MOSCOW, June 8. /TASS Correspondent Yulia Bochkareva/. Horses of the Yakut breed are easy to identify: fluffy, stocky, short, only 135 cm high at the withers, with large round bellies and short legs. The undercoat and long hair keep them warm in severe frosts. With the very strong legs the horses dig deep snow in search of food and fend off predators. Here is a story about how horses are bred in Yakutia and why only recently they have become widely known.

Versions of origin

There are several versions of how horses appeared in Yakutia. According to the first, they have lived there for a long time, and the Yakut tribes who began living in the area were able to tame them. The second version says resettling ancient people brought with them belongings and pets, including horses.

Naturalist and traveler Alexander Middendorf was the first to publish in the middle of the 19th century first scientific information about ancient horses in northern Asia. He wrote about a horse jaw found in a grave on the Taimyr Peninsula along with bones of mammoths and wild bulls. This confirmed that horses lived in the Arctic back in the era of mammoths, he thought.

Horses, though very tall and heavy, really lived in the north of Yakutia in the early the Ice Age. Skeleton remains of such a giant horse were found in the Kolyma lowland. The animal was 1.8 m high at the withers. Paleontologist Peter Lazarev suggested that the Yakut breed originated from the ancient Lena horse - that extinct horse species was a representative of the mammoth fauna and existed in the open Arctic steppes and light coniferous forest-steppe to the Middle (about 4,500 years ago), and maybe even to Late (about 1,500 years ago) Holocene.

However, the find in 2009 in the Batagaika area in Yakutia's Verkhoyansk District refuted that suggestion. Scientists found there remains of a horse, which geological age was estimated at 4,450 years. Genetic studies and results of DNA comparison with the modern Yakut horse showed those were different species. The ancient Lena horse died out, leaving no descendants.

Horse worship

Yakut horses can withstand 60-degree frosts in winter and the summer spikes, when daytime temperatures can reach +30°C and higher, and at night they fall by 15-20°C. All year round they are outdoors, grazing in herds on the Yakut expanses. Each leader - you can tell one by the long mane - has his herd, which may consist of more than ten mares and foals. These freedom-loving animals get food by themselves, but in extremely long and harsh winters owners do go to the herds for additional feeding.

Yakutia ranks first among Russian regions in terms of the number of horses - grazing herds are found practically everywhere across the region, and the total number exceeds 180,000 horses.

The history of the Yakuts is closely connected with horse breeding. In ancient times, the Yakut tribes had small settlements in river valleys and meadows near lakes. The wealth was measured by cattle: the more horses and cows, the richer is the person.

Horses gave everything most essential to their owners - they served as transport, gave food, clothes, and helped in the household. For example, the Yakuts made koumiss from mare's milk, clothes, fishing gear from horsehair, and even traditional dishes: the Yakuts used to sew birch bark with horsehair. Meat horse breeding is Yakutia's basic agricultural sector, and foal is still considered a delicacy there.

The animal's image is very typical for the culture of Yakutia. One of the main Yakut deities, Jesegey Ayyy, is the horse patron. The horse is a faithful companion of heroes in the Yakut Olonkho epic. Horse races are the key event of the main Yakut holiday, Ysyakh.

Journey from Oymyakon

The Yakut horse is an aboriginal breed that lives only in Yakutia, thus for a long time only few outside the region knew about that breed. The horses became widely popular two years ago after a multi-kilometer horse crossing, which continued for almost a year and a half, where riders on the stocky horses finished the journey in Moscow.

One of the riders - Duguidan Vinokurov - comes from a family of horse breeders. His father - Semyon Vinokurov - had given to the son all the horses for the crossing. They are a dynasty of horse breeders, where the father has been working with horses for half a century - he owns a horse farm of about 200 animals.

Duguidan told us the father had picked horses and told the son: "Once you've made up your mind, then go to the end." The father had experienced a horse journey, though not that long and not so consciously. His parents, Semyon and Irina, took the nine-month-old boy on horseback from Oymyakon to Okhotsk in the Khabarovsk Region - a trip of almost 1,000 kilometers long. Later on, there was another similar horse-riding trip when the boy turned three. So, the love for horses and long journeys is in Duguidan's blood.

The horse crossing started on March 5, 2021, when riders Duguidan Vinokurov and Michil Neustroev left the Yuchyugey village in Yakutia's Oymyakon. That area's hallmark is the extreme cold: it is the pole of cold and the official residence of the global cold keeper - Chyshaan. Oymyakon fully confirmed the freezing status on the start day - the temperature was 52 degrees below zero, Duguidan said.

