Kabardian breed has
evolved from many eastern breeds of steppe horses (Nogai,
Kalmuk, Bashkir, Don), Mongolian breeds and then was
enhanced with best purebred breeds of that time (Karabakh,
Persian, Akhal-Teke).
Arabian breed also was
used in the process of forming the Kabardian horse. One of
these lines, especially well known for its speed was called
"Shagdi" ("faster than a bullet").
Careful human selection
over more than 500 years has taken the best features of all
the breeds to produce an excellent army and work horse.
Traditional methods of
breeding in harsh, mountain region utilised the nature
itself to produce a horse which is extremely tough and
resistant to difficul environmental conditions.
Name
Name "Kabardian horse" is
name given to the horses by people from outside, because
country of Kabarda (part of Circassian lands) was most
popular place to breed horses thanks to its excellent
pastures.
Circassian nations
(nowadays Kabardians, Circassians, Adygeans, Abkhaz and
others) call themselves "Adyge" (АДЫГЭ) and their own name
for their breed of horses was always "Adygash" (АДЫГЭШ),
which literally means "Adyge horse".
Nowadays however the
official breed name is "Kabardian horse".
Ancient origins
The Kabardian breed was
mentioned in historical sources for the first time around
XVI century. They were mentioned by Italian writers,
travelling to Caucasus. There are also documents describing
intensive trade between Circassian princes and Poland in
XVI-XVII century. During that time one of the most priced
goods were Circassian horses and saddles.
Kabardian culture itself
is very old, dating back to Hettes, and their breeding of
horses was always outstanding and widely known. Along with
this went great skill in horsemanship.
Oldest historical sources
mentioning specific horse breed from Caucasus are Hette clay
tablets, Greek and Caucasian myths (Nart sagas). Also
informations about Cherkess Mameluke dynasty who ruled Egypt
from XIV-XVI century mention their excellent horses and
advanced horsemanship skills.
Middle ages
Up to XVI century the
Circassian nations have ruled major part of Western Caucasus
and the horses were important part of their culture and
military strength. For this reason, a lot of effort was put
into breeding the horses and improving the breed.
Almost each prince had
his own line, which was famous all around the country for
its features. The following lines are mentioned:
- sholoh (kab. ЩОЛЪЭХЪУ, rus. шолох),
described as "war horse able to bring down enemy horses
by hitting them with their breast",
- shagdi (шагди), "horse faster than a
bullet", very fast thanks to addition of pure-bred
Arabian blood,
- abuk (абук)
- bechkan (бечкан)
- zhirasht (жирашт)
- kundet (кундет)
- kharundoko (хагундоко)
- shedzheruko (шеджеруко)
- esinei (есиней)
- egan (еган)
- krym-shokal (Крым-шокал)
- achatyr (ачатыр)
- tram (трам)
- khuare (хуаре)
At the end of XVIII and
beginning of XIX century Russian expansion to the south
started bloody and prolonging conflict which led to
extermination of many local nations together with their
horses.
Even in the middle of XIX
century, number of Kabardian horses was estimated to be
around 200'000 heads. The following pacification of Caucasus
by Tsarist armies led to significant reduction of the number
of horses.
Dramatic twentieth century
The Communist Revolution
in the beginning of XX century led to next extermination of
the horses, which were part of the "old order" and symbol of
Caucasus' independence. And, of course, part of Circassian
army power that had to be destroyed.
Between the two World
Wars the Red Army also noticed usefullness of the Kabardian
breed for the army and the work of marshall Budyonny led to
reviving of the former Kabardian type.
Later work of Soviet
horse farms in Caucasus (especially Republic of
Kabardino-Balkaria) was putting focus on Anglokabardian
horses, because army requested taller horses. Endurance and
ability to survive in harsh environment were not that
important.
