These days there are many Akhal Teke websites out on the WWW, written and maintained by breeders, aficionados, studfarms, associations or organisations.

Most of them will inform you about the ancient origins of this first thoroughbred, tell you about past achievements and feats of extreme endurance and hardiness and stress its rarity and beauty. You will be told, that the Akhal Teke is a purebred, the "last drop of pure blood of the heavenly horses of Ferghana valley", that it was created as the warhorse of an unruly and supreme turkoman tribe of nomads, closely linked to the Akhal oasis. Practically all of these websites will mention, as this one will too - eventually, the incredible long-distance rides from Ashgabat/Turkmenia to Moscow/Russia, well over 4000 km, and of course Olympic winner Absent. There will be photos of stunningly beautiful and otherworldly looking horses, horses with metallic golden coats and hooded eyes, long and fine necks and an elongated built.

To the interested newcomer all of this is exotic and fascinating. Especially if he has the chance to see an Akhal Teke in person, something which these days is not as difficult as formerly. Facts and myths mingle, add to that that most material on the Teke is printed in cyrillic, or that the studbook is maintained in Russia and hard to come by. Even among many of the non-CIS owners and breeders of Akhal Teke this mixture of unreflected information is a widespread basis of their activities and usage of the breed.

There are however things people interested in this breed or even already owning Akhal Teke are not told. Furthermore, there are things no one talks about or at least not openly. And there are things people know, but do not want to think about or think through. It is the aim of this website to provide this information, to give newcomers and established Akhal Teke owners alike a chance to contemplate goals, backgrounds and means and to reflect without the smokescreen of elitisms, myths and marketing.

This site will also point you at very basic modern knowledge of horsebreeding and horse genetics which so far unfortunately have been neglected or denigrated where they concern the Akhal Teke breed, often with the comment, that this breed is so special, they do not apply or are of no import. Like all bred through and ancient breeds the Teke most assuredly is special and valuable, yet it also is like all animal breeds firmly bound to basic genetic laws and the selective processes which formed it.

Lastly, some may translate the content of this site into a put down of former and contemporary breeders, breed specialists and breed politicians, because it criticizes certain past activities, as well as some modern practices. This is something few are used to among Akhal Teke people. However, "criticism" is universally defined as "meaning democratic judgment, or informed interpretation and often being synonymous with analysis, as opposed to the authoritarian command, which is meant as an absolute realization of the authority's will, thus not open for debate".

Hence, to understand this site properly is to acknowledge first, that in our day and age, with Akhal Teke being bred and marketed all over this planet, we do have a solid need for open and free information, democratic structures and processes, all of which include an educated analysis of the past and present, even if the uncovered facts sometimes cannot be judged favorably.

Those who want to contact or interact with the authors of this website can do so either by email (see "Email" in the menu) or via our forum platform:

http://forum.akhalteke.info