• scan #1 - page 267
  
• scan #2 - page 268 (temporarily lost)

Click below to read scans of article that is a translation from the Russians to Shan Thomas (Myth & Mystery).

• Shan Thomas Report from Russia page #1 - report dated June 23, 1988
  
• Shan Thomas Report from Russia page #2 - note the paragraph above the little side arrow and see the way the curly coat is expressed - especially about the ones that had curly hair on their neck and backs and straight hair on their bellies and faces.
  

"According to this one old book, enough Bashkir horses were curly to be described as "cheval a poil frize' in those years during the research for that article. When Shan Thomas did her research there were no curly Bashkir horses at the Bashkiri Stud Farm in 1989 - hence her answer from Scoto Imports.

This sure doesn't mean that our horses are related to the Bashkirs in any way. Tom even helped with the research trying to find Russian horses on ships logs when the Russians settled in California about 1840. Couldn't find any. When Shan Thomas who wrote Myth and Mystery contacted the Horse Industry in Russia in 1988: They had many of their breeding groups of horses on stud farms and denied that any Bashkir Horses on their Stud Farm was curly." Sandy (IN)

"Hi Interesting picture but i wonder if there might have been a different breed in that area in those days because the conformation of this horse does not resemble a Bashkir at all."  // Cecilia (Sweden)


Subj: [ICHOCHAT] Re: North American Curly Horse origin
Date: 12/14/02
From: Lene@curly.no
To:    ICHOCHAT@yahoogroups.com

"I think it is interesting that there might have been curly coated Basjkir ponies, just like in any breed where there might have been curly coated individuals. BUT there have been and still are curly coated horses in MANY breeds, but nobody gets us any closer to how the curls got to North America.

"A little thought experiment. What if the earliest Curly breeders had known about the Lokai horses and called their breed for American Lokai Curly? Would that make it more likely that they were descendants from the Lokai horse? Or if they had known that there have been curly coated Icelandics and called their horses for Icelandic Curly? Imagine what a mess when real Icelandics started to be imported to America. If all books and references said that the "Icelandic Curly" were descendants of curly coated Icelandic horses the vikings brought over (actually a more likely scenario than Basjkir horses wandering across a continent, crossing the Bering Strait and spread all the way down to South America during the last Ice Age). And a mix of the qualities of Icelandics and Curlies was presented as a breed description. Who wouldn't think that crossing curlies to the Icelandics would be the "right" thing to do, getting closer to the origin.

"The Basjkir connection has been a disaster for the Curly horse in Sweden, just because of a name. A couple of days ago I got an email from a Swedish girl who is allergic. With high hopes she had travelled to a Basjkir owner to test her allergy. The owner had said that "they were real such horses and hypoallergenic". She got an allergic reaction and was devastated. Until she read a book (thank heavens for the hard work of the Curly horse breeders in Sweden, books have finally started to change!), who said that the Curly and the Basjkir were not the same breed, not even related. Then she went to the internet and found my website.

"What if she hadn't read that book? Or she had read an older book that stated for instance the following quote (picked from a website): "Bashkir, or Bashkirshy pony, mares are often kept in milking herds in their native country, and have been known to produce 3 to 6 gallons of milk a day. This is highly prized milk, and as well as standard uses of milk, cream and butter, it is also made into a delicious cheese. The milk may also may be fermented into kumiss, which is used as an intoxicating drink and for medicinal purposes. Older animals are used for meat, and the hide is used to make clothing. The long, curly hairs can be spun into cloth. The Bashkiri don't even waste the bones. There are two types of Curlies which developed in Russia, a smaller mountain type pony and a larger steppe type horse. The difference may have occurred due to the amount and type of feed available in their respective areas. The curly coat may grow from 4-6" long in extremely cold climates. This characteristic, along with the extra layer of fat unique to the breed, these ponies are able to withstand harsh conditions and survive on scant rations."

"Or read what it says in "The Ultimate Horse Book";
http://members.tripod.com/~White_Arabian/bashkir.html

"It is easy for us that know curlies so well, to know what is true, what is probable and what is complete nonsense. But for other people it is not that easy, they will believe what they read and hear.

"My prayer is; Please, let us not go back in time getting this terrible mixup back again. We have still long ways to go before it is accepted that the Basjkir and the Curly is not the same breed. Even if there has been curly coated horses among the Basjkirs, do NOT emphasize it. Do not emphasize connections with any other breed before we have proof.

"It should be enough to state that: "Through history, at least since 4000 years back in China, there have existed curly coated horses in a number of breeds. In modern time North America is the only place where we know that curly horses has been bred purposedly and to an extensive degree. Many theories about the origin of the North American Curly have been launched, but no theory has been proved." Lene (Norway)


From: Sandra Hendrickson [greycoat@comcast.net]
Subject: Re: North American Curly Horse origin

"Lene----- That confusion in Sweden has never ceased to amaze me because many explanations were made that these were very differently bred horses having been mixed on our western plains for 200 years and that the origin of the curlies has never been ascertained. I can't believe that confusion still exists ...

"One thing that I was brought up with is that the more information one is exposed to - the better one is able to make the best conclusions - not to protect people from facts and figures due to the fear that they will draw the wrong conclusions. I thought it was interesting to find the article about the curly Bashkirs and thought others would also share my curiosity. I have other articles about curlies found in other places that I thought would be interesting as well. The more we know - the better able we will be to continue on our quest for more knowledge." Sandy (IN)


"Sandy, please don't think I was underestimating the importance of your research. I do respect you highly and all the work you have done and do for the Curly Horse :-) In fact, I couldn't agree more. Information is good, and should not be hidden. I also think it is very interesting with the curly horses from Bashkiria and other places. I would love to read more about it, so please do post what you have.

"I also feel like you that the Swedish mixup is very strange, but is has proven to be an extremely hard myth to kill, especially as the Basjkir horse people in Sweden also market their breed as hypoallergenic. You have no idea how happy I am for the University of Aachen study! Now I can state that the Curly is the only breed that are proven to have hypoallergenic qualities by scientific research. I can do so, keeping to facts, without saying something wrong about the Basjkirs (if there are allergic people that have Basjkirs and are fine with them, I am happy for those people, so it has nothing to with a "Basjkir war" or anything like that. I have seen just a few many of them and they looked like allright horses).

"My main concern was the research proposal that was going to be read by people that knows very little about curly horses. I wanted to be clear and not emphasize connections [of the North American Curly Horse] with any [other] breed since no connection is proven, particularly not the Basjkir pony just because it easily could add fuel to the misconception. But for longer, more in depth scripts about curly horse origin I feel an ellaboration of all curly accounts would be appropiate, as long as one also discuss the likelihood of the different origins. For instance having it on the ICHO page along with other curly accounts would be great! I haven't gotten time to educate myself about what mtDNA really is, but it would be really cool if a research study could reveal more about the origin of the curly gene."  Lene (Norway)