page_title: Turkoman horse
section_title: The Turkoman and the Arabian compared
hierarchical_section_title: Turkoman horse / Characteristics / The Turkoman and the Arabian compared
caption_attribution_description: Araber im typischen Schautrab
context_page_description: The Turkoman horse, or Turkmene, was an Oriental horse breed from the steppes of Turkoman desert. Its closest modern descendant is thought to be the Akhal-Teke. It influenced many modern horse breeds, including the Thoroughbred horse. Some horses bred in Iran and Turkmenistan today are still referred to as Turkoman, and have similar characteristics.
  Modern descendants include the Akhal-Teke, the Iomud, the Goklan and Nokhorli.
context_section_description: Though both the Arabian horse and the Turkoman may have had a common ancestor in the oriental horse prototype, in their purest old forms they were very like one another in some ways and very different in others. Both had excellent speed and stamina. Both had extremely fine coats and delicate skin, unlike many horse breeds found in Europe. They both had large eyes, wide foreheads and tapering muzzles. They both came from very arid environments. Here, however, the similarities between the Turkoman of Central Asia and the Arabians of the Nejd desert lands of Central Arabia end, and the horses begin to diverge to suit their environments and the fighting styles of their breeders.  Some divergence may be attributable solely to natural selection of landrace traits, other differences may be attributable to selective breeding.
  The Turkoman had small hooves. This was an adaptation to the steppes of the Central Asia, which largely consisted of a hard, rocky ground, covered with coarse sand, more like fine gravel and of stiff, parched vegetation. The Arabian had fairly large hooves for its size. In the Central Arabian desert there is deep sand as well as hard terrain.  A larger hoof is needed here to cope with this type of terrain.
  The back of the Turkoman, the Tekke Turkoman, and today in many cases, the Akhal-Teke, is much longer than that of the Arabian. The reason for this may likely to be that when riding long distances, the Turkoman was expected to trot, and the Arabian was not; the Bedouin tended to ride camels over long distances, leading their war horses, saving them for raiding, which was primarily done at the gallop.
  The Turkoman was taller than the desert-bred Arabian and had a sparse mane.  The Arabian carries its tail high when galloping, and higher than most when walking or trotting. The Turkoman runs with its tail streaming behind.
  The Turkoman horse is narrower in the body than the Arabian, or indeed than any other breed of horse. This helps it to dissipate heat quickly, but it is also a great aid in twisting and turning in the saddle, which would be invaluable to mounted archers who need to shoot in any direction, as opposed to lancers who need a firm footing from which to thrust a lance. Lance-throwing from horseback would be far easier on an Arabian horse shaped wider in the body would also help with making the sharp turns that close-fighting requires.
  In other words, the Turkoman was the ideal horse for the Turkmen, and the Arabian was the ideal horse for the Bedouin.
caption: A modern Arabian horse
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