The Akhal Teke breed has a very real and financially charged marketing problem, in fact, it has several problems in this regard.

Without regularly selling horses at prices with a set margin of profit, no breeder, at least no breeder in a capitalist environment, who has no large amounts of money to burn, can afford to keep breeding. Within horsebreeding competition is nowadays very fierce, especially given the fact that on the whole steadily less people are able to afford keeping a riding horse.

To sell well, the Akhal Teke has to fit in somewhere, as it is a relatively recent breed brought to the worldwide horse market, it has to carve its place. Over the past 5 decades the Akhal Teke has been marketed with but low to moderate success in Europe.

People usually are quickly fascinated by the otherworldly looks of these horses, the metallic sheen in their coats and the load of myths attached to the breed. Prices, in the beginning, were however prohibitive for the majority of potential buyers, who commonly came in from the recreational part of the horsemarket. A horse for 35,000-40,000 U$ or better just is not within the scope of most hobbyists. In consequence, for years it were mostly the better-off hobby riders and breeders (a large fraction of which imagined on being able to cash in on the rarity of the breed) who acquired Teke.

Except for hunting and trekking, the Teke failed to make an impression on the general public, much less secure an own niche on the market. Putting aside the "ohs" and "ahs", the majority of riders quickly turned to more practical breeds, practical as provenly working and affordable for them.

At the same time that the Akhal Teke tried to gain aficionados, first the various gaited breeds (Icelandic Horse, Pasos, Walkers, Saddlebreds) and then also the western-style riding breeds (Quarterhorse, Paint, Appaloosa, Criollo) swept across Europe like hurricanes and ate up nearly the complete market of people not interested in riding in classical equestrian sports. The latecomers were the baroque horses (Andalusian, Friesian, Lusitano, Lippizzan) who managed to firmly attract a large portion of those not intent on winning competition dressage events, but were instead more fascinated by the baroque dressage concepts and airs above the ground. Parallely the relatively cheap Anglo-Arabians, Arabians and Hispanos coming from southwestern Europe firmly established themselves among endurance and trail riders, together with the less expensive gaited breeds.

All the while, the Akhal Teke's reputation unfortunately solidified into being an impossibly expensive, finicky and fragile horse not suited for any practical purposes, and bought only by rich weirdos. Interest (of the general public) did grow somewhat with the (alleged) endurance ride of a group of dshigits from Moscow/Russia to the 1989 Equitana in Essen/Germany.

But the breed never really took off. Part of the cause, other than the high prices, certainly were quite a few shady to downright fraudulent characters among the breeders and traders of that era, a very marked arrogant "best buddy" atmosphere among the richer breeders and riders and the generally extreme lack of information and failing information flow. While for anyone wishing to inform himself e.g. about a certain Icelander or Quarterhorse thorough and complete information, including direct access to studbooks and studbook data, was but a phone call away, this was not so with Akhal Teke. Most interested active riders quickly fetched up against a pretty bleak blank wall. Another reason certainly was, that few to none of the horses already in Europe were actively ridden and shown, except for the occasional speciality show and appearances at events like the Equitana.

The current situation in Europe is even less palatable. Many dedicated breeders, especially in Germany, have their stables full of offspring hard to market. The prices have fallen considerably. While some still demand up to 18,000 U$ "officially" for barely ridden 3-year-olds, the very same people have their barns full. Those who need to sell their horses or stop breeding by now sell at much lower prices, with even well-trained youngsters of the same age going for 10,000 U$ or lower. Many horses just change hands from one breeder to the next. With the recent sell-out of several CIS studfarms, at even lower prices, the market is more than just satisfied. A quick scan of available horses reveal close to 50 Akhal Teke, foals up to ridable/breedable horses, for sale in Germany alone, many of which have been on offer now for months and longer. Given that the head count of Akhal Teke in all of Europe does not exceed 250-350 horses with the majority in Germany, that is a rather large number of horses not sold at any given time. As a result many small breeders, who had been sold excellent, rare horses, had to give up or reduce their herds, often gelding their sires.

One needs to have a closer look at this, good Quarterhorses already prepped for entrance western competitions fetch around 6,000 U$ in Europe. Pasos and Andalusians, e.g., also now average out at but 8,000 U$ and Friesians can be bought at prices lower than either. Entrance class endurance-bred Arabians are even less than that and a warmblood of good breeding and acceptable potential (for the average rider) can be bought for 3000 to 4000 U$ at an age of 2 years directly from the breeders. What we are talking here are very practical horses, which are easy and pleasant to ride, may compete up to medium-class events of their field, and they also are cute to look at, easy to feed and train, in short: they are perfect for the average rider.

