The Nokota Mustang Horse - Created by Lightning

The earliest horses to occupy the Northern Plains were Indian horses that were also known as buffalo horses. The Nokota Mustang is the last remaining strain of these Northern Prairie horses and the last known strain of war horses from General Custer’s battle at Little Big Horn and once ran wild in the Little Missouri Badlands of southwestern North Dakota. These horses were also known as Montana horses, Northern Plains Ranch horses, and Cayuses.

The Dakotah and Lakota tribes of the Northern Plains of the United States traditionally believe that the North American horse did not become extinct after the last ice age but that there have always been horses (Sunkakan) here, and that they were not brought by the Spanish conquistadors. It is a controversial theory but the Dakotah Indians believe that the Nokota Horse is a descendent of the original pre-ice age Dakotah horses. In Dakotah tribal culture, lightning or "wakinyan tonwairjpi", is a very powerful, mythical and spiritual force and in their legends, the horse originated when lightning struck a large whirlpool in the Missouri River. It is said that when their horses run fast and hard in a thunderstorm, lines of sparks trace and fly off of the horses ears.

The less romantic origins of the Nokota Horse have been traced back to the horses that were confiscated in 1881 by the United States government from Chief Sitting Bull when the Sioux Indians surrendered at Fort Buford, North Dakota. Approximately 350 of their horses were sold to local trading posts who then sold 250 horses, including all the mares, to the French Marquis DeMores, founder of the town of Medora. Many of these were war horses that had been through the battle of Little Big Horn with scars from the rifles of General Custer's troops. The Marquis had intended to do large scale breeding with these Sioux mares as the foundation stock.

In 1884, A.C. Huidekoper of the HT Ranch bought 60 of the Marquis' mares and he also purchased Percheron and racing Thoroughbred stallions from Kentucky, including the famous Thoroughbred sire, Lexington. Huidekoper Ranch horses were crossed with these stallions since this was the common practice to produce larger, long-winded, fast and strong saddle horse that were preferred on the Northern Plains. They stood 15-17 hands and this mix was called the American Horse. Now they are referred to as the Ranch Type Nokota and dressage riders jokingly call them Nokota Warmbloods. They are generally larger and heavier boned than the Traditional Nokota Horse and possibly have larger Iberian strains such as Andalusian in their heritage. They share the same colors, temperament and some conformation points of the Traditional Nokota. Ranch Nokota Horses are currently being used as dressage horses, fox hunters, show jumpers, and as pack and trail horses.

When the Marquis DeMores died in 1896, some of his herd was rounded up and sold and the remaining horses were left to roam in what is now Theodore Roosevelt National Park. This area became known as wild horse country and these wild horses are the foundation for the Traditional Nokota Horse. Charles Russell and Frederic Remington, frontier artists of the early American West, both rode and painted many ranch and Indian horses that looked like today's Nokota Horses and Remington once noted that horses of the Northern Plains such as the Cayuse had developed a distinctive phenotype.

Frank and Leo Kuntz from Linton, North Dakota are primarily responsible for saving the Nokota when these brothers bought a few horses from a 1978 U.S. Park Service roundup in Medora and immediately recognized that the horses were a unique breed. Through their efforts and determination to preserve this historic Indian horse, including blood typing and research, the Nokota was recognized as a registered breed in 1991. In 1993, the North Dakota legislature declared the Nokota Horse as the State Honorary Equine for its role in the history of the state. The Kuntz family also privately developed a line of pony crosses for driving, riding, barrel and pole racing, and these make outstanding children's ponies. This variety ranges from 12-14 hands but the Nokota Pony Registry is inactive with less than 35 ponies registered.

In 1999, the Nokota Horse Conservancy was established as a non-profit organization to preserve the Traditional foundation-bred Nokota Mustang. Out-cross horses can be recognized in the Nokota registry but they cannot be part of the conservation effort.

