Heavenly Akhal-Tekes
Several thousand years ago, a magnificent creature appeared in the deserts and grassy steppes of Persia (now Iran) and Central Asia. The horse was tall, around sixteen hands high, and elegant with a golden bloom upon its silky coat. Bred for war by the Persian and Scythian nomads, this Turkmen horse allowed for the development of superb cavalry units and was greatly prized for its endurance, speed, power and beauty. Although the nomads left no written documentation of this horse, warriors were sometimes buried with their favourite mounts. In the ice tombs of Pazyryk, archaeologists have found the skeletons of tall noble horses dating back to the fifth century BC. Showing no scars from whip or spur, these horses were intelligent and bold, ridden on a loose rein, or even just by leg pressure alone. On them, the Persians developed their famous ‘Parthian shot’, shooting arrows backwards while racing away from their enemies.
Over the years, the golden horses maintained their size and speed, for the nomads bred them selectively, and fed them on a nutritious leguminous crop called lucerne (alfalfa) as well as grain, fat, and even eggs. When Alexander the Great (356–323 BC) waged war against Persia, he imported 5,000 of the Persian horses into Greece, and they were used to improve the shorter-legged Greek horses, eventually becoming the foundation for the Roman cavalry horses. It has been suggested that Alexander’s famous mount Bucephalus, whom he rode for decades over thousands of miles of military campaigns, was of Persian stock – as was the mount of the conquering warrior, Genghis Khan, whose light cavalries swept the grasslands.
Meanwhile, far to the east, the Chinese Emperor Wu-Ti was having difficulty defending the borders of his country, despite the building of the Great Wall to keep the nomadic Huns from attacking on stocky Mongolian horses. In 138 BC, Emperor Wu-Ti sent a spy, a political adventurer named Chang Ch’ien, to sneak through the Hunnish territories and find allies to help the Chinese fight their enemies. What Chang found instead were horses – the golden horses of Ferghana, Samarkand, Kokand, and Bukhara in Central Asia. When Chang returned to China thirteen years later, he described these horses as having tails that swept the ground, a double spine like a tiger, and hooves like a thick wrist. Emperor Wu-Ti remembered the legend of celestial (heavenly) horses written of in the Zhouyi (Book of Changes) – horses that would come from the north-west, and which possessed the qualities of heaven: feelings, consciousness and omnipotence. The legend promised that such horses would make the emperor wise and immortal. Also, Wu-Ti realised that these tall, powerful, fast horses would give his cavalry an advantage over his old enemies, the Huns.
Chang also told Wu-Ti how these horses from Ferghana sweated blood – this was a mystery at the time, but nowadays, it is believed to be caused by a parasite that lives in the rivers. When the horses drink, the parasite burrows just beneath the surface of the skin and causes slight bleeding when the horses sweat.
Determined to possess these heavenly horses, Wu-Ti sent envoys over two thousand miles of mountain and desert to trade for them with gold. The exchange was refused and the ambassador was murdered. A military expedition also ended in failure. In 102 BC Wu-Ti sent a second campaign against Ferghana, consisting of 60,000 men and 30,000 horses; he sent engineers to cut off the city’s water supply, and arranged for supplies of rice to keep his large army fed.
At first it seemed that this attack might also fail for the people of Ferghana shut themselves and their horses inside their walled capital city and threatened to kill all the horses. However, the citizens eventually killed their king and replaced him with one more favourably disposed towards the Chinese. He ended the siege by agreeing to allow the Chinese to take some celestial Persian horses back to the emperor. Trade agreements were forged, allowing the flow of horses to the east in exchange for silk; thus the eastern portions of the famous trade route, the Silk Road, were opened up. The spy, Chang, is credited as being the father of the Silk Road, and trade in horses continued long after the secret of making silk had been discovered by the west.
Today, no one knows the true origin of the Persian horse (also known as the Turkoman) or the location and name of the besieged city in Ferghana written about by Chinese chroniclers – this information has been lost to history. However, the modern Akhal-Teke horse is believed to be the closest and most direct descendant of the Persian horse from Ferghana. The nomads relied on oral tradition to record the genealogy of their horses, but the modern Akhal-Teke stud book was first printed by the Russians in 1941. Akhal-Tekes are a hot blood, dry type of horse with a genetic difference in the structure of their hair; their coats have a distinctive and beautiful golden, metallic shine. With high-set neck, long slender legs clearly showing the tendons, large expressive eyes and a narrow body, the Akhal-Teke has been called the greyhound of the horse world. Its endurance is still considered phenomenal. In 1935, a group of Akhal-Tekes participated in a ride from Ashkhabad to Moscow, a distance of 2,600 miles completed in 84 days, including 3 days crossing 225 miles of desert with almost no water.
DNA studies from the University of Kentucky suggest that the Akhal-Teke is the oldest domesticated breed of horse. Throughout its history, the breed’s development has been shaped by the nomads’ practices. They let the mares run in semi-wild herds which must protect themselves; they begin training horses for racing at age one, and use layers of felt blankets to induce sweating and keep the horses lean. The horses are given high-protein feeds every few hours both day and night, and are bred selectively for speed and stamina. Celebrated in Chinese paintings and Tang dynasty ceramic statues, the Persian horse also contributed directly to the foundation of the modern Thoroughbred through the stallion the Byerley Turk.
Although now found on stud farms in various countries, especially in Russia, Germany and the USA, the Persian Akhal-Teke remains a rare breed with fewer than 3,000 horses worldwide. It continues to be a highly athletic horse, excelling at dressage and jumping, with its lean elastic body and floating stride. The Teke named Absinthe was one of the top Olympic horses of the twentieth century, winning medals in 1960, 1964 and 1968. Tekes are easily aroused and need sensitive training from a person with whom they’ve bonded; they can be difficult for strangers to handle. They still prefer a loose rein, and a rider with soft hands and strong legs who will fully appreciate their bold intelligence, just as their nomad masters did so many centuries ago on the great grasslands of Asia.
Acknowledgements
With thanks to my wonderful agent, Dr Eckhart Prahl in Munich, for taking a chance and enthusiastically backing a dark horse. And with thanks also to my wonderful editor, Dorit Engelhardt, for being a pure pleasure to work with. The encouragement and support you both have given to me is much appreciated!
Copyright © 2011 by Troon Harrison
All rights reserved. You may not copy, distribute, transmit, reproduce or otherwise make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or by any means (including without limitation electronic, digital, optical, mechanical, photocopying, printing, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages
Originally published in Germany as Kallisto: Reiterin der Wüste in March 2011 by
Bloomsbury Verlag
First published in the United States of America in August 2012
by Bloomsbury Books for Young Readers
Electronic edition published in August 2012
www.bloomsburyteens.com
For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to
Permissions, Bloomsbury BFYR, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, New York 10010
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Harrison, Troon.
The horse road / by Troon Harrison. — 1st U.S. ed.
p. cm.
Summary: In ancient central Asia, thirteen-year-old Kallisto, a superb equestrian, and her friend must war
n their families and protect the Ferghana horses from invading Chinese armies.
[1. Horsemanship—Fiction. 2. Horses—Fiction. 3. Fergana Valley—History—Fiction.
4. Central Asia—History—Fiction.] I. Title.
PZ7.H25616Ho 2012 [Fic]—dc23 2012014010
ISBN 978-1-59990-927-1 (e-book)
The Horse Road Page 23