As has been already mentioned in the section on the studbook of the breed, some of the major problems about the breed management and the studbook decisions of the past 10 to 12 decades are the lack of democratic processes and structures, as well as the lack of input from practical breeders and riders of this breed.

As has been shown in the chapter on MAAK, it is not as if the main players, especially the large studfarms, have not noticed the growing dissatisfaction of non-CIS customers. Additionally, these same entities have started to become dissatisfied themselves with the lack of import their own input has started to make on the official management of the studbook.

Recent decisions regarding bonitation and selection have begun to be quite opposed to the current movement among freshly privatized studfarms, as well as those breeders and cooperatives starting out as privateers right from the beginning. Given the current ambitions to establish the Akhal Teke breed as a millionaire's luxury item, much like the Asile Arabian, the rather oldfashioned direction the studbook management has been taking has been hindering these plans.

WATO - the World Association of Akhal Teke - would be a great idea, if its behind-the-scenes-preparation and inception had not already heralded, that it will be just the exchange of one autocratic regime against another.

There are and always have been ways to democratically and benevolently start a new movement meant to make breeders', managerial and financial decisions for others, and there are ways to do that, which lead to "some being more equal than others". Do you know where this quote derives from? Do you also happen to know which basic mindset and society was used to serve as a model for the origin of that quote? If you do not know, and just for the depth own research lends to a finding, do a search on this quote...

So let us look at what happened so far:

Russian breeders and an American breeder decided that it is time to do away with the papertiger of MAAK and also with the current studbook management. Invitations - of a very vague sort - were selectively sent to pre-specified (by that group) breeders and several Akhal Teke associations.

Reading this invitation someone not knowing what was behind it would hardly realise that this meeting is meant to usurp MAAK's and even VNIIK's place! It is not even possible to give this letter the benefit of doubt, it was written by natural English speakers alright. That, inspite of this very much wrested text, a "certain group" of people attended the meeting, means that they were informed of its importance by other means. To do this proves that the smokescreen was laid on purpose and there are only that many reasons why someone would do that on purpose.

Now, let us look at who got this letter. E.g. in the USA it was first sent to the former president of ATAA, who forwarded it to Cathy Leddy and Jas Shearer. Mrs Leddy was not aware that she was one of only three people getting it, nor of the fact that she was - as was later said - supposed to forward it to all US american Akhal Teke breeders. Mrs. Shearer does not remember even reading such a mail. The third person getting that mail wasn't connected to the whole body of US breeders either. As was known to the person distributing this letter to the USA, there is a maillist on which so many active breeders of every continent are members, that sending it to the list manager (email known to her) would not just have meant, that automatically all US breeders would be informed, but also practically everyone else too. However, this was not done.

This email was sent on the 19th of June, a mere 8 weeks prior to the meeting. Such a late notice practically guarantees that (even if they had grasped the import of this invitation) only such people are able to travel to it, who are free to travel timewise, wealthy enough to have such costs available at short notice and help at their fingertips to take care of their household, stable and animals. For the majority of breeders however, such an invitation would need to come much earlier. 

Later examination of the invitation practice verified beyond doubt that the majority of breeders in Europe and even in CIS and Turkmenia were not aware of its import, that the majority in fact did not get that invitation at all.

Furthermore, it is highly interesting that those who did receive it and also knew enough about the importance of it to make the journey to Moscow or even pre-agreed (!) to positions on the boards were the hard core of cronies who for a long, long time now have claimed the - quite unsupported and certainly not democratically awarded - right to represent Akhal Teke breeders in Europe, the very same cronies who already have been working with the past studbook management, be it under soviet or other rule, and who have repeatedly taken financial advantage of "prior knowledge" and easier access to information (e.g. with regards to the closure of the 7th studbook). Or to put it another way, there were those Europeans invited who would be guaranteed to vote in union with the main Russian breeders.

