Check out these stunning photographs from Chinese photographer Li Gang who He followed the tribesmen who herd the Shandan and Mongolian breeds through the snow-covered landscape. These images look like paintings to me.
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Stunning! Thank you for sharing!
Incredible. Great photography! Thanks for sharing these.
In September our farm did a breed booth for the Akhal-Teke in Shanghai and Li Gang was exhibiting some of his work at the expo. He visited out booth and talked with us several times (accompanied by his barn manager & translator)… he is a very unique person and his photographs are amazing. He also happens to own a fair number of Akhal-Tekes himself!
Oh wow, those are stunning!
As images these are beautiful. But read the article please, especially those of you who are horse people. These photographs are described as being taken in -30 weather. Would YOU induce YOUR horses to gallop around for the camera in those temperatures? I may be mistaken (and if so, eagerly await the alternative explanation) but it seems Mr. Li has hired one or more herders and paid them to “push” these horse to do something that is seriously dangerous for them. It’s one thing to risk heavy exertion in those temps and the potential lung damage when being chased by a pack of wolves, quite another to have it happen so that people like us can admire photos. I think Mr. Li owes all who view these pictures a plausible explanation.
Actually, it may not be as much of a problem as you would imagine. In the article I published earlier this week, that references a post from a Norwegian blogger, she links to a study that was done in Sweden on Standardbred Racehorses. In Sweden, these horses race outside during the winter when temperatures are often -25. Her post states: “Five standardbred horses were subjected to a treadmill exercise in a climate chamber, first in +17C (63F) and then in -25C (-13F). Conclusion was that the cold exposure (-25C) did not seem to have any untoward effects on near maximal exercise tolerance. On the contrary the cold environment seemed to be beneficial for heat dissipation during exercise. Further, no evidence of tissue damage in the respiratory tract was observed. The horses showed no sign of discomfort during exercise in the cold.” Here is a link to a PDF of the report: http://www.iceep.org/pdf/iceep2/_1129101021_001.pdf
I assume that the -31 referenced in the Daily Mail article is also Celsius.
On the other hand:
(and I believe most research does support this)
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12405726
Remember also that the Swedish study is on a treadmill with control of speed and conditions. The photographs are taken in the open, running in deep snow, inhaling cold, dry snow and being induced to run by being spooked either by a herder or, judging from the one birds-eye shot, a helicopter. Not nearly the same conditions. And the main focus of the study in Sweden was on metabolism, not trauma from cold to the respiratory system. Would you gallop YOUR horse around in those conditions?
There are some horsebreeds who can deal with cold temperatures, and the achal tekkiner is among those, like my Islandic is. The importand thing is, that they may not go to sweat and thus have humidity in the under pard of the fur. No natural kept horses runs free in this cold times! Even my Islandic is not willing to galopp in this time and of course he needs not! They do spare there energy and they do not want to sweat.
I would like to recommend you something about mongolia: http://www.save-the-wild-horse.com
A sight to behold, wish I were there