The Science and Art Museum of Horse Breeding of the Russian State Agrarian University – Moscow Agricultural Academy named after K. A. Timiryazev has a unique collection of equestrian art works. Among them is a portrait of an Isabella Akhal-Teke stallion by Alexey Glukharev. In fact, this is not a portrait of a specific horse but a collective image. The painter’s goal was to convey an unusual coat colour, absorbing all the reflections from the surrounding world, the play of light and shadow, creating the effect of “the colour of the morning dawn.”
The portrait of the Akhal-Teke stallion named Piyada was made in 2003 by painter Sergey Postnikov from a colour photograph. Piyada, a bay stallion owned by the President of Turkmenistan, was born in 1990 at the former Komsomol stud farm. His father, the winner of the Grand Ashgabat Prize, light-bay stallion Pudok, is the son of famous Polotli, a successful sire, bright successor of the Peren line. Repeated champion of the breed at the national exhibitions, Piyada was an adornment of the President’s stable. Not a single national holiday was held without him that were normally accompanied by grandiose races at the Ashgabat hippodrome, where Piyada invariably won his signature race for 500 meters.
In 2016, the Horse Breeding Museum received five portraits of Akhal-Teke horses as a gift from artists and patrons of art. Two of them were painted by Vera Gyllyeva and Vladimir Bagdasaryan, the famous married couple, honored artists of Turkmenistan, members of the International Federation of Artists of UNESCO.
One of them can be called a double portrait, as it depicts me with stallion Mele – the embodiment of my vision of an ideal Akhal-Teke. In life, we could not have met either in time or in space, but we met on the same canvas. The breed champion of 1939 at the All-Union Agricultural Exhibition of the USSR, Mele was born in Turkmenistan in 1928 from the founder of the line Everdy-Teleke. This incredibly exotic, beautiful and proud golden-bay stallion with a special Teke charm was included in many horse breeding textbooks as the standard of the breed.
Another picture depicts the aforementioned Polotli, the two-time champion of the breed at the USSR Exhibition of Economic Achievements (1973, 1977). The light-bay son of the founder of the Peren and Kachkyr line was born at the Komsomol stud farm of the TSSR in 1965 and lived a glorious life of 29 years. His track record is impressive. He was a winner and prize-winner of major traditional prizes, and he raced at the hippodromes of Ashgabat, Pyatigorsk and Baku. Out of 32 starts, he was first 12 times, second 3 times and third 9 times. He also became famous as an outstanding sire. In 15 years of life at his native stud farm, he produced 76 excellent offsprings. His bronze monument by sculptor Nurmukhammed Atayev stands on a high column near Ashgabat.
The museum also received two works from talented painter Yaroslav Kolobaev. One of them is an exterior portrait of the founder of the most popular line in the breed, the breed champion at the USSR Exhibition of Economic Achievements (1964), golden-bay stallion Gelishikli, born in 1949. He rarely participated in races, but he was distinguished by his special appearance, bright pedigree and became an outstanding sire. Over nine years of breeding, he produced 61 offsprings. Many of his descendants were successful in equestrian sports, especially in show jumping.
“Akhal-Teke” is the name of Yaroslav Kolobaev’s second work. It does not depict a specific horse but a collective image. In the conventional sense, this is indeed a portrait, not of a person but a horse. Yet, just like in a portrait of a person, it shows the character and mood. The stubbornly tense expression of the horse’s muzzle seems to convey the entire centuries-old history of severe trials, campaigns and battles that the Akhal-Teke breed has endured. The battle armour, transformed into national decorations, emphasizes the original role of these horses as the best ones for a warrior rider.
The museum had long dreamed of a portrait of the founder of all modern Akhal-Teke horse breeding – Boynou. The museum finally received it along with the other above-mentioned works in 2016. It was made at our request by painter Dmitry Luchanov from an old pre-revolutionary black and white photograph. The painter rejuvenated the stallion and emphasized his coat colour.
The golden-bay stallion Boynou (Buynav, Buyun) was born in 1885 from Lelyaning-Chepi and an Akhal-Teke mare. The memory of the Turkmens has kept only the names of his grandfather, Karamchi, and his great-grandfather, Kutly Sakar. In fact, the modern breed is founded on these and some other names. It is impossible to go deeper. In his youth, Boynou was unbeatable in races. His name resounded throughout Turkmenistan. In 1900, he was bought as a sire for the Transcaspian Stud Farm, and when he lost his abilities, leaving behind brilliant offsprings, they wanted to put him down. However, a resident of the village of Keshi, Mukhammed Kuli Khan, managed to negotiate and took the elderly stallion to his farmstead, where he lived for some time until 1908, surrounded by care and love.
