Hi Teke afficianados–just found something that might interest endurance riders who wonder what the Teke is traditionally fed before a long, long endurance ride.
This is excerpted from Demetrius Charles Boulger’s “The Turkmen” from 1879.
"The Turkmen horse is not less an object of affection to his master than the Arab is to his. When it has been decided to carry out a raid into Persia, the Turkmen puts his horse through a regular course of training, of which the following is a description. For thirty days before the time appointed for the start the animal is exercised daily, part of that exercise being to gallop at full speed for half an hour. Some hours after he is brought in he is fed, his food consisting of six pounds of hay, or clover-hay, and about three pounds of barley or one-half the usual allowance of corn. During this period as little water as possible is given to the horse. Sometimes this period is shorter than the time specified, particularly if the animal appears to be in the necessary hard condition. But the preparatory course of training does not stop here, although the start for the scene of the proposed foray, or chapaoul, is then made. Each Turkmen takes with him an inferior horse called yaboo, which he himself rides until he reaches the place of action. It then serves to carry back the plunder. The charger, as it may be termed, follows bare-backed and without bridle his master, and the advance is graduated so that the daily march shall not be excessive. During this later stage, which lasts from the time of starting until the arrival at the scene where it is proposed to assail the Persian village, the horse’s food is changed to four pounds and a quarter of barley flour, two pounds of maize flour, and two pounds of raw sheep’s-tail fat chopped very fine. These are well mixed and kneaded together, and given to the horse in the form of a ball.
While taking this no hay is given to him, and this food is much liked by the horse. After four days of this food he is considered to be in prime condition, and capable not only of attaining the greatest speed but also of sustaining the most protracted fatigue. Then the yaboo is discarded and left in the rear, while the Turkmen on his charger goes forward to carry out the design which has occasioned the whole enterprise. It is said that when in this high state of training the Turkmen horse can perform a daily journey of one hundred miles, and continue the same degree of sustained speed for several days. There is no valid reason for doubting this statement, and the performance of this almost unequalled feat rests upon testimony of the most unequivocal kind.
The grand secret of the treatment of their horses by the Turkmen is undoubtedly to be found in the fact that they most carefully prevent their taking any green food. The character of the soil of Kara Kum is peculiarly favorable to the practice of this sound theory, for it produces only during the spring anything green at all. During that period the Turkmen are always quiescent; but in the month of August, and sometimes before, the horse is put upon his regular allowance of dry food, viz. seven pounds of barley mixed with dry chopped straw, lucerne, and clover hay.
This treatment undoubtedly tends to give the horse a stamina and higher temperature than any other horse of which we know, not excepting the Arab. The horse is also treated by these people with quite as much sympathy and affection as he is in Arabia. He is never ill-treated, and any Turkmen who attempted to ill-use him would be visited with the scorn of all men. The feeling is clearly traceable to the companionship which exists between the master and his horse from the time when the latter was a foal; and as the Turkmen’s safety often depends exclusively upon the good qualities of his charger, it is intelligible that that affection should become stronger with age instead of weaker. "
