The studbook, its management, the relevant politics and a comparison with common studbook management worldwide are important, quite pivotal matters regarding the current and future breeding of the Akhal Teke.

Historically, the Akhal Teke, or rather the Turkoman horse, was not bred using written ancestrage. The Turkoman breeders traded pedigrees orally, sometimes via their Ak Sakal ("white beards", meaning the wise, old men who were the keepers of oral history), however, the breeders themselves were also able to recite the back pedigrees of their horses. Tribal origin was often was part of the horses' names, just as the owner. E.g. "Bek Nasar Dor" literally translates into "Bek Nasar's bay (horse)". As the surname of "Nasar" also has a tribal designation, this clearly specifies the relevant horse already through its name.

It were the breed specialists assigned to "optimize" the breed by the Russian/Soviet military, first Gorelov and Mazanov, then Belonogov who gathered orally traded information into the first three studbooks beginning of the 20th century.

Right from the beginning, the grading and evaluation system, foreign up to that moment to the breed, constituted an important part of the studbook. It was the first time that any kind of modern breed management was effected on the Akhal Teke, including measurement and record of further data.

Today even some of the Russian breeders are dissatisfied with how the studbook is being managed. Breeders, anywhere, need to re-evaluate the current system to be capable of arriving at educated decisions regarding the future of the system.