Turkmenistan Day 2 ~ The President Rides & An Akhal-Teke Beauty Contest

Our second day in Turkmenistan began at an hour no normal person in their right mind would willingly agree to embark on an adventure. Ironically... Ashgabad's time zone is exactly 12 hours ahead of the PST we are accustomed to, so at 3:00 in the morning Amrita and I were WIDE AWAKE; our poor confused brains stubbornly clinging to the idea that it was actually 3:00 in the afternoon. For this particular occasion, jet-lag worked in our benefit. We had been instructed to appear in the lobby of the hotel, smartly turned-out and without cameras, cell phones, or suspicious-looking metal objects, no later than 4:00 AM.

Not surprisingly, many people (including Amrita and I) boarded the buses with cameras, cell phones.... and various metal fashion accessories that--although not exactly suspicious-looking--would later cause much beeping from a pair of over-worked metal detectors. 


As the double-decker buses took us out of the city and into the surrounding desert, we started noticing details along the way that seemed... rather odd. We were entering an utter no-man's-land... but kept passing random groups of people standing on the side of the road, in the middle of nowhere, dressed-to-the-nines like they planned to attend a wedding before having breakfast. At 4:30 in the morning?! And even more strange was the sight of lone women aimlessly sweeping dirt off concrete with archaic-looking stick brooms, at desolate intersections where street lights were like a future-esque dream.

It slowly became apparent that these people had something to do with where we were going. The farther we drove... the bigger the groups of people became until there were literally HOARDS of them, appearing seemingly out of nowhere, wearing traditional Turkmen clothing and swarming the dark highway. What on earth were all these people doing?! We would soon find out!

Linda Welsch (left) and Amrita Ibold (right)...

After departing from the bus, but still waiting to see what was in store for us that day!

Girl in traditional Turkmen dress. 

The crowds grew thicker as we reached our destination... a hippodrome dedicated to Akhal-Teke racing.  From what we could see of it in the dark, it looked similar to the hippodrome we had visited in the center of Ashgabad the day before, only slightly more elaborate, perhaps a bit larger, and obviously more recently built. We filed off the buses and joined the crowds of people inching their way through a set of enormous iron gates. The hold-up, and possibly the reason why we had to arrive hours before dawn, was a scant pair of metal detectors through which everybody had to pass before entering the compound. This was the point at which people who had not followed directions regarding not bringing cell phones, cameras, and suspicious-looking metal objects, held up traffic by pleading with the officials to be allowed to enter with them anyways. Interestingly, despite the fact that the detectors' alarms sounded nearly every time somebody passed through... the presence of metal was largely dismissed in favor of confiscating cell phones and cameras. But we quickly observed that anybody claiming to have a "press pass" who was persistent enough to argue with security, was begrudgingly given permission to enter with their "equipment." Unfortunately... Amrita and her camera were forced to part ways at the gate.

Photo courtesy of Zhanibek Irgebayev

By the time we got into the hippodrome and were ushered to our seats... the sun was finally rising. And here is where we discovered what all the crowds of people were for: they were brought in by the bus-load to fill all of the seats! It all started to make sense. The event was broadcast on national television and featured a performance by the President himself... in a publicized event of this magnitude, the crowd had to look impressive. Interestingly, the "seat fillers" appeared to be color-coordinated; assigned to specific sections according to the color of their traditional dress, with men always taking up the outer two seats of every row. I guess you could call this Turkmen Crowd Control.

Photo courtesy of Zhanibek Irgebayev

The program began with opening speeches by various important people, live music, a greeting by President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, and AT LAST... Akhal-Tekes! A series of horses adorned in Turkmen silver tack and, interestingly, western-style show saddles, were led off horse trailers parked in the center of the race course. One by one, they were presented to the audience as what I assumed were prized representations of Turkmenistan's finest Akhal-Tekes. There seemed to be one of every major coat color, the last being a stunning grey stallion that was readied for the President to ride. This in itself was a grand process.... the President's royal blue riding coat was brought out to him on a pillow, followed by a tasseled whip, and finally, a pair of spurs. As he walked to the edge of the track and prepared to mount his horse... the audience collectively held its breath. Some people were clearly in awe of their equestrian president... but I think a lot of people (such as myself) were wondering if he would be able to pull it off! His gorgeous grey stallion had already put on his own fantastic show of striking, rearing, and leaping-about. Nevertheless... President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov managed not only to stay in the saddle, but proceeded to put the stallion through his paces; executing them with (in my opinion) a typically domineering style of riding. This included on-command rearing, pawing, bowing, and an interesting variation of Spanish Walk (shall I call it Turkmen Walk?).  Just when we thought we had seen it all... a flock of white doves flew out from the grandstands, one of them landing on the President's shoulder! The color-coordinated crowd went wild... and my brain got sensory-overload from so many iconic images at once. And all before 10:00 AM! It was quite an amazing morning on the other side of the world.


