Akhalteke horses – movie heroes
“Everything related to horses is amazing, they are marvelous themselves, their history is astonishing, and people around horses are wonderful” - these are words of writer Boris Almazov. Being from the Don Cossack clan, Boris found himself in the saddle when he was just a year old as the old Cossack custom re-quired. And, apparently, having absorbed a love for horses and horseback rid-ing since childhood, the writer became a true expert in this issue.
Boris Alexandrovich wrote several books on the history of horses and the rela-tionship between man and horse. His book “Amazing Horses” has become a re-al encyclopedia, where horses are described with great love and admiration. And based novel “The Most Beautiful Horse” by Almazov a film of the same name was shot in 1976.
The story, like the film, was intended for a teenage audience. The main charac-ter in this story is sixth grader Igor Ponomarev, a fidget and a big dreamer. The boy constantly finds himself in unpleasant situations, and he has enough prob-lems in communicating with the peers. But everything changes when, unexpect-edly for him, the boy becomes fond of equestrian sport and enters an equestrian school.
Igor helps the teacher look after a sick horse named Konus. The main horse role in the film was played by golden-dun Akhalteke Granat. A thoroughbred and valuable horse with big eyes stimulated the boy’s huge interest in equestrian sport. Through communication with the horse, the fidget boy reveals all the breadth and versatility of the world around him, and success in equestrian sport allows him to succeed in school.
The Turkmen horse breed has more than once inspired foreign and domestic filmmakers. Presented at the Moscow International Film Festival, the movie “Akhalteke Horses” by Murad Ashirov showed the audience with documentary accuracy a herd of horses running round a cliff in a mountainous area, and the film continues with another image of the “heavenly horses” - horse racing at the hippodrome, where the proud Akhalteke beautiful horses do not leave a chance for rivals of other breeds.
The film “At-myrat” shown on the screen in Turkmenistan in 2017 once again immortalized the image of the Akhalteke horse. The motion picture produced by the Turkmenfilm Association is about the story of boy Merdan, learning the ba-sics of horse breeding under the guidance of his grandfather Cherkez aha.
The young rider is carried in his imagination to the time of Oghuz Khan, where his fantasies depict the heroes of the past - brave riders who gained fame in the ability to cope with the jibbing Akhalteke horses.
The centuries-old connection of generations continues. Today, young athletes are trained at equestrian grounds of Turkmenistan. The Ashgabat Hippodrome is always open to guests. According to the local trainers, they are ready to wel-come into their students all those who are devoted to the Akhalteke horses.
Selbi CHARIYEVA