In 60's breeding work
done by stud farms in Karachai-Cherkess Republic (western
neighbour to KBR) resulted in creating new breed of Karachai
horses. Main difference was that Karachai horses were
heavier and more massive than Kabardians. In the beginning
Karachai breed was described in breeding literature as
subtype of Kabardian horses. The dispute is being continued
up to now - Karachai breeders claim a completely new breed
that has little connections to Kabardians, others see no
difference between Karachai and massive type of Kabardian
horse. This dispute will undoubtly continue until some form
of organized breeding starts.
The result of Soviet era
was around 5000 horses described in five stud books released
since 1920.
The last Russian studbook
of the Kabardian breed was released in 1993. Since then all
attempts to coordinate breeding efforts in the republic were
failing, mostly because of lack of funding or lack of
interest of the local authorities.
Latest history
The end of XX century was
catastrophic for the breed - Soviet collective agricultural
farms (Kolkhoz - kollektivnoe khozyaystvo)
were running against any economic sense and their existence
was based completely on funding (sponsoring) from the
central budget.
When the stream of money
from the federal budget stopped suddenly during USSR
collapse (Perestroika, 1989-1991 and official end
of USSR in 1991), the farms started sending hundreds of
horses to slaughterhouses to get any funding. The money
earned on horse sausages only prolonged the agony of
Kolkhoz, it didn't stop their collapse. Some of the
people associated with this bussiness are still present in
Russian horse sport unfortunately.
In the face of financial
problems and especially inability to pay salaries to workers
many citizens of KBR either got horses instead of money or
were able to buy them very cheaply from the farms. Private
people almost never sent horses to slaughterhouses because
of very important position of horse in Kabardian tradition
and culture. This way many very good breeding horses have
been saved.
The only govermental
farms specialising in Kabardian breed left were Malkinskiy
and Chegemskiy, but due to poor funding the number of horses
they maintain is small and they don't seem to have any
concrete breeding target.
The federal government of
Russian Federation and autonomous government of
Kabardino-Balkaria don't pay too much attention to the
horse, which was symbol of Kabarda for the last several
hundreds years.
Currently most of the
breeding work is being done by private farmers and breeders.
Almost every family in the villages like Nartan, Chegem and
others has one or two horses. They walk freely and graze
everywhere in the village. Some people have more horses -
usually 5-10 heads and they use them for riding. Interest
for endurance sport is growing and so is number of people
who try to train the horses for competitions. Many people
keep horses just because they love them and shy
(kabardian word for "horse") plays great role in their
tradition and personality.
Farmers usually own from
1-10 horses. The biggest private herd in Kabardino-Balkaria
is around 150 heads and belongs to Ibragim Yaganov, known
from his presence on European endurance competitions.
In general number of
horses in KBR is growing quickly. Much progress has been
made when Kabardians started to be seen in international
endurance competitions and people in the republic -
carefully watching their neighbors taking horses to Europe -
realized that there's new potential in these horses, that
has been previously unknown.
The progress has been
little organized however. Breeding is chaotic. Recording of
family lines is based mostly on individual breeder's memory.
Endurance in Russia
Endurance riding has long
history in Russia. There always have been long trails made
by individual sportsmen for different occasions. For example
in 1994 a group of three Kabardian horses went from Moscow
to Sankt Petersburg (700 km) in only 6 days. Three years
earlier other group rode from Moscow to Ivano-Frankovsk
total distance of 2063 km. These were done by private
persons.
First documented race was
performed in 1931 when Kabardian mare Aza finished distance
of 100 km in 4h25m with average speed 22,2 km/h. In winter
1935-36 a group of 15 Kabardians and 8 Anglokabardians went
3000 km in 47 days making average 64 km per day with maximum
one-day distance of 120 km. One month later the same
riders roder 550 km on muddy roads from Pyatigorsk to
Rostov-na-Donu in only 5 days with maximum one-day distance
of 150 km. These records were set by army riders and though
impressive, they had littlle to do with nowadays endurance.
There were numerous
endurance races performed in Russia in the end of 80's and
beginning of 90's. Since end of 90's number of endurance
competitions compatible with
FEI started to grow and almost each year there was
Russian Endurance Championship.