Boynou was an extremely pedigree and spectacular stallion with a long thin neck and a light dry head, small in stature (153 cm). This is exactly the case when one can quote the proverb “small but precious.” Boynou’s role in development of the breed is hard to overestimate. His blood flows in more than 99 percent of all modern Akhal-Teke horses.
The portrait of stallion Salyr was painted by Natalia Sokolova in 2001. It so happened that we know little about this original artist. Her Salyr amazes with its metallic appearance, reminiscent of an ancient warrior covered with battle armour. In reality, the stallion’s dark bay coat was shot with shades of old bronze, and the painter saw and enhanced this effect.
Salyr was born in 1997 from the founder of the line of Gaigysyz and Saniya, who was the daughter of the founder of the Sere line. He became the “Young World Champion” in 1999 at the 1st World Championship among Akhal-Teke horses in Moscow (it should be recalled that the adult champion at that time was stallion Yanardag, who now adorns the coat of arms of Turkmenistan). In 2000, Salyr became the world champion and also won the race for the Turkmenistan Prize (2000 m) as part of the Russian Championship among Akhal-Teke horses at the Pyatigorsk hippodrome. Salyr spent the rest of his life as a leading sire at the Dakor stud farm, where he produced many valuable offsprings.
The portrait of stallion Gaukhar is a gift from Finat Nabiullin, the remarkable Bashkir romantic painter, member of the Union of Artists of the Russian Federation, participant and prize-winner of international exhibitions. Golden-bay stallion Gaukhar was born on March 10, 1977, at the Lugovskoy stud farm from Garem and Merkenka. He was a bright representative of the Gelishikli line – large, majestic, elegant. He successfully raced at the Pyatigorsk hippodrome for two seasons, having won nine prize places out of nine starts and large traditional prizes. Gaukhar produced 59 offsprings, of which 11 stallions and 23 mares were assigned to the factory. Gaukhar’s children inherited his high racing performance. Hector had eight first places and one second place out of nine starts, Goar raced until the age of eight and was first 25 times out of 37 starts. During his five-year racing career at the Ashgabat Hippodrome, Gart came first 31 times and second 5 times out of 38 starts.
Another “double portrait” was painted by Dagestan painter Anna Samarskaya. We see two historical figures in the painting. The man on the left is Vladimir Shamborant (1909–1991), an outstanding breeder, expert and passionate fan of the Akhal-Teke horse, and the majestic bay stallion Yulduz is his greatest pride, who became the standard of the breed for many years. The best son of Gelishikli and Gul was born at the Tersky stud farm in 1962. Yulduz was a large stallion, distinguished by incredibly long flexible lines. His entire appearance matched the well-known lines of the poem written by St. Petersburg poetess Irina Khienkina: “Snakes, cheetah and eagle are a single alloy...” This phrase alone is enough for true connoisseurs of the breed to understand what this horse is like. As for Yulduz’s racing career, everything is fine here too. Out of eight starts, he got a victory in the race for traditional prize “Trial” and second places in races for the prizes “Summer” and “Big Summer”. His short stud career was already in Dagestan.
And finally, there is the latest, unusual item. In February 2018, the museum was visited by Akhal-Teke horse lovers from the People’s Republic of China – Zan Li, the owner of a stud farm with 30 purebred Akhal-Teke horses, and Dr. Zhenshan Wang, a graduate of the Timiryazev Academy. They presented the museum with an original work by the famous contemporary Chinese artist, Wu Ma. This is an image of one of the most charismatic Akhal-Teke stallions, Garayusup, made in the classical Chinese style with black ink on bamboo paper.
Black Garayusup was born at the Stavropol stud farm from Mangyt and Oprava in 2000. He belongs to the actively developing Posman line in Russia. Garayusup was impeccable – purebred, bright, harmonious, large. He received all the honorary titles at the world exhibitions and Russian championships. He raced well. In six seasons at the Pyatigorsk hippodrome, he started 18 times, of which he was first four times and second and third three times.
The Akhal-Teke collection in the horse breeding museum is invaluable not only in terms of the educational process, not only in terms of artistic worth, not only in terms of the history of the breed. These works, reliably depicting the types and forms of the best horses of the past, can serve as a kind of standard for modern breeders by which they can compare their efforts aimed at preserving and improving the precious Akhal-Teke horse breed.