Karachay breed
History of the breed
The Karachaev horse is one of the oldest horse-drawn breeds, a local mountain breed of the North Caucasus. The birthplace of horses is the high-mountainous Karachay at the mouth of the river. Kuban. The Karachay breed was bred by improving local horses with oriental stallions. The herd keeping of Karachay horses in the summer on a pasture in the mountains, with a strongly rugged terrain with sharp fluctuations in temperature and humidity, and in the winter in the foothills and on the plain with little hay feeding, contributed to the development of squatness, good mobility, and special resistance to the hardships of existence in these horses.
Exterior Features
The Karachay horse is a typical mountain breed, and this is reflected not only in the features of the interior, but also in some features of the exterior. With a height of about 150-155 cm, representatives of the Karachay breed are quite deep and broad-bodied. The Karachays needed a horse more for work than for war, and their horses are distinguished by a universal, more “draft” warehouse, relatively more short-legged and massive. The head of Karachay horses is of medium size, dry, slightly hook-nosed, with a thin nose and very strict, pointed ears of medium size; medium length and exit, well muscled neck, sometimes with a slight Adam’s apple. The withers are rather long, not high, the back is straight, strong, the loin is of medium length, normally muscled. The croup of horses is not long, fairly wide and slightly deflated; the chest is wide, deep, with well-developed false ribs. The shoulder blade of Karachay horses is of medium length, often straight. The setting of the front legs of the horse is wide, with a slight clubfoot; there are no significant shortcomings in their structure. The hind legs, with the correct setting, are often saber-wielding, which is generally characteristic of rocks, including Karachay. The hooves of Karachai horses in the absolute majority of cases have the correct shape and size and are distinguished by a special strength of the hoof horn. The mane and tail of the representatives of the breed are quite thick and long and often wavy.
Applications and achievements
Horses of the Karachay breed are currently bred on the farms of the Karachay-Cherkess Republic, as well as outside it, abroad. In the republic, as of 2006, the Karachay stud farm operates, with a staff of 260 breeding mares, and 17 horse breeding farms, most of which received the status of breeding farms at the federal level, where in 2001-2002 in these farms V.A. Parfyonov and employees of the Republican Ministry of Agriculture evaluated the Karachay horses of the breeding stock. In the stud farm, 87,5% of stallions and 74,2% of mares are classified as Elite among probonitated horses.
In Moscow at VDNH in 1987, a stallion nicknamed Debosh (the owner of Salpagarov Mohammed) took first place, becoming the champion of VDNKh.
The stallion of the Karachay breed, Karagyoz, received the First Degree Diploma as the best representative of the breed at the All-Russian Horse Show Equiros-2005, was born in the Karachay stud farm.
