In the Turan not all was well, close to the end of the 19th century, petty wars and strife were the  usual, and the two major political blocks shaped up to face each other - Russia and China. To bolster its frontiers Russia began to invade and conquer the small countries bordering it in this direction.

Turkmenia fell 1881 with the Teke being the last tribe to submit. Over the next decades they were purposefully completely separated from their horses, which were regarded as war machinery and judged to be an open invitation for revolution by the generals. In fact the separation of the Turkmen from their horses did achieve the goal to weaken them in their pride and self-assurance.

The breeds were transferred to various statefarms, some were simply discontinued. Today there are no Ersari, Salor or Sarik horses, which are reported to have been very close to Teke in their quality by 17th and 18th century visitors.

At roughly the time of the Russian victory over Turkmenia many nomad families, even whole tribes, crossed borders to the Iran and Afghanistan, two political bodies, which from the old ages on formed parts of the regular nomadic movement through the flat of Turan. They took their horses with them, today we know that these breeding groups have survived times, even though they are now in secession of the closed studbook.

In Turkmenia, however, the Yamoudian horse was allowed to become a crossbreed and the Akhal Teke suffered the wilful infusion of English Thoroughbreds. There is a detailed evaluation of this hybrid breeding in the section about the purity of the modern Teke, further evaluation can be found among the sections on politics, aptitudes and selection. Here we can make it short: it was to great detriment of the breed and it was intended to be harmful on purpose.

This crossbreeding with english studs went so far that the turkmenian dshigits (= riders/horsemen) decided upon a long trek, from Ashgabat to Moscow, in 1932. They wanted to make this trek of 4800 km on pure Akhal Teke horses, to prove the worthiness of their breed. And they did, within 84 days they arrived in Moscow, which makes for an average of close to 60 km per day, while covering really difficult ground. The great Karakum desert was passed in a mere 3 days, without water.

This was - until the secession of Turkmenia - the last influence the turkmen had on their horses. Between then and the repetition of the long trek in the 70ies, incited by Geldi Kerisov and Maria Tcherkessova, the Akhal Teke horses were not allowed to be touched by their original breeders. Through this trek the first Teke horses in decades entered the villages and auls of their former breeders. Today there are but a handful of turkmenian experts on the breed left.

Unfortunately history didn't simply stop there. As if it had not suffered enough misuse in politicking, the Teke was instrumentalized further in soviet Turkmenia and under the rule of president Niyasov. Under soviet rule the Teke was utilised as a means to provide "bread and circuses". Racing short distance races on the various racecourses of Turkmenia provided a perfect diversion for the masses, an employ which under Niyasov reached unprecedented heights. Apart from the fact, that under this rule, nomad tribes were set against nomad tribes, much according to Cesar's old adage of "divide et impera" (= divide and rule), further infusions of English Thoroughbred blood were undertaken during Niyasov's reign to heighten the attraction of the races. Most of these crossbreedings stayed unrecorded, resulting in the expulsion of Turkmenia-bred Akhal Teke from the closed central studbook.

On the Soviet and Russian side things did not necessarily continue in a better way. We have to thank Vladimir Schamborant, first director of the Tersk, then of the Dagestan state studfarms, for the rescue of a large body of very purebred and totally pure Akhal Teke horses, which he took with him from Turkmenia to southern Russia in an attempt to spare the breed total disintegration during the second wave of crossbreedings. In a quite admirable way he succeeded in creating and maintaining a functional genetical body of very pure horses, from which he derived a couple of outstanding individuals. Unfortunately only shortly after the soviet horsebreeding methods were firmly applied to the Russian-based gene pool, creating during the past 40-50 years what we today know as the Akhal Teke. When compared to pre-1900 horses, this new Akhal Teke is clearly off on a distant tangent and can be called - just as the modern Turkmenian variant - a practically new breed. This development is ongoing to the day and taking up speed with every year.

At least Vladimir Schamborant provided horse aficionados a last chance and last look at what the Teke once was.

It needs to be mentioned that during the 1960-70ies huge amounts of Akhal Teke horses were slaughtered, both in Turkmenia and southern Russia. An also not so small percentage of Teke was sold abroad, in exchange for cattle stock, grain and foreign currency many left the country to reach Germany and eventually also the USA.

Within the closed studbook there are - as of today - no truly purely bred Akhal Teke left. Not a single one. The last purely bred mare died 1991, the last purely bred stallion 1998. One may speculate that among the Northern Iranian horses there may be purebred Akhal Teke left, a thorough genetic evaluation might be worth the while. But as of today, there is not one horse left, which according to the original nomadic breeding mores can be called pure Turkmenian stock.

Modern aficionados of the breed need to contemplate that fact: but a mere 117 years under various foreigner-managed rule have sufficed to irreversably destroy the gene pool and blood stock of this ancient breed with more than 7000 years of back history.

You will find the modern status quo and discussion thereof among the other sections of this site.