Karabair Horse

The Karabair is a breed of horse from Uzbekistan and is one of Central Asia’s oldest horse breeds. The breed originated from an area in Uzbekistan, known and famous since ancient times for the Karabair breed. The animal is well known for its soundness and stamina and is used in the traditional sport of Kok-Boru, a central Asian variant of horse polo.

Genetically the Karabair breed is a cross between oriental breeds and primitive steppe breeds. The result was a small but very fast riding horse. Farmers were careful to breed and retain some of the characteristics from the Arabic full-blood animals they bred with.

An example of these characteristics is the noble head, but the Karabair head was heavier and it lacked the Arab concave profile, so many of the animals today may have an almost convex or straight profile of the nose line.

The breeding took place in the area of Uzbekistan, which supplied a large network of intersecting trade routes, where the popularity of the breed was guaranteed and this led to a world wide distribution of the animals.

The most registered horses however seemed to be central Asia, but the breed is even mentioned by the Christians in tales of military campaigns.

Attributes
The Karabair is an excellent riding horse and is very sound and a naturally healthy horse that rarely suffers from lameness, or any other illnesses.

The horse also has a reputation for being bold and brave, through its wide use in the Uzbekistan’s national equestrian games called “kokpar” which is a variant of polo where instead of a ball and stick you use usually the body of a dead calf and you may use your hands and body in game play.

The breed is bred I large herds that are able to range for grazing, and sometimes they are fed hay or grain when there is really bad weather.

Although people sometimes race the animals it is not their strong point, their true abilities manifest in competitions of endurance where the breeds natural endurance and temperament shine through.