Marshal Zhukov at 1945 Moscow Victory Parade

The Tersk or Tersky is a Russian breed of light

riding horse A riding horse or a saddle horse is a horse used by mounted horse riders for recreation or transportation. It is unclear exactly when horses were first ridden because early domestication did not create noticeable physical changes in the hors ...

Arab The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, ...

type. It was bred at the Tersk Stud in Stavropol Krai in the

North Caucasus The North Caucasus, ( ady, Темыр Къафкъас, Temır Qafqas; kbd, Ишхъэрэ Къаукъаз, İṩxhərə Qauqaz; ce, Къилбаседа Кавказ, Q̇ilbaseda Kavkaz; , os, Цӕгат Кавказ, Cægat Kavkaz, inh, ...

between about 1925 and 1940.

History

The Tersk Stud was established by

Semyon Budyonny Semyon Mikhailovich Budyonnyy ( rus, Семён Миха́йлович Будённый, Semyon Mikháylovich Budyonnyy, p=sʲɪˈmʲɵn mʲɪˈxajləvʲɪdʑ bʊˈdʲɵnːɨj, a=ru-Simeon Budyonniy.ogg; – 26 October 1973) was a Russian ca ...

in 1921 with the aim of re-establishing the horse population of Russia, which was depleted after the events of the Russian Revolution of 1917. Among the horses brought there in 1925 were two stallions and a few mares of the Ukrainian

Strelets , image = 01 106 Book illustrations of Historical description of the clothes and weapons of Russian troops.jpg , image_size = , alt = , caption = , dates = 1550–1720 , disbanded = , country = Tsardom of Russia , allegiance = Streltsy D ...

breed; this breed, now extinct, was a part-bred

with some influence of Orlov Trotter,

Don Don, don or DON and variants may refer to: Places *County Donegal, Ireland, Chapman code DON *Don (river), a river in European Russia *Don River (disambiguation), several other rivers with the name *Don, Benin, a town in Benin *Don, Dang, a vill ...

and Kabardin. The two stallions, Tsenitel and Tsilindr, were used on cross-bred mares with Arab, Don, Kabardin and Strelets blood. To create the Tersk breed, the resulting mares were put to Arab stallions, among them Koheilan IV, Marosh, and Nasim. The intent was to create riding horse of Arab type, but larger and better adapted to extensive management in the

taboon A tabun oven, or simply tabun (also transliterated taboon, from the ar, طابون), is a clay oven, shaped like a truncated cone, with an opening at the bottom from which to stoke the fire. Built and used in biblical times as the family, neig ...

system. The breed was officially recognised in 1948. In 2007 the

conservation status The conservation status of a group of organisms (for instance, a species) indicates whether the group still exists and how likely the group is to become extinct in the near future. Many factors are taken into account when assessing conservatio ...

of the Tersk in Europe was listed by the

FAO The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)french: link=no, Organisation des Nations unies pour l'alimentation et l'agriculture; it, Organizzazione delle Nazioni Unite per l'Alimentazione e l'Agricoltura is an intern ...

as "endangered".

Characteristics

The Tersk is similar in conformation to the Arab. It has a light head with straight profile; the shoulders are sloped, the chest broad, the back straight, the croup rounded, and the legs slender but strong. The tail is set on high. The skin is fine, as is the hair of the coat, mane and tail. The coat is often a silvery

grey Grey (more common in British English) or gray (more common in American English) is an intermediate color between black and white. It is a neutral or achromatic color, meaning literally that it is "without color", because it can be composed o ...

, but may also be bay or chestnut.

Use

The Tersk is well suited to use in

eventing Eventing (also known as three day eventing or horse trials) is an equestrian event where a single horse and rider combine and compete against other competitors across the three disciplines of dressage, cross-country, and show jumping. This ...

, in

cross-country riding Cross country equestrianism, equestrian jumping is an endurance test that forms one of the three phases of the sport of eventing; it may also be a competition in its own right, known as hunter trials or simply "cross-country", although these t ...

, in dressage and in show-jumping. It may be used for endurance riding, in which it excels; in one race over , all participating Tersk horses finished the course without difficulty. The horses are often used in circuses. Tersk stallions have been used for

cross-breeding A crossbreed is an organism with purebred parents of two different breeds, varieties, or populations. ''Crossbreeding'', sometimes called "designer crossbreeding", is the process of breeding such an organism, While crossbreeding is used to main ...

with other breeds such as the Lokai and the

Deliboz The Deliboz (Azeri: Diliboz atı) is an Azerbaijani breed of light riding horse. It is an ancient breed which underwent selective breeding in the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic in the twentieth century. It is one of four extant horse breeds ...

in the hope of improving them.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tersk Horse Horse breeds Horse breeds originating in Russia Animal breeds originating in the Soviet Union __NOTOC__