If the Ferghana horse is extinct. What do you call today's Ferghana' horses that resemble them?

Hi

Most websites say that the Ferghana horse is extinct. But there is a thriving trade in Ferghana horses today. So what are these modern horses from the Ferghana valley really? They seem to have the same characteristics as the ancient ones.

I look forward to your feedback

A Ferghana horse belonging to Beijing Yanlong company is put on show at Baimajian scenic spot, Suzhou, in East China’s Jiangsu province. The breed, known as Han Xue Ma (literally sweats blood horse in Chinese) can fetch as much as 6 million yuan at auction. Owning a Ferghana is becoming fashionable for China’s nouveau riche who are keen to demonstrate their taste for aristocratic lifestyles. [Provided to China Daily]

What an interesting question. I have no inside knowledge about Ferghana horses, but I do know from horses. The horse pictured looks more like an Akhal-Teke.

The article linked describes Ferghana horses as short legged, barrel-bodied and powerfully crested – none of these attributes are particularly noticeable in the black horse pictured.

I’m not sure that statuary paintings are always a reliable way to tell the attributes of animals. They do look similar to the Akhal-Teke, but not exactly the same.

It is possible that a small population of these horses remained in a small area, which is what the article describes. It is also possible that these are entirely different animals that have been brought in to deceive the public.

If there are actually a few thousand of these animals, I would guess they are a remnant population of something. It’s hard to say if it’s Ferghana horses, or some other local breed. Horses (like dogs) had all kinds of variations, often at the local level. If this remnant population looks like the popular conception of Ferghana horses, someone may have seized on this as a way to make money.

One could be certain by testing DNA of known dead animals, perhaps.

Sure looks like an Akhal-Teke to me too. This is a fascinating breed in and of itself, most likely as old as the Arabian, the other famous for being the oldest breed horse. Some believe the Akhal-Teke is a more likely progenitor of the Thoroughbred than the commonly claimed Arabian.

Akhal Tekes originate in Central Asia (the Stans) whereas Arabians originate in greater Arabia.

The best resource would be the Veterinary Genetics Lab at the University of California Davis. They are the premier site for DNA testing on horses. The test is fairly simple, requires only 20-40 hairs with roots attached, and costs $40.

But this test is mainly used for determining/verifying parentage. (That’s quite important in modern horse registries.) The lab has large selection of genetic samples for Akhal-Tekes, due to the testing for naked foal syndrome in that breed. Therefore, they should be able to determine genetice closeness of these hirses to general Akhal-Tekes bloodlines.

But the tests cannot positively identify a breed.

Mostly because the concept of a ‘breed’ is unclear in genetic terms. All horses can inter-breed; therefore they are all the same ‘breed’ genetically. What we call a breed is basically identifying descendants of a small group of parents. (Often, only the male parents – breeders in the past didn’t give much concern to females.)

For example, modern American Thoroughbreds all (should) trace back to one of 3 Foundation stallions (Byerley Turk, the Darley Arabian, and the Godolphin Arabian). So the DNA tests can prove that as horse is out of 2 specific parents, but not of a specific breed. If both those parents are registered in that breed, this is pretty convincing evidence. But DNA testing is only a few generations old; prior to this, we don’t have absolute scientific evidence of parentage. But within a few generations, the percentage of outside blood is so small as to be largely meaningless.

So the owners of these ‘Ferghana’ breed horses could easily have them tested by UC-Davis. But they are unlikely to do so. Why should they? It isn’t like the test could give proof positive that they are of this breed – but it is possible that it could give strong evidence that they are not, they are mostly of Akhal-Teke bloodlines. Why take a test that could prove you are lying? Especially when that would cost you a whole lot of money.