The horse crossing organizers say their main goal was to show endurance of the Yakut breed horses, capable of covering long distances in different seasons and galloping in any weather on a variety of terrain. Four horses participated in the trip. The riders used to change them during the journey. They used horses both for riding and to transport things, tents, and food.

Initially, Duguidan and Michil planned the final destination would be in London. The route was laid along country roads, taiga and busy highways. At the beginning of the journey, the travelers crossed mountain passes in the Oymyakon area, known for typical snowdrifts. At first, Duguidan said, horses got often scared, because earlier they had only rarely seen people or cars.

The project was supported by the Oymyakon and Ust-Aldan districts, as well as by the Russian Geographical Society and local businesses. And yet, the riders continued the crossing at own risk. They counted only on themselves and traveled without accompanying equipment. Normally, they were trying to cover 45-60 km every day.

Instead of London - Moscow

A month later, the riders arrived in Yakutsk, where they had to stay for two months due to the coronavirus pandemic. It was then that they decided to change the final destination. Reasons were numerous, and the main one was the closed borders, due to which Nikita Grezi of the UK was unable to join the trip.

"We've changed the route, but not the main goal," Duguidan said. "We still wanted to present the Yakut horse and its capabilities. By that time, our expedition was timed to coincide with the 100th anniversary of Yakutia, and it made more sense to head for Moscow than for London."

The animals needed water, hay and oats supplies. Traveling became easier after Yakutsk: on a Gazelle car, provided by a local businessman, the travelers transported belongings and food for the horses.

In April 2022, when they reached the Novosibirsk Region, Michil had to stop participating in the project: his mare died in an accident, and the stallion suffered an eye injury. Duguidan continued the journey on his own, until his nine-year-old son Darkhan joined him in Kazan. In the long run, the son and the father rode remaining 700 km to Moscow.

"Darkhan managed the journey perfectly. He has been riding since childhood. We were equal - after a day in the saddle, in the evening, he helped to settle down for the night, to cook food, to put up the tent," the father said.

Further on, 16 months later, on July 15, 2022, the Yakut riders reached Moscow. The project's festive finish took place on July 30 at the Kolomenskoye Park during the celebration of Ysyakh, which was dedicated to Yakutia's 100th anniversary. The route's total length made almost 11,000 km. The riders and horses crossed 17 regions of Russia and seven time zones. The idea of a new journey appeared practically immediately.

To Kolyma, following ancestors routes

The second project was dubbed Routes of Great Ancestors. It ran from the Yakut village of Yuchyugey to the Seymchan village in the Magadan Region. The length was about 800 km, where some 300 km were off-road. Duguidan Vinokurov was the only rider. He was accompanied by a cook, an operator and a driver in an UAZ car, which also carried hay and oats for the horses.

The journey began on February 21, 2023, and, like in the previous case, the rider started in terrible cold - the thermometer showed minus 55 degrees. The project was supported by the Russian Geographical Society.

In addition to the plan to confirm once again the endurance of Yakut horses, the rider faced another task - to spend the night, like the ancestors did, in the open air without a tent, only in a sleeping bag. The traveler had appropriate equipment - two sets of clothes and sleeping bags - a traditional and a modern.

The national outfit, from hat to boots, was sewn of deer and horse skins, hare and fox furs - all to fit the traveler's size. The kits were provided by a commercial company. Both sets worked well, but the modern sleeping bag required drying due to the formed condensation.

"Everything was fine in the traditional sleeping bag, with no condensation. But noteworthy the traditional kit weighed about 70 kg, while a set of modern clothes weighed about 5 kg - from socks to the sleeping bag," Duguidan said. During that journey, he spent four nights outdoors, and the rest - in a tent.

It took about six weeks to get to Seymchan. The lowest temperature during the trip was minus 58 degrees. It was recorded at the border between Yakutia and Kolyma.

Duguidan plans to continue promoting the Yakut horse breed. He wants to organize an international-level museum to present both the Yakut and other breeds. He also wants to develop tourism in his native Oymyakon District. A possible option would be to offer horseback riding trips in those scenic places.

"I want to open a riding school, preferably near Yakutsk. Those who learn to ride Yakut horses, would be able to ride any breed," he said with confidence.