A working Don horse on the
|Already in the times of antiquity and throughout the medieval ages the steppes north and south of the lower river Don and the steppes between the Volga River and the Azov Sea were battlefields of many wars among various nations. These wars often spread through the plains between Ural Mountains and the Caspian Sea to Europe and Middle East. This way came the Mongolians, the Kalmyks and others. These invasions came to an end in the 16th century due to the presence of Kazaks (or Cossacks) in the region, who bred many horses. Prior to that, they lived as nomads on the Don steppes and often making long trips south past Kavkaz as far as Persia.|
From there they brought stallions of
various breeds, mainly Persian-Karabash blood and Arabians. These
conditions didn’t change much, even when Peter The Great settled these
nomads to serve as protectors of the southern and eastern boarders of the
Russian empire. The Kazak’s horses had Kalmyk, Kirgiz,
Ural and Persian-Karabash blood and later were used in crossbreeding
“shooter” stallions, oriental and Turkmenish/Achal-Tekin (Achal –Teke)
stallions. The biggest influence on the formation of the old Don horse had
stallions of the Persian-Karabash blood, whose “golden chestnut” color
is the most common among the Don horses.
The intent of the Kazaks was to
breed tough war-horse, whose quality mainly excelled in the ability to
endure all climate conditions and the hardship of wars. The climate of the
Don steppes with hot summers, dusty winds and lack of water, changing
in the winter to cruel subzero temperatures and blizzards, was the ideal
region for this kind of breeding. The horses lived in the spring and
summer with surplus of food; when the steppes dry out they had to eat
shrub and branches from the trees, or in the winter dig out dry grass from
underneath the snow, the food was simply scarce. The horses were kept
outside the whole year and only on the coldest days in the winter spent
some time in the stables. Only a horse, that could withstand such misery and proved himself in endurance, earned the characteristics of Don
horse, which are; extreme toughness, not demanding in care or feeding and
could withstand the harshness of long cavalry marches. These biological
abilities made the Don horse to be a first class war-horse and before
World War I supplied 50% of the Russian cavalry. In racing Don horse was
not showing much in comparison with the English
Crossbreeding of the Don horse, who had mostly the Mongolian and Arabian
blood, with the Thoroughbred was happening already in the first part of
the 19th century. Kazak ataman Platov, who fought
against Napoleon, came to England where he purchased 5 first class
thoroughbred stallions to be used to correct Don’s exterior and to
improve his speed. Later in the year 1900 the thoroughbred was again
introduced in breeding of the Don horse, but only in the more advanced
western part of the region. The old type of the Don horse continued to be
bred in the eastern part.
Both World Wars devastated the
breeding of Don horses. Many horses were sold or just simply scattered all
over the country. On the order of marshal Budionny, the scattered horses
were returned into the Don region again.
Most valued bloodlines were
stallions Dnievik, gold chestnut, born 1912 and his son Drogoii, also gold
chestnut born 1928 who inherited after his sire the Persian-Karabash type.
The offspring from Bujan (Buyan), golden chestnut, born 1916 in the
Vojedin (Voyedin) stud farm, was very popular as well. The line of Bujan has more
English shapes of a strong, wide and well-formed halfblood. Further more
popular were the lines of Saturna, Piona, Bordo, Chelna (Tchelna) and
Zakavnica. The line of Rezvogo and Patrona represents the massive type,
also belonging to the riding type are Sahib, Milord and Dalman.
Ludvik K Stanek a.k.a.
from the 1953 Special Zoo-Technique - Breeding of Horses
Published in 1953 by the Czechoslovakian Academy of Agricultural Science and certified by the Ministry of Agriculture.
Written by: MVDr Ludvik Ambroz, Frabtisek Bilek, MVDr Karel Blazek, Ing. Jaromir Dusek, Ing. Karel Hartman, Hanus Keil, pro. MVDr Emanuel Kral, Karel Kloubek, Ing. Dr. Frantisek Lerche, Ing. Dr Vaclav Michal, Ing. Dr Zdenek Munki, Ing. Vladimir Mueller, MVDr Julius Penicka, pro. MVDr Emil Pribyl, MVDr Lev Richter, prof. Ing. Dr Josef Rechta, MVDr Karel Sejkora and Ing. Dr Jindrich Steinitz.