| Yakut Horses - open letter from The Long Riders' Guild |
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| Monday, 21 April 2008 | |
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Dear Michael, CuChullaine O'Reilly of The Long Riders' Guild here, writing to thank you for the interesting email you sent regarding Yakut horses. There is no need to explain about your website, as we have investigated both your site and the Yakutia Today website in search of equestrian clues. Let me briefly explain why the Guild became interested in the Yakut horse. In 2003 we became aware that "Siberian" horses were brought to an English horse fair in 1908. The fate of those horses is unknown. But we next learned that once the English and American's learned about the strength and survival skills of the Siberian style horse, equestrian history took a strange turn of events. Because the Yakut horses enjoyed a reputation for being so strong, and able to survive in terrible conditions, these horses were used by American, English and European explorers who were trying to reach the North and South Poles. In those cases, Siberian horses were purchased in Manchuria and then taken to the Arctic Circle and Antarctica. While we are still unsure if the horses used for these expeditions were actual Yakut horses, we do know that the explorers realized that the world's toughest horses were to be found in that part of the world.
The story of this famous Long Rider team from Siberia was recently made into a movie entitled "Serko." I have attached a drawing of Peshkov and Seriy, plus a poster from the movie. Furthermore, here is a link to an article about how this wonderful Russian-Siberian horse story was turned into a movie. http://www.thelongridersguild.com/serko-film.htm Yet, after Peshkov's ride and the use of Siberian horses in the Polar explorations, as the 20th century progressed all trace of the Yakut-Siberian horse disappeared from common knowledge in the West. That is why The Long Riders' Guild commissioned the famous Swedish Long Rider, Mikael Strandberg, to try and determine if any Yakuts were still alive, as the rest of the horse world had lost all sight of these remarkable horses. Here is a link to Mikael's story about finding the horses in minus 50 degree weather. And I have attached a photo Mikael took of a Yakut horse and rider enjoying a nice "warm" day in Siberia. Thanks to all of the investigative work done by The Guild to draw attention to the Yakut, the well-known equestrian journalist, Tom Moates, was commissioned to write an article for the American magazine, Equus, regarding the Yakut horse. While the story has been written, and accepted, we have no idea when it will be published. However, The Long Riders' Guild continues to receive a steady stream of messages from people anxious to learn more about the hardy horses of Yakutia. In these cases, we share the results of our investigation and urge the people to visit one of the Yakut websites. The Guild is currently attempting to contact N.D. Alexeev, N.P. Stepanov, Ekaterina N. Romanova, Natalia K. Danilova and Takakure Hiroki, all of whom have published academic studies on the Yakut horse. We would like to extend an offer to have these important findings published on The Long Riders' Guild Academic Foundation ( http://www.lrgaf.org/ ) Before closing, I would like to share a personal note. It may interest you to know that my Swiss wife, Basha, made the only recorded long distance equestrian journey out of the former Soviet Union during the 20th century. In 1995 she rode 2,500 miles from Volgograd to London - and she made the journey on a Russian horse ! The great Cossack stallion, Count Pompeii, who took Basha on that journey was raised on the steppes of Russia. He is now known around the world as the flying horse seen on the opening page of The Long Riders' Guild website, as well as on the cover of the nearly 300 books published by The Guild. I have attached Pompeii's image for you to see. Pompeii, Basha and I are now preparing to set off on the first equestrian expedition around the world, a 25,000 mile, four year journey that will take us across a great portion of Russia and southern Siberia. Consequently, we hope that someday soon we shall all be able to meet you in person, instead of relying on these electronic messages. In closing, given the on-going interest in the Yakut horse, as well as The Long Riders' Guild research into this topic, we would appreciate it if you could publish this message on the forum of your website. People interested in seeing the Yakut horse images, or learning more about The Guild's equestrian research, are welcome to visit any of our websites.
We look forward to hearing from you again. best wishes,  |
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| Last Updated ( Thursday, 25 February 2010 ) |
The other important element of the Siberian horse's story is that the fantastic Cossack Long Rider, Lt. Dmitri Peshkov, rode his grey Yakut horse, Seriy, from Siberia to St. Petersburg during the winter of 1890.
This 5,000 mile non-stop journey made Peshkov a legend in Russia, especially when the Czar adopted the Cossack's Siberian horse.
When he died, many years later, the Czar had Seriy buried in the cemetary reserved for the horses of the royal Russian family.| < Prev | Next > |
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