To look at this from the opposite angle: not invited, and it can be safely conjectured that this happened on purpose, were all those other breeders who might have been critical about the venture or at least the direction it was taking, not invited were all those who are steeped since early childhood in democratic values, all those who do not belong to old or new money, in short all those who just might actually be in favor of fair equality and democracy. Also not invited were the many breeders breeding with partbreds, even though any Akhal Teke organisation also would govern their horses.

The number of breeders of Akhal Teke and Akhal Teke partbreds is not so huge, that it would be impossible to notify every single one of them personally, the breed is so rare. Given our day and age, it would have been easy to ensure that even those who could not have made the journey physically still might have conferenced in via web or phone. Given the immense import of the foundation of a breeding organisation for the whole breed body of a breed standing on such fragile legs, it would not have been asking too much to even ensure written participation and voting.

So - now we have a select body (as in preselected by the initiators) of but very few breeders attending that meeting, which contrary to how it was voiced on the invitation actually was meant to found a world organisation for the breed. It needs to be mentioned here (please read the news item "A Russian breeder on WATO" ) that there are those who say that the organisation was in fact founded on that day. We however need to have a closer look at how this affair was managed and what already (again) is being prepared to exclude the main breeders' body from having any influence on the breed management.

There is a reason why nearly all important democratic voting processes mean voting by ballot. Ballots ensure that people may freely express their opinions without having to fear repressive reactions and they ensure that peer pressure is minimized. As with MAAK before, WATO once again had voting by open hand signal, resulting in the unanimous outcome such a mode commonly aims for.  People were voted into positions without their attendance, which leads to the impression that positions were wrangled long before this meeting ever took place. What is especially noteworthy is the fact that neither for the US, nor for Germany such people were voted into positions who actually represent the main body of breeders. Recent communication with French breeders suggest, that here too it can be said that breeders did not feel themselves properly represented either. Several British breeders, on hearing about the meeting, claimed that they too had been left without notice about WATO on purpose.

Even more interesting is that practically immediately such measures were suggested and positively received that would - as before in MAAK - ensure the complete dominance of Russian breeders and Russia over any decisions voted upon by the later committees.

• votes as per number of purebred mares owned
• copyright on the studbook data

These two decisions alone would guarantee Russian autocracy (regardless of how many non-Russian breeders are used as window-dressing figurehead executives) and holding hostage anyone breeding Akhal Teke, whether he likes it or not.

In this respect it is noteworthy that the current studbook manager, Tatyana Riabova, did not attend, even though allegedly having been invited, and that the VNIIK director who did attend, made it quite clear that VNIIK was not planning on releasing the studbook management.

Also interesting is the lack of response to the arguments of the Turkmenian breeder regarding the Turkmenian horses, just as the fact that the acting president of MAAK, Geldy Kerisov, was not party to the meeting either.

Looking at just this much clarifies that WATO certainly is not meant to be a  real world spanning organisation taking into account that in this day and age democratic procedures and mores are the only such which will be accepted by the majority of all breeders, nor was there any effort made to truly create an open and encompassing foundation meeting. Basic democratic processes were disregarded, obviously on purpose, and already again first steps have been taken to secure leadership to a small group of people.

For an organisation which wishes to have impact on the personal and financial welfare of so many others there is simply no excuse for such a proceeding. In this respect it needs to be repeated: the main players in this coup (that this was meant as a veritable palace revolution should by now be without doubt) negate so many important problems on the rise or already existing within the breed, that those who do care cannot expect even the slightest acknowledgement or countermeasures regarding these problems. Whenever anyone spoke of crisis, it is on the contrary clear that this meant a purely financial and marketing crisis.

As an update: 

Recently reverted edits of the Akhal Teke article on Wikipedia show, that it was attempted to represent WATO as the only legal and valid source of papers for Akhal Teke horses to the general public.

Link to the session protocol of WATO

WATO foundation protocol and questionnaire in DOC-format.