Tersky history

Any story of horsebreeding in Russia and the former Soviet Union must contend with the devastating effects of war. In the case of the Streletsky horse, the breed was one casualty of the prolonged civil war which followed the 1917 revolutions. The tale would have ended here were it not for two valuable Streletsky breeding stallions that were discovered among the equine war booty when the Red Cavalry captured the Crimea from the White Army. One can only assume that these elegant, typey, silvery stallions would have called attention to themselves in any herd of horses. Quickly identified by breed and eventually identified by name, Tsenitel (born 1910, 153 cm) and Tsilindr (born 1911, 155 cm) were both sired by Tsenny (born 1899), an influential sire in the Streletsky breed. Their lineage traces back to distinguished Arabian stallions who exercised a major influence on the Streletsky breed. Their grandsire was the chestnut Arabian stallion, Tsiprian (born 1875); further back, in both maternal and paternal lines Tsenitel and Tsilindr carried the blood of Obaian Serebriany (born 1851), an even more celebrated, gray Arabian stallion. So the legend goes, in 1925 the famous Red Cavalry officer and life-long horse advocate, Marshall S.M. Budenny, personally ordered that these two stallions, along with a few pure-bred mares (4 or 9, depending on who's telling the story), be given the nearly impossible task of replicating the distinctive qualities of the Streletsky horse.

Wisely, equine specialists soon recognized that the Streletsky breed, per se, was lost to history: the surviving horses did not constitute a sufficiently large gene pool for the breed to survive, and the former breed name was retired. Over the next few years a few more pure-bred Streletsky mares were located and they, as well as additional mares of complementary type (which, in addition to various Streletsky crosses, including Don, Kabardin and Arabian, as well as Lipizzaners imported from Hungary) were added to this initial breeding herd. Both Tsilindr and Tsenitel lived long lives and were very successful at stud. The former, who died at age 27, produced several first-class stallions. The daughters of the latter, who died at age 23, were among the best breeding mares in the new herd. Arabian stallions were subsequently utilized to enlarge the gene pool and diffuse the impact of inbreeding. The developmental breeding program lasted for over twenty years and has been carefully documented; it is a tribute to the historic tradition of dedication and excellence in Russian horsebreeding.

This new breed came to be named Tersky, after the farm which received the remnants of the Streletsky herd in 1925 and began the breeding program. The threat of invasion by Germany in 1941 prompted the removal of the herd to western Kazakhstan, a journey that took 21 days and covered a distance of 900 kilometers. By 1945 the entire herd came back east, to the Stavropol Farm, (in the Northern Caucasus) where it has remained to this day.


The Tersky horse is a versatile recreation and sport horse, especially in dressage and endurance. Several individuals have achieved notable success in world-class competition. The circus has always been a popular venue for Terskys; Tseitnot (born 1978, pictured here) performed for six years before retiring to stud.