lower probability of ever starting in a race.”

Eriksson, S., Berglund, P..,Berg, P. (2026) “Inbreeding depression in racing performance of Coldblooded Trotters, Proceedings 13" World Congress on Genetics Applied to Livestock Production 23787:
https://doi.org/10.31274/wcgalp.23787
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/413556253_Inbreeding_depression_in_racing_performance_of_Coldblooded_Trotters

📷 1882 painting “Sardar, an Akhal-Teke Stallion” by artist Alexander Bogdanovich Villevalde. Representing the continuation of the Turkoman Argamak horse into today’s Akhal-Teke, Sardar (or Serdar, meaning "leader" or "commander" in Turkmen) was born in 1874 in the Transcaspian region, and received a diploma of merit at the All-Russian Horse Exhibition in Moscow in 1882.

*Referring here to an established closed studbook breed, like the Thoroughbred, Akhal-Teke, and many others.

vs

09/23/2026

Annuschka on the skyline.

Purebred Akhal-Teke grand dam Annuschka (Mazan x Amga, 2000) was born in Germany, registered as German sport horse, competed in endurance in the U.S. and birthed Arima, Ally, Akyldar, and others.

Now 26, Nusha relishes living on the big pasture at the Akhal-Teke Center on the edge of the main herd, providing a steady sentinel for the Akhal-Teke moms and babies, and periodically grooming with the teenagers.