One
of the principal reasons for regarding the Turkmen as
among the best material for cavalry in the world is that
they possess an abundant supply of the most excellent
horses. They are mounted men at the present moment, and
as riders have few equals and no superiors. In the
tactics pursued by irregular cavalry they are already
adepts, and little would be left to be done by the
drill-sergeant. The weak point and for irregular warfare
it is their only weak point is their weapons. Their most
desperate onset — and those who have seen a Turkmen
charge say that it is delivered in the most admirable
manner — breaks before the volleys of
rapidly-repeating rifles which deal destruction into
their ranks hundreds of yards before their own wretched
weapons can have any effect.
They have striven, not always with ill-success, to make
up for this inferiority by having recourse to stratagem,
and by selecting the night-time as the season for their
attack. But for the
purposes of defensive warfare, such as the defense of
Merv, they are unfortunately without the necessary means.
They have no artillery, and their own personal
weapons are antiquated and useless for modern warfare.
Their valor and the excellence of their horses can only
very imperfectly supply those wants. But the good
qualities of the Turkmen horses undoubtedly facilitate
the task of converting these tribes into the most
formidable mounted force in Central Asia.
The Turkmen horse is not less an object of affection to
his master than the Arab is to his. When it has been
decided to carry out a raid into Persia, the Turkmen puts
his horse through a regular course of training, of which
the following is a description. For thirty days before
the time appointed for the start the animal is exercised
daily, part of that exercise being to gallop at full
speed for half an hour. Some hours after he is brought in
he is fed, his food consisting of six pounds of hay, or
clover-hay, and about three pounds of barley or one-half
the usual allowance of corn. During this period as little
water as possible is given to the horse. Sometimes this
period is shorter than the time specified, particularly
if the animal appears to be in the necessary hard
condition. But the preparatory course of training does
not stop here, although the start for the scene of the
proposed foray, or chapaoul, is then made. Each Turkmen
takes with him an inferior horse called yaboo, which he
himself rides until he reaches the place of action. It
then serves to carry back the plunder. The charger, as it
may be termed, follows bare-backed and without bridle his
master, and the advance is graduated so that the daily
march shall not be excessive. During this later stage,
which lasts from the time of starting until the arrival
at the scene where it is proposed to assail the Persian
village, the horse's food is changed to four pounds and a
quarter of barley flour, two pounds of maize flour, and
two pounds of raw sheep's-tail fat chopped very fine.
These are well mixed and kneaded together, and given to
the horse in the form of a ball.
The Turkmen by
Demetrius Charles Boulger Part 8
While taking this no hay is given to
him, and this food is much liked by the horse. After four
days of this food he is considered to be in prime
condition, and capable not only of attaining the greatest
speed but also of sustaining the most protracted fatigue.
Then the yaboo is discarded and left in the rear, while
the Turkmen on his charger goes forward to carry out the
design which has occasioned the whole enterprise. It is
said that when in this high state of training the Turkmen
horse can perform a daily journey of one hundred miles,
and continue the same degree of sustained speed for
several days. There is no valid reason for doubting this
statement, and the performance of this almost unequalled
feat rests upon testimony of the most unequivocal kind.
The grand secret of the treatment of their horses by the
Turkmen is undoubtedly to be found in the fact that they
most carefully prevent their taking any green food. The
character of the soil of Kara Kum is peculiarly favorable
to the practice of this sound theory, for it produces
only during the spring anything green at all. During that
period the Turkmen are always quiescent; but in the month
of August, and sometimes before, the horse is put upon
his regular allowance of dry food, viz. seven pounds of
barley mixed with dry chopped straw, lucerne, and clover
hay.
