Tersk Stud Spring 2015 - A conversation with Sergey Ivanov, Tersk Stud Director
6 April 2015, ~ Horsereporter recently caught up with Tersk Stud Director Sergey Ivanov in Qatar. He was happy to tell us of some of the exciting advances of breeding at Tersk and that the Stud is looking forward to the spring and summer Shows and Open House where these special horses are presented to the world.
86 babies expected in 2015
There are 86 babies expected from 90 broodmares for the 2015 Tersk foal crop. As of February there were 46 babies already on the ground.
Tersk Stud is located in the Caucasus Mountains in southern European Russia. Babies come early in Russia and are generally born from 1 January to 1 April. As Russian winters can be quite cold, the mares all have stalls but are turned out each day to roam the steppes. In good weather from May until October the horses enjoy the tall grasses and wander naturally to drink the clear waters.
Tersk Stud is now standing 16 stallions, and horses are both live-bred and inseminated, depending on the need and stallion chosen.
Breeding from deep frozen semen
Of premier importance is the blood of the Tersk Stallions, Mashuk, Aswan, *Muscat, and *Moment, all now deceased. With methods recently developed, the use of deep frozen semen of these top horses is able to be used and breedings are carefully chosen. In 2013, thanks to this technical progress and with the help of specialists, babies were born using deep frozen semen from Aswan, Mashuk and *Muscat. One such prized baby is the colt, Apollon Tersk (Aswan x Pelopia by Piligrim) from the deep frozen semen of Aswan. Tersk is expecting to have more babies from each of the stallions by March 2016-2017.
Training
Training begins at six months of age and race training starts at age two. The horses are prepared to run for a distance of 1100 meters (.68mile ). When ready, the Tersk horses are sent to the Pyatigorsk, Kazan, Krasnodar and Moscow racetracks at the age of two and older and may race for one or two seasons. The best performers race on Sundays, with two-year-olds running 1,400 meters and older horses running 1,600 – 2,400 meters. This early training culls the horses that will race and which ones will be offered for sale. Top individuals may be used for breeding at Tersk or return to the racetrack for another season. Many others will be sold at the age of three. Any horse used for breeding at Tersk is required to be rated “Elite” or “Grade I” in the Russian Stud Book. Horses that receive lower grades are sent to other studs or sold. The young horses have been tested in this fashion for hundreds of years as only the best are good enough to continue in the Tersk Breeding program.
Some horse are also started into the endurance program at the age of six. These races are 40/80 and 100 kms.
Show horses are another important part of the Tersk Breeding program. In 2014 Tersk claimed three Top Ten European Championships in Belgium.
One excellent example of a winner across disciplines is the well-bred 2011 filly, Wanna Be Best Tersk (Nitagor* x Vupi*). After a race record in 2013 & 2014 of 12 races – 2 wins, 8 seconds, 4 thirds, and total prize money or €2,264,76, the filly went on to success in the show ring.The beautiful bay received Best in Show, Best Junior, and Gold Junior filly at the 2014 Athletic Cup, which was held at Tersk Stud with all Russian Arabian Horse Breeders Association (RAHBA) members and other horse owners participating.
Rising Star of Tersk National Show and Tersk Open Days
If you are interested in seeing or owning some of these fine old bloodlines, you are welcome to visit – or come to the National Show “Rising Star of Tersk” and the Auction on the 30th and 31st of May, or to the annual Tersk Open Days on the 22nd and 23rd of August.
Breeders come from all over the world for the Open Days and Auction. Buyers who attended the 2014 Auction included those from Iran, Israel, Mongolia, Kazakistan, and Kirkistan.