by Pam Asheton
Brent and Grace Seufert are widely recognized as serious Canadian competitive trail and endurance riding specialists. Their Water Valley event for Trail Riding Alberta Conference (TRAC) ran successfully for years until, suddenly, in 2006 they decided they’d had enough.
Simply, this high-energy couple tired of increasingly long Alberta winters, and sold up land, house, and everything. They bought a monster fifth-wheel with living accommodation for horses and humans, and enough plug-ins for Brent’s software TechWest business (RodeoLogic that includes the Calgary Stampede as a long-term customer, and HerdLogic for farmers and ranchers’ records, plus other organizational software programs).
Now able to operate from any location, they decamped south of the 49th parallel, beginning with Kentucky, then over to Arizona, before wandering across the blistering heat and hospitality of the American desert states.
Now that it’s summer, they’re back in Alberta until October, and with them they’ve brought a three-year old metallic gold stallion Dazydi (Daz to his friends). He’s a fine example of a rare and unique hot-blood breed, the Akhal-Teke, and due to be graded by the breed’s Russian governing body MAAK in October.
His breed’s ancestry traces back, from archeological dig estimates, as far as 3000 BC. Indeed, there’s strongly suggestive evidence that this breed may have been one of the key original foundation sires of the English Thoroughbred as we know it today (more generally assumed to be the Godolphin Arabian, Byerley Turk and Darley Arabian).
The Akhal-Teke is the sole remaining descendent of the even more ancient Turkmen horse (Brent recalls a two-day riding odyssey in north-eastern Iran where his Turkmen mount switched into more gaits than the average Ferrari; he stopped counting at seven variations).
Akhal-Tekes, though, are not gaited, and their unusual name refers to Akhal, a long oasis located in the foothills of the Kopet Dag Mountains (now present day Turkmenistan), and Teke, referring to the Turkmen tribe who were the dominant nomadic people of these regions.
Akhal-Tekes are eye-catching – long, lean, narrow – and outstanding athletes. Their unusually super-soft coats gleam metallic in shades of gold, cream, grey, black, dun, palomino, and even cremello and perlino. (Brent remembers tribesmen gathering for the traditional valley races in northern Iran who would peel off up to seven layers of hand-made felt blankets from their animals).
Bred for extreme temperatures, drought conditions, and savage joint-testing landscapes adjoining the Kara Kum desert areas – where grass is available a mere handful of months per year – the breed evolved into an ultimate survival machine. Tribesmen have learned to alternate those other months with low-bulk rations of high protein grains (alfalfa, barley and oats), mixed with mutton fat.
And, when Brent Seufert adds, “This is the most intelligent horse I’ve ever worked with,” there are sound reasons.
Highly sensitive horses, Akhal-Tekes often are mistrustful of strangers, instead bonding one-on-one, an indirect result of thousands of years of constantly living in close contact with their human owners (as did Arabians with the nomadic Bedouin).
Both ancient breeds were valued for self-confidence, fearlessness, and independence. An anecdotal historical note remarks on one Akhal-Teke stallion, already wounded by a sabre blow, still managing to carry away three Teke tribesmen across quicksands from pursuing Cossacks.
One rather more modern website writer humourously goes on to add that repetitious training often bores these horses rigid, “but that they excel in a varied routine and stimulating surroundings.”
Meanwhile back at the Seufert’s summer residence, I note that Daz has an unusually elastic super-snap walk, trot, and canter, which exude an oddly feline grace. His long, sloping pastern anchors down, compresses, and a ruler-straight ground devouring stride floats forward. He’s mesmerizing.
With only an estimated 4,000 of this breed in existence worldwide, and perhaps 400 purebreds in North America, these ancient bloodlines offer our modern world a precious gift of physical soundness, outstanding athleticism, and a highly individual equine mind-set for the adventurous of heart.
The Seufert’s are accepting a few select stud invitations this year before, once again, they run southwards ahead of snowstorms and long white winters.
Information contacts:
• Brent and Grace Seufert by phone at (403) 874-3242.
• MAAK, the International Association of Akhal-Teke Breeding and home of the General Stud Book are on-line at www.maakcenter.org/ENG /news.
• Allegra Steck, breeder and promoter of Akhal-Teke and Caspian horses, based in Virginia, USA, has an excellent informational website at www.centralasianequines.com
