Karabair

The Karabaier is a breed of horse from Uzbekistan with the typical construction of a heavy warm blood.

Background information on the evaluation and breeding horses can be found at: exterior, interior and horse breeding.

Exterior

The appearance of the Karabaiers resembles both the races the Steppe and the Arabs, Persians and Turkomans. He has a medium-sized clean -cut head with a straight profile or Roman nose, wide jowls, a medium- long summit and a high-set medium length neck. Some Karabaiers also have a shorter, more heavily muscled neck. The withers is on average long and high. The back is broad, short and sometimes soft. The loins are of medium length and well muscled. The croup is sloping and sometimes steeply. The shoulder blade is medium long and sometimes not slanted enough. The chest is well developed. The front legs are more developed than the hind legs. The legs are correctly set, dry and strong, with well developed tendons. The pastern is occasionally underdeveloped because of inadequate feeding and the hind legs are sometimes cow hocked.

Stallions have a shoulder height of 156 m, mares of 1.51 m.

Interior

The Karabaier is a perennial horse with versatile skills. The records of the breeds in races are 1:54 minutes for 1.6 miles and 2:51 minutes for 2.4 km. In long distance races managed Karabaier 14 km in 22 minutes and 34.6 seconds, and 25 km in 42 minutes and 6 seconds. The Karabaier is on long distances very powerful. The best time for 75 km was 3 hours and 32 minutes. In harness with 600 kg charge he managed 1.6 km in 5 minutes and 51 seconds, with 2,000 kg of cargo he needed 14 minutes and 45 seconds.

The Karabaier has a good health and a normal fertility of 75 to 85 foals per 100 mares and year.

Breeding history

The Karabaier is one of the oldest breeds in Central Asia. It was developed in Uzbekistan and northern Tajikistan. He was influenced by breeds of horses from the steppe and South Asian breeds. It has the typical construction of a heavy warm blood.

Today, the Karabaier is grown throughout the Uzbek Republic and there are about 1,500 breeding stallions and 3900 mares.

The breed has three types, an average type, a severe type, and a riding horse type. There are eight lines and five stallion mare lines. The main studs are in the region Jizak. The breed is operated as a pure breed with a closed studbook.