The majority of Akhal Teke owners and breeders today are in full denial about the impurity of their breed. They will point out the (illogically and incorrectly) closed studbook, the (purportedly again) rising exoticism of conformation and looks of the breed across its whole population, and the rising numbers as (alleged) proof of the breed's purity and state of well-being.

Then there are those, and some of them belong to the most renowned Russian breeders and experts, who know what has happened, but make light of it. Their main argument is that the English Thoroughbred carried lots of Akhal Teke blood itself, that nothing can be done anyway and that this chapter (of discussion) needs to be officially closed.

The quite small number of people who not just know what has happened, but also realize what this means to the breed in a practical and genetical manner, especially when simulataneously concerned about present breeding selection and contemporary and future health and achievement values of the breed, are usually seen as (uninformed or foolish) whistle-blowers and currently dealt with in the classic way whistle-blowers are dealt with.

So - let us have a close look at the significance of what has been done by breeding English Thoroughbreds into the Akhal Teke rsp. Turkoman breed.

While outwardly somewhat similar to each other, those two breeds are very different from each other by their inner values, both physically and psychologically.

As we can see, the selection of but the few most important traits already show very marked differences between the two breeds. Most of the results are invisible, as they touch the make-up of a horse on cellular level. These differencies would be even more pronounced, if we were to compare the original breeds which made up the English Thoroughbred to the Turkoman horses going into the Akhal Teke breed.

The English Thoroughbred is bred for the best possible speed over a short distance. These short distances range from 800 to 4800 metres in flat racing, and 3000 to 7200 metres in steeplechasing. The Thoroughbred population knows "stayers" and "sprinters", the latter best suited to flat races under 1500m. Such races are - on a per horse base - not repeated soon, certainly not on the same day and it is quite rare that racing horses participate more often than twice per month in races. Between racing events they are trained in a judicious manner, meaning that their strength is bolstered, muscles are developed, but they need not truly spend themselves often.

English Thoroughbreds do not run over difficult ground, race courses are either sand or grass tracks, free of stones and holes, pretty much level, and except for jumpers schooled over always similar obstacles, they need not take care where they put their feet, nor adapt in any way to difficult footing. They are shod with special racing plates for racing. The jockey is making all the decisions for the horse, he decides on general speed, when to accelerate, when to take a breather, which route to travel, even the leading foot on which the horse canters is decided by its rider.

The weight the horse carries is perfectly distributed and even for the most successful horses not great, the average weight is 50-60 kg. Even though there of course is racing in hot or humid countries, the majority of racehorse breeding and racing takes place in temperate zones. Little racing or training is done in the night, if yes, the courses are thoroughly illuminated.

The Turkoman or Akhal Teke on the other hand was bred for superior (to any other breed it would encounter) speed over long distance. The raiders would travel quite far, at good speed, to the raid, execute it, and then travel back from it, outracing the rested horses of those they attacked. Distances of 50km and more, one way, were not rare. Such ambushes might occur repeatedly within one month, or form part of a prolonged war, with squirmishes every day. Thus, even after such a gruelling feat Turkoman horses needed to have enough stamina and strength to repeat it almost immediately.

The ground they had to negotiate was diverse, ranging from flat and sandy to steep and rocky, with lots of natural and always different obstacles in the horses' paths. Most horses were not shod at all. They needed, especially during actual raids and squirmishes, to negotiate these obstacles on their own, their riders were occupied otherwise. Apart from the general direction, riders left the horses to their own devices, including defending themselves and their riders from attacks if needed. Horses were expected to so firmly bond with their riders, that enemies would not be able to readily use them, and that they would not bolt in case the rider is unseated.

The weight the Turkoman horses carried was considerable. On the way to the raid or squirmish, they bore the rider, a heavy enough saddle and provisions, water included, on the way back they needed to speed away under the load of the loot. 150 to 200kg is what can be expected to have been the usual. The Turan flat is a very dry and hot area, there is little surface water available. Raids and squirmishes could happen at any time of the day, including nights, of course without artificial illumination.

This already gives us pointers where both breeds have been selected into directions much farther apart, than a mere glance at their looks would suggest.

E.g. today we know that muscles geared to high speed over short distances are composed of socalled "short" or "fast twitch"  or "type II" fibres. These can work well and fast in an anaerobe situation, meaning they do not need to receive lots of oxygen while working. The muscles such type II fibres form are bulging and thickset. The fibres for enduring speed over long distances on the other hand need to work under aerobe condition and are long, forming flat and lean muscles. They are alternately called "long" or "slow twitch" or "type I" fibres.

It has been discovered that people or animals geared to sprinting have 80% or better type II fibres, whereas endurance athletes have 80% or better type I fibres. Furthermore, in humans, it has been discovered that the gene ACTN3 associated with deciding which type of fibre an individual has in abundance, exists in a mutant and a non-mutant form. Whilst the non-mutant version of the gene is associated with sprint performance, the mutant version is associated with endurance.