In 2000, the last Traditional Nokota Mustang was removed from the National Park during a roundup, leaving what is known as the Nokota Park Cross. These Park Cross horses must be at least 50% foundation-bred and all non-Nokota influence must have come from the original Kuntz breeding stock used in the first few generations when the gene pool was small. Kuntz breeding stock horses included a Quarter Horse stallion, a champion American Paint Horse mare, and several grade mares from Standing Rock reservation. Some Park Cross horses are more than 95% foundation bred and some of the foundation Nokota lines are only represented in Park Cross descendants, but no longer found in the Traditional Nokota lines.

The traditional Nokota stands 14.2 to 15.3 hands and resembles the Andalusian. The head has a straight or slightly concave profile, large kind eyes, broad forehead, thick mane and low-set thick tails. Their ears are often slightly hooked at the tips. They are more square on the quarters than most breeds and this gives them an uncanny jumping ability. Many have feathered fetlocks. They are large boned and have feet with thick hoof walls that rarely need to be shod. The Nokota has unusual strength and endurance that makes it an ideal mountain trail horse and some individuals exhibit an ambling gait.

The most common colors of the Nokota Horses are blue roan, red roan, gray and black which are the colors originally described in the 1800's. Blue roan is a relatively rare color in most breeds, but so many Nokota Horses carry it that it has become a hallmark of the breed. Blood bay and overo are also part of the color patterns with some having blue eyes and bald faces. Some Nokota lines produce dun and gruella offspring that have pronounced tiger stripes on their legs and withers and sometimes even a dorsal stripe along their backs. Some horses change colors over their lifetimes and roans may be born dun or black and then turn gray as they age.

The Nokota Horse is extremely hardy and could starve through the winter, but as soon as the grass returned, the horse filled out and was ready for any ride, even covering great distances in a short time. The Nokota has a natural instinct when it comes to cattle and tends to remain calm, studying the cow. The breed possesses a keen intelligence and a calm, quiet but curious, disposition. They are very well behaved and tend to mature slowly.


About Crystal Eikanger

Crystal Eikanger is a freelance writer, web designer, video editor and voice talent working as Ei-Kan Productions on www.rentacoder.com as well as other freelance sites. www.HorseClicks.com is a popular website filled with classifieds of horses for sale, horse trailers, tack, and horse related properties.

The Ancient Akhal-Teke - The Horse with the Metallic Sheen

The Akhal-Teke is a hot-blooded horse from the southern region of Turkmenistan, in northern Iran. Its name identifies the Teke tribe from the Akhal oasis located in the arid plains on the Northern slopes of the Kopet-Dag Mountains.

It has been assumed that the Akhal-Teke is descended from the ancient Tarpan Horses and Przewalski Horses of southern Asia or from the ancient Turkmene Horse that was developed in Russia from Asiatic stock that was originally thought to be an ancient Scythian type and one of the four original horse "types" that crossed the Bering Strait from North America during prehistoric times.

The Scythians were nomadic people and among the earliest people to master the art of riding in 8th and 7th centuries B.C. As early as 700 BC they had huge cavalries and the Akhal-Teke horses were originally bred as war and raiding horses and renowned as cavalry mounts and racehorses for nearly 3,000 years.

From the Scythians, the nomadic Teke people descended and regularly traveled to summer or winter ranges. This meant that they often came in conflict with other nomadic tribes doing similar travels. This led to the Tekes invading these tribes to take what was necessary and then ride off on their swift horses. So they bred animals of incredible stamina and fiery temperament to withstand these long-distance raiding journeys.

Eventually the fame of the Akhal-Teke spread throughout the ancient world and they became highly desired. In 141 B.C., Chinese Emperor Wu Ti sent an expedition with large amounts of gold to exchange for these horses, but his offer was refused so several years later, he sent 60,000 soldiers and was finally presented with 10 of these elite horses.

The lineage and breeding of the Akhal-Teke was kept pure by an oral tradition of maintaining bloodlines and also because of their relative isolation. The Teke people were very proud of their horses and were highly devoted to them. Horses were brought into the family tents, blanketed against the cold; and given the best foods that could be found such as grains, animal proteins and fat such as butter and eggs mixed with barley, which is low in bulk, but high in protein. Horses were valued as the single measure of true wealth and were highly prized.