Hence, Akhal Teke breeders ought to get rid of their blinkers, and ask themselves why anyone would want to pay a higher price for a speciality breed which apparently offers him no major advantages compared to the other speciality breeds, often is more difficult than the a-dime-a-dozen English Thoroughbred (healthy, young racetrack culls of which can be had for the base meat price) and has a so convoluted, problematic infrastructure, that even breeding the occasional foal is an undertaking fraught with obstacles and high costs.

However, the problem certainly is not just caused by too expensive horses, elitist breeders or language barriers. There are quite a few Russian and Asian horse breeds which found their way into the world and succeeded in securing their place.

It is no great wisdom, but certainly a fact heeded by successful producers anywhere: you have to market your product to the market it will excel in. Akhal Teke breeders in Europe as well as Russia and Turkmenia are currently doing the equivalent of trying to sell ice-cubes to Eskimos.

Neither dressage, nor driving are markets open to a breed like the Akhal Teke.

The currently most successful dressage breeds (worldwide) are - in ranking order - the Hannoverian, he Dutch Warmblood, the Swedish Warmblood, the Danish Warmblood and the Oldenburger. That list (maintained by the FEI) runs down to its last rank without citing any other than warmbloods and the one special breed Lusitano. Yet one of the major marketing ploys for the Akhal Teke is long-past dressage competitor Absent. Every book on dressage and dressage horse conformation has illustrations clearly showing what any dressage horse should not look like, that horse of all faults bears an astonishing resemblance to the even most pleasant looking (in dressage riders' eyes) Akhal Teke. Judges who already screw up their noses at the daisy-cutter gaits of Angloarabians and Arabians will not turn a kind eye on Akhal Teke which pair that with non-extending ewe-necks or overflexed swannecks and classical swaybacks. These conformation faults, as considered by the general public, are so prominent among Akhal Teke, that e.g. Wikipedia uses two Akhal Teke photos (one of which shows breed type epitome Boinou!) to illustrate the faults "ewe-neck" and "knife-neck". In short, selling Akhal Teke for dressage is a moot effort. No serious (as in serious about competing up to medium and high levels) dressage rider will take one for free, much less pay an amount of money for it which would buy him a truly  excellent Hannoverian foal or a very good 3-year old of the same breed.

While show-jumping, eventing, trekking and endurance racing might be quite profitable markets for the Teke, you do not find them there and to market them there, the public needs to be aware of suitability. A concerted effort needs to be made to sell horses in these areas, which effectively means, that excellent horses need to be given into training to equally high ranking riders, if necessary these riders need to be paid for showing the Teke. Not before the public hands-on witnesses the efficiency of them will they buy them in the face of many breeds already very well established in these sports. The same goes for the less competitive sports of hunting and trail riding, for which prices also need to be much lower in general first.

Marketing the Akhal Teke as a rarity and national symbol obviously does not go far either. It is being done both in Russia and Turkmenia, with but moderate success, which is not self-perpetuating for various reasons.

Rich owners of filthily expensive horses expect to win equally filthily high prizes and buckets full of prestige. That is Asil Arabian country, but, well, the Saudis are not likely to switch to Teke and the rest of the planet just loves to compete with the Saudis currently. Except for Russia and Turkmenia itselves, this is a dead end for the breed. The infrastructure is lacking, as much as the prizes and shows.

Most important, apart from all of the above, is that when you sell to the correct market, you also breed for the correct market.

The Akhal Teke produced lately have been bred more for a fictive "type" and erstwhile not striven for physical traits, than for what the common pleasure rider or sports competitor wants to see in a horse on a very basic level.

One of the single most important traits these days is an excellent, wise and calm character, in short a horse which does not tend to rear, buck or bolt, nor resist or even fight the rider. In our day and age, with everything becoming more and more boxed in, high traffic roads at every corner, lots of people, other animals, cars and to-do, specific trails to ride, horses barred from others, horses with a finicky, too hot character and too disobedient for their and their rider's own good, are a straight way to the wheelchair or grave. Without any maybe or if, any pleasure horse employed in regions as populated as western Europe is, has to be obedient and imperturbable.

This sort of character is the cause for the immense successes of e.g. Icelander, Friesian or Quarterhorse. The recent lack of good character is the reason, why so few normal riders are interested in Teke. It is not that the Turkoman nomads did not need such unflappable horses either, any rider whose horse would play up while engaged in fighting or negotiating difficult countryside would have faced just as grave consequences as a modern one dumped in front of a fast-moving car on hard tarmac. For some in-depth information, please read up on character in the selection section.

People are not as dumb as some may believe. They know they do not ride looks, sheen or myths, they ride the horse, and they are fully capable of judging horses against the relevant qualities. The Akhal Teke has failed to land himself among the speciality breeds with a splash, nor has it managed to enter the serious competition circuit, breeders need to face the reasons, if they want to change this in the future.