The genetic contributions to muscle tissue fibre composition and size are significant. The proportion of slow and fast twitch muscle fibre types is genetically determined and can not be influenced by training.

As is quite clear, the English Thoroughbred has been - consistently and most rigorously - selected on type II fibres, whereas the Turkoman horse has even more rigorously been selected on type I fibres. You don't even need to know genetic basics, to realize, that the better speed, that the early and later crosses with English Thoroughbreds were showing over short distances, was caused by inheriting type II muscle fibres from the English racehorses. This means that on the other hand an equal amount of genes for type I fibres were lost at the same time, struck from the genetic code of these crossbred horses.

Only selection and breeding effort could have put them back there, but as we also know, short distance racing was instituted as nearly the only working test for Akhal Teke at the same time of the infusion of foreign blood. It consequently is no wonder, that endurance qualities were lost at this time.

However, endurance is not just based on muscle fibre type.

Investigations have examined the genetic effect of hemoglobin (the oxygen carrying component in the blood) and hematocrit (the relation of red blood cells to total plasma volume). There appears to be a significant inherited pattern of variation in hemoglobin concentration while the hematocrit shows a lower genetic effect. Differences in hemoglobin concentration and total blood volume between the genders adds to the evidence of genetic control of these variables.

In regards to heart structure, investigations suggest a strong inheritance with vascular wall thickness of the coronary arteries and in the branching patterns of the coronary arteries. Do read the X-Factor in the genetics section for inheritance of heart size. Since the size of the heart is an important determinant of stroke volume, which is a limiting factor to aerobic performance, it appears that genetics may play a crucial role in determining aerobic capacity potential.

Segmental body lengths and bone-related mineral mass show a high degree of genetic control. Also, fat patterning is apparently a highly heritable trait.

During the 1935 endurance trek from Ashgabat to Moscow three groups of horses participated in what we may consider a valid field test: pure Akhal Teke, pure Yamoud and Anglo-Teke. The former two finished way ahead of the English Thoroughbred x Akhal Teke crossbreeds, all individuals of this group could not keep up with the two pure Turkoman breeds.

Something which the "X-Factor" also tells us, is that the usual quip anyone questioning the foreign blood infusion receives ("impurity" can be bred out in 6 generations), is actually complete nonsense. Especially sex-linked genes can travel down hundreds of years in closed registries and the recent research regarding genetic illnesses (e.g. HYPP) within  gene pools tell us, just how far back the genes of horses can reach. Of course, what goes for genetic illnesses also goes for genes for specific traits.

The moment we look at non-physical and not so obvious traits, things become even more complicated. Character and intelligence-related inheritance is mostly polygenetic, meaning that not one single gene is responsible for a certain trait. The relevant parts can sit on several alleles, and they can even be linked to physical traits.

In plain speech: the gene which e.g. ensures that Teke horses are capable of independent and intelligent solutions during their kind of work may be sitting so close to those which enables these horses to go for long distances on little food, that the replacement of the character trait genes by different ones, can change digestion values as well - or vice versa. This example is not factual, but it is possible.

Fact however is that the English Thoroughbred never was selected for good character, nor for intelligence or courage (quite a few lines are known to be rather vicious, panicky or as dumb as poles). It also never was selected to do with little food or water, thoroughbreds are on the contrary infamous for being bad doers needing enormous amounts of food and a regular, lush supply of water. They were neither selected for surefootedness, good health under regular, continuous heavy usage, nor for high fertility or motherliness.

Noteworthy also, the English Thoroughbred has never been bred for longevity or prolonged use. Its generation turnover is extremely shortspaced. After a couple of important wins, a Thoroughbred sire may stand at stud at 4-5 years age, on mares the same age. No further tests of his working ability are done after retirement. Turkoman sires on the other hand were expected to continue as working horses, even if standing at stud and inspite of the allegedly bad keep and famine of past times, there are quite a few more older Teke to be found among the far removed pure sires, than among modern ones. Just as evident is, that the farther back in time the pedigrees, the more often you find horses with large generation spans along the whole pedigree, having ancestors in the third and fourth generation tracing much farther back than is the case these days. While some of this may be caused by modern breeding practice, there ought to still be individuals with long spans in evidence. They are however rare today.

Given the fact that some of the genes of a current horse may actually be those of a horse born 100 years ago (do read about sex-linked genes for more examples), the probability of a modern Akhal Teke having traits of an English Thoroughbred instead or lacking classic Akhal Teke traits rises in proportion of the number of English ancestors in his pedigree, especially when this ancestrage travels down every line of it.

There is no way around it, and no means of discussing genetic science away, the impact that these cross breedings had on modern Akhal Teke is enormous. Had the crossbreeding been done with e.g. Yamoud or Kurdish or Afghan horses, it would have been no problem. These breeds share the same genetic background and the same selection methods. The English Thoroughbred however is importantly removed from the Akhal Teke in so many respects, that one can safely talk of a disastrous influence here.

Without putting rigorous importance on the old Turkoman values again, and without the clear intention of enhancing purity within the gene pool there is no way to preserve what is still available and start getting back what was lost.