Results from these
competitions are not, however, very much respected in the
endurance community outside of Russia. People quote numerous
abuses in the veterinary and organizational procedures
observed on the competitions in years 2002-2005.
Situations where winner
of Russian Championship wins 160 km race with average speed
close to 19 km/h (unusual even in most prestigeous European
championships where average is around 17 km/h) cause
questions about real distance of the race, especially when
the same horse gets eliminated for metabolism after first
gate on international competition just a few months later.
Very poor results of Russian winners in European
competitions also result in doubts about judging and
veterinary standards held in Russian championships.
On Championship of
Russian held in June 2005 in Nalchik organizers have
registered more than 40 horses belonging to... themselves.
Most of these horses were bought from KBR farmers in,..
February 2005. So preparation of completely fresh horses to
160 km championship (2x80 km) took four months. Result was
that some horses were not even allowed to start and over 30%
were eliminated after first circle.
Another problem in
Russian competitions is that there rarely are competitions
shorter than 90 km and since 2004 the only competitions
were... championships on 160 km. In result horse owners
don't treat any distance shorter than 160 km as serious and
even if they did - they have no possibility to run horses on
shorter distance.
Questions about horse's
health and proper development are rarely raised in this
case. And we've seen examples of Russian horses physically
ruined after starting their endurance career from 160 km and
then racing only on this distance over only two seasons.
The result of this
situation is a dead loop - if you're interested in racing
your horse in endurance, you have no choice but race 160 km.
If you think your horse is not ready for that, you don't
have any possibility to get necessary experience and
training in shorter races - because no-one makes them.
In spite of these
problems we believe Kabardian horses have future in
endurance racing. What makes us think so is that they had
some excellent results in the recent years, which proves
that they have the potential to compete with practical
monopolist of nowadays endurance - Arabians. Most notable
results were first three places in Championship of Poland
(2004), 16 place in Championship of World 2004 in Dubai and
especially second place in Championship of Germany 2004.
But all horses which got
these results were trained in Europe since 2002 and every
effort has been made to train them by world recognized
standards about proper body development and horse's
well-being.
Future
No doubt that breeding
horses requires funding. This funding can be provided by
goverment or by private people.
In case of Kabardian
breed chances for local or federal authorities funding the
development of the breed are little in the perspective of
the next few years. Money which is sent from federal budget
for development of farming is being mostly stolen at local
authorities level in highly corrupted Caucasian republics.
There are hopes
associated with long awaited change of regime of Vladimir
Kokov, who has been "democratically electing" himself for
president of Kabardino-Balkaria three times already. No-one
is able to say however who will become new president (since
last year not elected but indicated by president Putin) and
will he show any interest about horses?
So far only funding has
been provided by private people both in Kabardino-Balkaria
and from abroad. Kabardian horse lovers from all Europe and
other countries where Circassians live (Turkey, Jordania)
are supporting horse breeders in Caucasus. But sponsoring
individual persons won't solve the global problem -
organisation of now chaotic breeding in Kabardino-Balkaria.
However there's new
chance for the Kabardian horse breeders - the endurance
racing. Endurance racing matches almost perfectly the old
(pre-Soviet) profile of Kabardian horses. Endurance and
Circassian chivalry - these two terms have very much common
points.
However successful
entering the endurance market requires defining proper
breeding target which will can compete on the international
races. International breeders have developed new types of
Arabian horses which are almost invincible in endurance
races. Competing with them will be very difficult but can be
done, as the results Kabardians got so far show.
Taking into account that
it was done with very little resources, we can imagine what
results can be achieved with professional training and - in
longer perspective - professional breeding.
Second chance is
recreational trail riding - profile of this
sport perfectly matches Kabardian horses. Most of the
Kabardian horses now sold in Europe are bought just for that
- for weekend recreation or for holiday trails. People love
calm and stable character of Kabardian horses. The owners
love even more that they don't have problems with health and
aren't picky about food.
