06/01/06 Breeding a new history

Breeding a new history. I'm Greg Martin with today's Line On Agriculture. The Nez Perce tribe has long been known for the development of the Appaloosa. That incredibly sturdy, yet cantankerous spotted horse. When Chief Joseph and the Nez Perce went to war against the U.S. Cavalry in 1877, they lost that connection to the breeding of the Appaloosa horse. A few years back they decided to try and reclaim that part of their history. Aaron Miles is the director of natural resources for the Nez Perce tribe. MILES: What we're doing over here at the Nez Perce tribe we have a new breed of horse, we call it s'ik'em which means horse in Nez Perce. But for the English speakers we're calling it Nez Perce horse, both the same meaning. They're a cross between and Akhal Teke and an Appaloosa horse. After the war in 1877 many of the Appaloosa's were bred with Cavalry war horses so the Nez Perce lost a lot of their horse culture. MILES: The Appaloosa Horse Club has the rights to the appaloosa today, the Nez Perce tribe does not have rights to the appaloosa. So our way back into being Nez Perce as horse breeders was to breed our own horse. So what we thought about 10 years ago was getting in to horse breeding again, getting the Nez Perce name back out there. The Akhal Teke is actually a horse from Turkmenistan the former Russia and there are only 200 allowed into the United States at the time. Some guy didn't want anything to do with the Akhal Teke anymore so we ended up getting our hands on some brood stock. And these horses were known for their high endurance which we wanted to breed back into the Appaloosas and that's what we had bred them for years ago because of our mountainous country. And then also the phenal types with the spots on the back, the rump kind of the blanketed horse, we wanted that as well. Miles says the new breed is really a great riding horse and looks good as well. MILES: This year we're expecting about, I think close to 13 or 14 foals and they are just really beautiful looking horses. I think the best way to get a glimpse of the horse is actually come over here and take a look at them. People can contact my office and they can actually go up there to our horse breeding grounds and check them out. Anybody is welcome. You know we're pretty excited about the potential and it's still a ways out but we realize that once people ride out horses they have a great personality to them you know unlike the appaloosa, kind of a stubborn horse, these ones really love people. The s'ik'em is being bred exclusively in Lapwai, Idaho. That's today's Line On Agriculture. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.