This subject has always been controversial in Caucasus - is Karachai horse just subtype of Kabardian, or is it a separate breed? But I've never seen such a hot discussion on this topic before.

On Russian website Horse.ru you will find a discussion about Kabardian vs Karachai which was started by an article enthusiastically describing Karachai breed as an ancient breed of wonder horse. And there's over 200 comments, most of them very critical.

It seems like the problem has already grown to the critical mass. And someting is going to happen with it - hopefully.

 

Two nations, one horse

What is the source of controversy? Basically, today both Kabardian and Karachai breeders claim they have great horses. What is most interesting it seems like they talk about exactly the same horses. The only question is - are they Kabardian or Karachai?

It may seem not very serious problem in the beginning for an average European citizen. Kabardians and Karachai are both nations living in western Caucasus, actually neighbors. Nowadays they live in two Russian Federation republics -  Kabardino-Balkaria and Karachaevo-Cherkessia. Kabardians and Circassians (Cherkess) are one nation, Karachai and Balkars are another nation.

These republics were created by Joseph Stalin who named them with diabolic cleverness. Having two completely different nations mixed in two neighbouring countries, one with Karachai dominating, another with Kabardians dominating, is perfect example of 20th century implementation of old Roman rule "divide et impera". Make your enemies argue with each other, rule them easily...

French Hannoverian, Spanish Selle Francaise...

If you still don't understand seriousness of the problem, just imagine what would happen if some people in France took typically German breed - say Hannover - and started calling it French. Or people in Spain took Selle Francaise and started calling it Spanish. Or people in Russia took Friesian and started calling it typically Russian. And so on, and so on...

Almost the same is happening now with Karachai and Kabardian. It's not that obvious, though.

Before 20th century there were no references to anything called "Karachai horse" in any literature.

At the same time there were plenty of references to "Kabardian horse" since 16th century, describing a horse which is very similiar to what we currently know as Kabardian horse. There are even earlier references to famous horses coming from this area.  Polish kings have imported Circassian and saddles horses in 16th century, and according to the historical documents, they were priced even more than Persian horses.

Many other references, like Circassian saddle, prove that there was highly-developed equine culture present in Caucasus, ruled by Adyge - or Kabardian - nations for most of the history we know. Actually, their folklore and legends are also full of equine references.

So, there's no doubt that Kabardian horse existed and exists. What Parfenov did, he recalled numerous references to Kabardian horse that appeared before 20th century and gave them to the Karachai horse.

20th century invention

At the same time, the Karachai horses have only came to the scene in 20th century. Some people in the discussion mentioned above claim the Karachai breed first appeared in 30's of 20th century.

But I haven't myself found any references to Karachai even in Polish scientific books issued in 60's. Their sources were mostly Russian and they contain all the Russian breeds we know - Budionny, Don, Karabair, Kabardian... but no Karachai. You won't find Karachai even in any other decent book on horse breeds.

It doesn't mean they don't exist. Karachai horses were first mentioned by multiple sources as "heavier, massive subtype of Kabardian horse, sometimes called Karachai horse".

This happened something between 70's and 90's in Russian equine books. That was mostly because Kabardian horses were not only bred in Kabardino-Balkaria, but also in other stud farms also in Karachai-Cherkess republic.

Another source mentions that "Kabardian horses bred in Karachai stud-farms at some point were referenced to as Karachai horses".

Kabardian descend, Karachai ascend

But since then we can however observe a surprising improvement of their image. Step by step, from "subtype of Kabardian" they evolved to an "ancient breed", actually sharing all the features that were previously assigned to Kabardian breed.

And now they seem to take them over.

Kabardian stud book stopped working around 1995. If you wonder why this happened, you have first to understand that before 90's in Soviet times, there was officially no private breeding. Everything, including horse breeding, was officially public.

After perestroika, when the river of money sent from the central budget for stud farms stopped coming, they just stopped working. Some stud farms sold their horses for slaughter, some sold them to private people or gave away for their salaries. All the breeding and zootechnical work done in these farms was stopped too.