President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov completed the performance with a gallop around the track... two escorts on black horses following close behind. Though we never managed to photograph or video the performance directly, we captured some of it via video screens the following day. If you look closely, you can see the dove as it approaches the President's shoulder:

And a video.... of the video:

                          

The show continued with some AMAZING trick riding and an Akhal-Teke beauty contest. The breeder of the winning horse would receive a brand new car, a trophy, and what I imagine is an incredible amount of prestige. The "contestants" were presented one-by-one to a panel of judges who collectively scored them on what I presumed was type, movement, conformation, and perhaps character. 

True to what I had been told about Akhal-Tekes in Turkmenistan... the horses in the beauty contest absolutely exuded type. All had gorgeous faces with exotic hooded eyes and angular heads set on gracefully long necks. A few were near-perfect in both conformation and type throughout their bodies. But some had obvious conformation faults (primarily of the legs), and a majority had (by sport horse standards) fairly slight bone development. In a culture where equine beauty is considered an art form in itself... I wondered whether the judges would score the faults accordingly, or if they would be overlooked as inconsequential characteristics not effecting the horses' overall type.


Entries in the contest were stallions and included an array of coat colors, including some spectacular examples of the metallic buckskins and palominos the breed is most famous for. In continuity with the President's performance, the horsemanship was typical of a culture enraptured by machoism; displays of aggression and dominance are viewed as important traits of a stallion's masculine character. From a very young age they are trained to paw, bow, strike and rear on command. But the handlers also seemed to provoke misbehavior to the point where some of the stallions were dangerously out if control... one particularly aggressive (though strikingly beautiful) black stallion broke free from his handler twice, the second time proceeding to gallop wildly around the entire circumference of the track!


The winner of the beauty contest was a stunning golden buckskin stallion. I was relieved to see that the judges had chosen a specimen that was not only the embodiment of beautiful type, but also displayed correct conformation and a healthy amount of bone. The breeder of the horse was exultant... rushing to the podium to receive his award, then proceeding to lavish kisses on the gorgeous face of his prize Akhal-Teke stallion.


Shortly after the awards ceremony we were quickly ushered from our seats and back to the buses by way of the giant iron gates. Apparently, the show was over! There was some confusion regarding the confiscated cameras and cell phones. We heard someone say they had been put in plastic bags... but nobody seemed to know where all the plastic bags had been put. Meanwhile, our chaperones were urging us to board the buses. Just when I was starting to worry that we would never see Amrita's camera again... out of the corner of her eye she spotted a man walking across the lot holding a plastic bag in one hand, and her camera bag in the other! Luckily he was headed in the right direction... and before long Amrita was reunited with her camera. We boarded the bus and were taken back to Ashgabad for lunch. Later that afternoon we had the opportunity to go to a market that was an hour's drive outside the city. This was our first chance to see some of the countryside during daylight... and the sights included a pair of camels and their adorable babies, being led along the dusty highway by their master. Unfortunately, we arrived at the market after most of the vendors had closed for the day, but were still able to purchase some crafts as souvenirs of our trip.


The next day we were up early again... this time to attend the President's speech at the opening day of horse racing, as well as the televised grand opening celebrations of four newly-built hippodromes. And afterwards.... the races!


(For the rest of our trip we were allowed to photograph and video freely... so I promise, the upcoming posts will contain much more interesting footage! Stay Tuned for Day 3...)

Read all about our Trip To Turkmenistan by visiting the following posts:

To Turkmenistan We Go

http://eventingakhaltekes.blogspot.com/2011/04/to-turkmenistan-we-go.html

Jet Lag  

http://eventingakhaltekes.blogspot.com/2011/04/jet-lag.html 

Turkmenistan Day 1 - The International Akhal-Teke Horse Breeding Association

http://eventingakhaltekes.blogspot.com/2011/05/turkmenistan-day-1-first-meeting-of.html 

Turkmenistan Day 2 - The President Rides & An Akhal-Teke Beauty Contest 

http://eventingakhaltekes.blogspot.com/2011/05/turkmenistan-day-2-president-rides.html 

Turkmenistan Day 3, Part 1 - The Races 

http://eventingakhaltekes.blogspot.com/2011/05/turkmenistan-day-3-part-1-races.html 

Turkmenistan Day 3, Part 2 - A Bigger-Than-God-Himself Hippodrome-In-The-Works 

http://eventingakhaltekes.blogspot.com/2011/05/turkmenistan-day-3-part-2-bigger-than.html 

Turkmenistan Day 4, Part 1 - The Circus 

http://eventingakhaltekes.blogspot.com/2011/05/turkmenistan-day-4-part-1-circus.html

Turkmenistan Day 4, Part 2 - The Stud Farms 

http://eventingakhaltekes.blogspot.com/2011/06/turkmenistan-day-4-part-2-stud-farms.html 

Turkmenistan Day 5 - The Russian Bazaar 

http://eventingakhaltekes.blogspot.com/2011/06/turkmenistan-day-5-russian-bazaar.html