The Deliboz horse is a very old style of Oriental horse from the area around and in Georgia and Armenia. The climate of these areas is rather extreme from mountains to deserts and cold winters to hot summers. The Deliboz horse is suited to these variances in climate but tend to be historically more associated with the Akstafa, Kazakh, Tauz, and Azerbaijan regions of the countries.
The Deliboz horse has gone by many different names throughout history including the Azerbaijan horse or the Kazakh horse, which has lead to some confusion in understanding the breed development.
In 1943 the first State run Breeding Cooperative was opened that combined the Deliboz horse mares with Arabian and Karabakh horse stallions. This led to a refinement in the somewhat coarse features and provided an excellent mount for riders looking for stamina, endurance and performance in a riding horse.
The Deliboz is one of the few horse breeds that has a lengthwise fold in the tongue. This results in the tongue of the horse appearing to the almost forked. In addition these horses also have a very wide rib cage and long, straight legs with a thicker, heavier cannon bone than most other breeds of light horses.
The Deliboz horse was further out bred with the Arabian and Tersk bloodlines in the 1950's. These further bloodline additions helped to add to the refinement and provided the breed with a noticeably wider forehead and narrower muzzle, very typical of the Arabian breed.
While the remaining population of true Deliboz type horses is relatively small, the Dashyuz stud has the greatest number of broodmares that meet the type and this is where most of the concentrated breeding efforts are being continued.
The Deliboz is both a pack type horse as well as a riding horse. It is not uncommon for a fully packed Deliboz carrying 120-130 kg to easily cover 45-55 km per day for several days in a row. They are also capable of bursts of speed, with the best recorded racing time for a Deliboz type horse being 1 minute and 56 seconds for a flat race of 1600 meters.
The Deliboz type of horse has a very dominant racking gait. This means that the horse moves with both feet on the same side of the body in a right rear, right front, left rear, left front pattern, rather than a right rear, left front, left rear, right front diagonal movement. This makes riding smooth and comfortable for the rider, even over great distance.
The Deliboz has not been as popular as the other Oriental style breeds because they are known to have a rather unstable temperament. Unlike the Arabians that are a bit high spirited, occasionally the Deliboz can be very difficult to manage and may be somewhat aggressive towards handlers and other horses. Stallions in particular are more problematic. Newer breeding programs are addressing this temperament issue and it is being minimized with in the breed.
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