The Budenny

History
 After the Russian Revolution and World War I, with many equines having died in battle, the Russians needed to breed new mounts for the cavalry officers. Marshall Semyon Budenny, a respected Soviet general, began trying to create a perfect officer's mount in 1921. He looked for horses with favored characteristics–strength, sure-footedness, controllability, maneuverability, and spirit. Furthermore, the horse had to be be to survive on scanty rations and still be ready for action the next day.

 They achieved creating such a horse by crossing the Don, a native cavalry horse that traces back to Thoroughbreds, Arabians, and Russian Orlovs, with the English Thoroughbreds that had come over as racehorses in 1885. The best of the offspring was sent to the Budenny(pronounced bood-yo-nee) Higher Cavalry School, where they received training before becoming cavalry horses. Of this small amount of horses, only 10% of the mares and 5% of  the stallions were accepted as suitable breeding stock. In 1948, the horses were recognized as a breed and was named Budenny. In 1953, though, the USSR Calvary disbanded, changing the Budenny's role from a war horse to a sport horse.

If you really look at the Budenny, you can see the Thoroughbred in it.
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 Today, only 2,500 Budennies have been registered, with only 600 of them being mares.

Breed Description and Uses
 The Budenny has received the best qualities from both the Thoroughbred and the Don. From the Thoroughbred came its flowing, agile movement; its long neck; its slender, strong legs; large bones, and pretty head, while it inherits its hardiness and calm from the Don. Standing around 16 hands high, the Budenny usually comes in various shades of chestnut, also inherited from the Don. One peculiarity of the breed is that it has the same metallic sheen in its coat as the Don and the Akhal-Teke.

 The Buddenny's temperament, intelligence, and trainability make it an excellent war horse. Often, it is known as a one-person horse because it bonds so deeply with its handler, bravely doing anything for him, whether that be bravely marching into battle or boldly soaring over fences. Also, Budennies are smart enough to think independently should their rider be otherwise occupied. At the same time, though, they will do what their rider asks of them, even if they had made another choice.

 The Budenny excels in dressage, jumping, steeplechase, and eventing, though its ability to recover quickly from a hard exercise makes it an ideal mount for almost any sport.

Bashkir Curly Horse

 In 1898, a father and son found a small herd of three curly-coated horses living in the foothills of a mountain range in Nevada. They brought them home and began breeding them.

 Where the breed came from is a mystery. Some believe that early settlers, maybe even Russians or Vikings, brought the breed to America in the 1800s, naming it after an ancient Russian breed from the Bashkortostan region. Still, many people disagree with this theory, arguing that the curly-coated Russian breed was not the Bashkir, but the Lokai.

This breed's most distinctive trait is its curly coat.
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 Although its history and origins are yet unknown, people have come up with various theories. Some people say that the Curlies traveled across the Bering Strait during the last ice age. Others believe that Russians took them to Alaska. Still, their is no evidence to support either of these theories, and the second one has actually been disproved by a man named Shan Thomas, who had researched the possibility extensively. He had discovered that there was no mention of importing horses in Russian ship logs. Even if Bashkir horses were imported, it would have been impossible for them to make the perilous 3,000 mile journey through bitter cold blizzards and blistering deserts, all the way from Alaska to Nevada.

 Sightings of Curly Horses in South America have been reported as early as the late 1700s. This means that Curlies, or horses with the same gene, could have been brought to the continent long before the 1800s.

 In a Serology Lab in UC-Davis, people have done blood tests on 200 random Bashkir Curlies, finding that none of them displayed similar blood characteristics, as animals of the same breed would. In fact, each had blood characteristics of various different breeds, so each Curly was different with different breeds in its bloodline. This means that Curly Horses aren't a genetically distinct breed, but a type!

 Along those same lines, when a Curly Horse is bred to a horse without a curly coat, there is a 50% chance that their offspring would bear a curly coat.

 Curlies are born with hundreds of type curls all over their body. They are hardy horses, able to endure all kinds of harsh climates, and are bulky and round, usually standing from 14.2 to 15.1 hands high.

 Because Curlies are sure-footed, and agile, they make excellent trail, gymkhana, and western horses. They are also found in the dressage arena.