genetic research
What Texas A&M found in the Chaar horse's DNA
For years the case for the Chaar horse rested on what herders knew, what the old photographs showed, and the question a documentary crew came here to chase. In November 2012 hair samples were taken from 30 Chaar horses, and the Animal Genetics Laboratory at Texas A&M University analysed them, reporting on 24 October 2022. The report settles one question clearly: the Chaar is a genetically distinct horse.
the headline finding
"The Chaar horse is a genetically distinct indigenous horse of Central Asia that preserves an ancient Eurasian genetic heritage, and is most closely associated with a group of archaic horse populations represented by the Mongolian horse, the Yakut horse, and the Exmoor Pony."
Animal Genetics Laboratory, Texas A&M University, 2022
How the testing was done
Hair samples were taken from 30 Chaar horses in November 2012 and sent to the Animal Genetics Laboratory at Texas A&M University's School of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, where the lab read 15 stretches of DNA that vary between horses and used them to place the Chaar among 65 other breeds from around the world. The report came back on 24 October 2022. Five things came out of the work.
01
Genetically distinct
A distinct indigenous population of Kyrgyzstan, not a variant of any other recognised breed.
02
Diversity well above average
The lab's phrase is that the Chaar's variability sits "well higher than average for domestic horse breeds", with no evidence of genetic erosion or inbreeding, despite how small the herd was. These horses were sampled in 2012, when the breeding programme was just beginning, so the result describes the Chaar population the programme started from. Testing today's herd is the next step, and one we'd like to fund.
03
An ancient cluster
Clusters most closely with the Mongolian horse, and together with the Yakut horse and the Exmoor pony forms a group of ancient, little-modified Eurasian populations.
04
Older than most breeds alive today
Carries a genetic heritage that predates the development of most modern horse breeds. That makes the Chaar horse a real conservation resource, not a regional curiosity.
05
Not simply another Kyrgyz horse
The lab also tested the Toktogul, another Kyrgyz breed, which fell in with a group heavily shaped by the English Thoroughbred. The Chaar did not. Two horses from the same country, and only one of them still carries the old line.
the numbers behind it
- 0.753
- observed heterozygosity, against 0.732 expected, so slightly more variety than the model predicted
- 6.73
- different versions of each marker on average, from 101 variants found in all
- 30.7%
- of those variants are rare ones, the sort that vanish first when a population narrows
- −0.028
- inbreeding coefficient, slightly below zero, so no sign of inbreeding in the horses sampled
Figures from the Texas A&M report, based on 30 sampled horses and 15 autosomal STR loci.
The question this report doesn't answer
People usually come to this page wanting to know one thing: is the Chaar horse related to the American Appaloosa? This study doesn't say, because it never asked. The Appaloosa isn't among the 65 breeds in the comparison, and the work looks at population structure rather than coat colour, so the spotting itself was never tested.
Dr Cothran's first analysis of the same samples did look at the spotting. In the documentary True Appaloosa, he said: "About half the horses tested carried the Leopard complex gene responsible for the Appaloosa spotting pattern. Comparing that region across Kyrgyz, US and European horses suggests, though doesn't prove, that the mutation may have first arisen in Asia." That first analysis was later withdrawn and is no longer available, which is why this report is the one we publish.
What the report does establish is the ground you'd need before asking that question seriously. The Chaar is its own ancient line, with good diversity in the horses sampled, sitting with the Mongolian and the Yakut rather than with the Thoroughbred-influenced breeds. Whether some of that line travelled, and how, is the next study, and it's one we'd very much like to fund. The film is where the question came from.
Why the result matters so much
for the herd
Knowing the line is distinct and diverse tells the ranch exactly what to protect, and breeding decisions can be made on evidence rather than instinct.
for kyrgyzstan
The report puts a Kyrgyz horse on the same page as the Mongolian and the Yakut, in a paper from a lab anyone in the field will recognise. That's a claim the country can make and keep making.
for the wider picture
An ancient, little-modified population with good diversity is rare, and exactly the kind of thing conservation genetics exists to look after. More about the association.
the full report
Genetic Analysis of the CHAAR Horse Breed of Kyrgyzstan
E. Gus Cothran, R. Juras and J. Kjoellerstroem
Animal Genetics Lab., VIBS, School of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences,
Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843, USA
24 October 2022
There's more to find out
This report answered the first question, and left a better one standing. Testing the Chaar against the American Appaloosa, and testing the spotting itself, is work somebody has to pay for. If you'd like that study to happen, the fastest way to help is to keep the herd fed while the science catches up.
In the meantime, watch the film that started the search, or follow what happens at the ranch in the news, where the foals, the winters and the research all get written up.