the horse

The Kyrgyz Chaar horse

An ancient spotted mountain horse of Kyrgyzstan. For centuries it lived alongside nomadic families, shaped more by weather and altitude than by people. Then a century of crossbreeding, first for the Russian cavalry and then on Soviet collective farms, diluted the line until only a handful were left. It shares the leopard spotting gene with the Appaloosa; whether it is the Appaloosa's ancestor is still an open question.

Today there is a real effort to bring the breed back, led by horseman Munarbek Kuldanbaev and the International Chaar Appaloosa Horse Association, from Chaar Ranch in the Tian Shan mountains.

where it started

It began with one stallion

Munarbek found Chaar Suluu first. Every horse in the breeding programme today goes back to him and the three stallions who followed. Tan Suluu and Ak Suluu are not his sons, and their mares are all his daughters. Chaarlie, his son, runs with mares from that other line. That way there is no inbreeding, and every foal still carries Chaar Suluu’s blood.

how they live

Raised the nomad way

We raise the Chaar the way Kyrgyz herders always have. Each stallion lives with his own herd of mares, and the herd breeds naturally. There is no artificial insemination and no semen sent off around the world, as is common in modern breeding. A horse finds its herd and, ideally, stays with it for life, as Chaar Suluu has with his.

In summer the herds roam the high pastures semi-wild, finding their own grazing, with the horsemen riding up once or twice a week to check on them. In winter, when snow closes the pastures, they come down to Chaar Ranch for shelter and extra food.

That life is what made them: intelligent, brave and sure-footed on steep ground, with strong natural hooves and the stamina to carry a rider for days. Take a Chaar out of the mountains and into a stable or a paddock, and over the generations those traits slowly fade.

Raising horses this way takes knowledge, skill, patience and a great deal of time. It is far harder than keeping them safe in a stable, behind a fence. It is also the only way to keep the breed we are trying to save.

how to recognise one

Four signs of a Chaar horse

Chaar horses carry the leopard complex traits, the same set seen in the Appaloosa. Here's what to look for.

1. 01

   The coat

   Spots are the obvious one. They can cover the whole body (leopard), sit in a white patch over the hips (blanket), or appear as flecks across a darker base colour like bay, black or chestnut (snowflake).

   Look closely and many spots have a soft "halo", a ring where the dark skin shows through lighter hair around the edge.

2. 02

   The eyes

   A ring of white around the iris, called the sclera, easy to see even when the horse is looking straight at you. Most horses hide it.

3. 03

   Skin and hooves

   Mottled, speckled skin around the muzzle, eyes and under the tail, and hooves marked with vertical light and dark stripes.

4. 04

   The gait

   Hardest to see in a photo, easiest to feel in the saddle. Many Chaar horses move with a smooth four-beat gait, close to the old "Indian Shuffle", so riders can cover long mountain distances without the jolt of a trot.

what the dna showed

Spots that may have started in Asia

Dr E. Gus Cothran of Texas A&M University analysed samples taken from 30 of our horses in 2012. In the documentary True Appaloosa, he explained what he found.

"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. Roughly half also carried the DMRT3 variant linked to a smooth lateral gait, a trait rarely seen in Asian horses."

Dr E. Gus Cothran, Clinical Professor, Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences, Texas A&M University, in True Appaloosa

That first analysis was later withdrawn and is no longer available. The 2022 Texas A&M report on the same horses looked at their wider genetic make-up rather than the spotting, so it neither confirms nor rules out a link with the Appaloosa.

part of kyrgyz life

A horse woven into the culture

For nomadic families, horses meant everything: how you travelled, herded, traded and celebrated. The spotted horse has its own place in that story. In the epic of Manas, Kyrgyzstan's national epic, the twelve-year-old Manas rides into his first fight on a horse called Toruchaar. In the legend of Tolubai Synchy, the horse-reader Tolubai passes over every fine horse brought to him and chooses a scruffy chaar with forty wounds, which later outruns the king's riders. Many Chaar horses still move with the jorgo, the smooth ambling gait riders have prized for long days in the saddle.

Bringing the Chaar back keeps a piece of that culture alive in the place it came from, worked by horsemen whose families have always done this work.

where we are now

From one stallion to 80+ horses

What began with Chaar Suluu is now a carefully managed herd of 80+ Chaar horses at Chaar Ranch. New foals arrive every spring, and each one is recorded, followed and raised on the mountain.

• Protect rare Chaar bloodlines
• Keep breeding ethical and rooted in Kyrgyzstan
• Preserve nomadic horse culture in Central Asia

Monthly supporters are what keep the herd going through the winters. Most give €15 a month; any amount helps.

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quick facts

Breed standard

Breed

Kyrgyz Chaar horse

Origin

Kyrgyzstan

Height

140 to 160 cm (13.3 to 15.3 hh), ideally 145 to 158 cm

Foundation sire

Chaar Suluu

Used for

Riding, mountain work, endurance and expeditions, free-ranging herds, heritage breeding

Coat patterns

Leopard, few spot leopard, blanket, snowcap, snowflake, varnish roan, frost, marble, and other leopard complex patterns

Appaloosa traits

Leopard complex coat, mottled skin, striped hooves, visible white sclera

Gait

Often a smooth four-beat gait, similar to the Indian Shuffle