It was never restarted. Local authorities in Kabardino-Balkaria did nothing. Private horse breeders were too small to influence the decisions made in Moscow. They raised the need to release new editions of the stud book, but they were ignored.

Kabardian horse breeders are now doing their breeding work completely at their own expense. And they have no stud book, so the breed has no official registration system for the last 10 years.

That's the main point of advocates of the Karachai horse - if there's no Kabardian studbook, there's no Kabardian horse. It's completely false of course.

The number of Kabardian horses is still growing and they're present on numerous international events. For example, Kabardian gelding Karo was 2nd in Endurance Championship of Germany in 2004.

Lack of stud book is definitely a problem, but does it mean that there's no Kabardian horses anymore? Of course not. The first stud book was released in 20th century and the breed existed happily without stud books for at least several hundreds years.

Kabardian horses don't need the stud books to exists. We need it for organized breeding. And German breeders helped themselves with the problem making their own Kabardian stud book in Germany.

Karachai miracle - making up the legend

At the same time breeders of Karachai horse are again getting big financial help from the central budget of Russian Federation. Karachai stud book has been created in surprisingly short time and is now hosted by a Temirzaevskoi institute in Moscow, which is unusual as all other horse breeds in Russia were always managed by other institute - VNIIK.

Things have gone so far, that some advocates of the Karachai breed even claim that there's no Kabardian breed, that Kabardian breed is actually Karachai stolen by Kabardians, the Kabardian breed is not recognized in the world etc.

At the same time they were unable to comment on numerous facts from the past like historic sources mentioning Kabardian or Circassian horses, or from nowadays, where Kabardian horses took part in international competitions, from Russia to Dubai.

In one case, they even argued that a horse registered at the competition as Kabardian was actually Karachai, but they failed to explain why noone has noticed that alleged fake.

In another case, a well known German breeder of Kabardian horses, Tobias Knoll, was very surprised to discover that his Kabardian horse Elrond is presented as a "typical Karachai" by daughter of Parfenov on the website mentioned above.

	Can you tell the difference? pictures (c) Unsere-Kabardiner.de

If you have a look at the two horses presented at right, can you tell which one is Kabardian and which one is Karachai? Do you think they're same breed, or different breeds?

The fact is, that both horses fulfill all requirements for Kabardian conformation. But the one at bottom (AMOR) is "Karachai" by passport, while the one at top (ZAPAL) is "Kabardian", as we would expect.

Additionally, if you look at Amor's pedigree, you will find mostly stallions oficially registered as Kabardian in his family tree. So, it looks like the change of breed only happened on paper, not in conformation.

The same is happening with numerous horses sold from Russia to Europe with documents claiming they are Karachai. Looking at many of these horses, you can't tell a difference from Kabardian though.

After all, if Karachai and Kabardians are not the same breed, the difference should be obvious just by looking at their conformation?

It's good to make new breeds and this is happening all the time. But shouldn't the new breed should be distinguishable from the breed it comes from? With Kabardian vs Karachai it's not the case.

And you can't deny at least several hundreds years of history of Kabardian horse just by starting issuing documents claiming that these are now Karachai horses, not Kabardian.

 

Kabardian vs Karachai in Europe

People in Europe are confused by this situation, because in Europe you couldn't claim that a horse looking like a typical Hutzul is Friesian, or looking like Friesian is Hutzul. You would probably eventually end up in a court.

The problem is that in Russia, especially outside Moscow, the courts are rarely working like they do in Europe. More often they work for those who have better representation in the local goverment or pay more.

However, it seems like too much hype done by Karachai advocates eventually made Kabardians angry, which may eventually bring some solution to the argument.

Kabardian diaspora in Moscow has announced, that they're finally taking the case to the court. Even if it doesn't give a clear answer about the historical conflict, maybe we will at least have a clear definition what is Kabardian and what is Karachai horse.

We will inform you about the progress of the case.

 

 

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