History of the Kabardian Breed

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.