When Russia's takeover of Central Asia regions prevented raiding, the Turkmene focused on racing their prized Akhal-Tekes instead. But the saddest period of the breed came as a result of the Bolshevik revolution and Communism when thousands of horses were slaughtered. This tore at the very soul of the Teke people and rather than allow their prized horses to be slaughtered, they either disappeared into the deserts with their horses or turned their horses loose.
During the long history of the breed, it established a reputation of great endurance and courage. In 1935, the amazing stamina of the Akhal-Teke was demonstrated when 15 horses were required to participate in a 2,600 mile forced march from Ashkhabad to Moscow that took 84 days on minimal feed rations and included traveling 255 miles across the Kara-Kun desert for 3 days without water. This feat was repeated in 1988.

Today the Akhal-Teke horses are bred throughout the world. The first Akhal-Teke Horses in the United States were imported in 1979 after being purchased at Moscow auction in 1978. The Akhal-Teke Association of America was started in 1982 and 20 years later, in 2002, there were 189 purebred Akhal-Teke Horses registered. To keep the breed pure, the Akhal-Teke foals are registered on the basis of parentage only.

The Akhal-Teke stands between 14.3 and 16 hands high although the average is 15.1 hands. The overall impression is of length, without showing weakness or frailty and lithe athleticism without excessive musculature. The Akhal-Teke should be longer than it is tall, which gives it a rectangular silhouette. The Akhal-Teke has a small, long, narrow head with long thin ears, a long thin neck. The expressive eyes are often hooded and have an oriental appearance. The horse has a short, silky, sparse mane, or none at all with little or no fetlock and a low-set sparse tail. Native to an arid, barren environment, the Akhal-Teke is a true desert horse; hardy with a long, fast stride and lots of stamina. .The hooves are small, round and extremely hard. The Akhal-Teke has superb natural gaits and is among the most elegant of the world's horses.

The skin of the Akhal-Teke is very thin, with the coat and unusual hair structure being quite fine. The Akhal-Teke has a fantastic metallic glow to this thin coat and it is a much desired characteristic. The glow is caused by the structure of the hair in which the opaque core is very small in size and may in some areas be totally absent. The transparent part of the hair, called the medulla, takes up this space and acts like a fiber-optic tube with bending light through one side of the hair and refracting it out the other side, often with a golden cast. Few horse breeds can claim the variety of colors that are found in the Akhal-Teke and there are no disallowed colors or markings in the Akhal-Teke breed although roan appears to have died out. Akhal-Tekes typically have white markings and sabino pinto markings are not at all uncommon. Rabicano or roan is also seen. Grays are fairly common in the breed and are often beautifully dappled and may turn completely white with age. Here is just a sample of the more distinctive colors to be found in this breed.

Black, also called Electric Black and Raven Black, is very common in the Akhal-Teke and when added to the famous Akhal-Teke Glow these horses glitter with a blue or purple sheen. This color is so special it has its own name in Russian, voronaya. Cremello is also a common color in the Akhal-Teke and the glow to the coat is so strong it is visible even in a darkened barn.

Golden is the archetypical color of the Akhal-Teke horse and is called bulanaya in Russian. Because of the unique structure of the hair, Golden horses may be quite dark in color and may even be confused with Bay. In the sunlight, the Golden versions of Bay, Dun and Buckskin coats glitter with gold in a way that a camera simply cannot capture. The Akhal-Teke produces some spectacular Bays with coats that glitter with reds and golds, and the Mahogany Bay has a special gene modifier that gives a black tipping to the hairs and produces many lovely variations. The breed also produces some truly stunning palominos that usually have plenty of chrome, which is a term for lots of facial white or high white on the legs.

The Akhal-Teke is very spirited, stubborn and bold which makes it an outstanding sport horse and the breed is currently competing in endurance, jumping, dressage, eventing, and western events, as well as being used as pleasure horses. Racing Akhal-Tekes and the maintenance of the breed itself is a principal source of national and cultural pride.


About Crystal Eikanger

Crystal Eikanger is a freelance writer, web designer, video editor and voice talent working as Ei-Kan Productions on www.rentacoder.com as well as other freelance sites. www.HorseClicks.com is a popular website filled with classifieds of horses for sale, horse trailers, tack, and horse related properties.