This treatment undoubtedly tends to give the horse a
stamina and higher temperature than any other horse of
which we know, not excepting the Arab. The horse is also
treated by these people with quite as much sympathy and
affection as he is in Arabia. He is never ill-treated,
and any Turkmen who attempted to ill-use him would be
visited with the scorn of all men. The feeling is clearly
traceable to the companionship which exists between the
master and his horse from the time when the latter was a
foal; and as the Turkmen's safety often depends
exclusively upon the good qualities of his charger, it is
intelligible that that affection should become stronger
with age instead of weaker.
The Turkmen horse is no doubt a cross-breed between some
indigenous animal and the Arab. At various known periods
it has been strengthened by a fresh importation of Arab
blood; such was the case when Timur
distributed more than four thousand mares amongst the
tribes, and again when Nadir
gave six hundred to the Tekes, of whom his own clan of
Afshar was an off-shoot. But it probably
owes its innate excellence to the more remote period when
the Arab conquerors advanced into Persia and Turkmenia.
Be that as it may, however, there can be no question that
in personal appearance it is much inferior to the pure
Arab, although in its useful qualities, doubtless
attributable alone to the method of treatment adopted by
its masters, it equals its rival.* The neck, which is
long and straight, is proudly curved and slender, but the
head is decidedly too long to be in just proportion. The
chest is also too narrow to please an English eye, and
the legs are long and apparently ill-adapted for carrying
the exceptionally big body at any high degree of speed.
The task that this animal accomplishes falsifies its
appearance, and its merits and fame rest on what it has
done. There are, however, degrees of excellence among
even the horses of the Turkmen tribes. Those of the
Tekes, and particularly of the Akhal Tekes, are
considered to be the best; perhaps this is to be
attributed to the present of Nadir Shah. Then come
those of the Salor and Ersari, then the Yomuds —
whose political importance has now grown so much less
— then the Goklans, and lastly the Sarik. Much,
however, of the influence of the Salor and Sarik tribes
has become merged in the Tekes,
and it is possible that when the former lost Merv they
were also deprived of many of their belongings,
particularly (See Ferrier's “Caravan Journeys,"
and the “Travels of Sir Alexander Burnes.") of
their horses. Among the Turkmen the Tekes possess
confessedly the best. The Uzbeks of Afghan Turkestan
have also a horse which, although smaller than the
regular Turkmen, possesses great qualities of endurance
and speed.
A useful horse may be purchased from the Turkmen for as
small a sum as thirty pounds, and a mediocre horse will
now and then be parted with for five times that sum. The
best breed of all is never sold, and very rarely do the
Persians succeed in capturing one. When they do, it is
always reserved for the Shah's stable. While the Turkmen
horse is better cared for, more fully appreciated, and
more thoroughly developed than any European horse, in one
point he suffers from the ignorance of his owners, and
that is in medical treatment. As M. Ferrier says,
"custom takes the place of science," and when
coping with disease custom is a very inefficient guide.
The common diseases are similar to those from which
English and other horses suffer, glanders, wind galls,
etc. The
Turkmen have, however, a strange plan of dealing with any
young animal which suffers from loss of appetite.
They make an incision in its nose and remove a kind of
cartilage which grows inside. There is also a terrible
disease called by the Persians nakhoshi yaman the wicked
disease which is always incurable and generally fatal in
a few hours. It appears to be similar to hydrophobia, but
its exact nature is not as yet known.
The Turkmen by
Demetrius Charles Boulger Part 9
Turkmen
Horses: The Heavenly Horse. North Khorasan province has
1,000 Turkmen horses.Turkmen Horses Microchipped
Races Set for Nov. 23-24
The Turkmen horses have been an object
of envy for over 1000 years. Wars have been fought over
these horses. In fact the T'ang dynaty in China invaded
Central Asia in 751 AD to gain access to the horse that
they called the heavenly Horse. At the Battle of Talas
the Tang Chinese were defeated by the Moslem Arabs at the
Talas River northeast of Tashkent. It was at this battle
that Chinese papermakers were captured by the Arabs and
paper making spread west.
Chinese
Art: Black Glazed Pottery Figure of a Fereghan Horse Tang
Dynasty
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