August and September is show time for Akhal-Tekes. Moscow, Pyatigorsk and this year Ising in Germany are arranging breed shows. In Moscow the International Akhal-Teke Breeders Association arrange for the 5th or 6th year the World Championships for the breed, I always wonder how the world population is invited and selected to the show. When I read the program or starting lists I seldom see horses from more than three different countries, Russia, Turkmenistan and Azerbadjan. The panel of judges are at least more or less international, depending on who is sponsoring the show, this year there where judges from the USA, Holland, Austria and Russia. The Russian horse owners that are spoiled with always taking home the World Championship titles where amazed over the way the foreign judges selected the winners. For many Russian breeders this is an important event and some felt that it was a little bit of an insult to be judged by a group that wasn't all that experienced. I am not surprised, in the USA none of the various Akhal-Teke associations have ever arranged a breed show, this fact makes me as puzzled as how the World Championship in Moscow really works. Still, the Russian breeders should at this point be aware of the fact that the World Championships in Moscow is so much more about who is in fashion this year than judging the best Akhal-Teke in the world. Maybe it is better to be in the USA where there are no breed shows?

1. Blanca09/01/2005 08:20:59

It is quite common to have breed shows which are simply shows and not real contests. The best example was the recent Villeneuve show in France, where the horses were "reviewed" by Ryabova, who didn't give any points...her comments on the horses were done in order to train the person from the Haras Nationaux who will be in charge of judging the French tekes in the future.

I ignore why there is this fear of having horses judged in the west. I assume that one of the reasons is because breeders and owners have not been happy with the scores given by the Maak experts (mainly Tatyana Nikolaevna) in the past.

---

2. Jessica 09/01/2005 10:09:57

This subject is very important and intesting, I do look forward to more comments and I will talk about it frequently here.

---

3. Amrita Ibold09/07/2005 11:54:45
Homepage: http://www.akhalteke.cc

Look what I found! I did not know you had a blog!
I went to 3 shows this summer. None of them Akhal-Teke shows.
Since you seem to compare the US with Europe, well, we have not that many AT's in the US, and great distances. Then of the few horses here, even less get ridden. Let's say you decided to have a breed show in Florida....how many days would the nearest breeder
or AT owner have to travel to come?
I would love to see breed shows, any kind of show for AT's....
But untill that happens, I'm quite happy competing in all breed shows.
Amrita

---