Alfalfa has been an important animal food crop for over 3,000 years and it is attributed to providing the nutritional demands necessary for ancient Turkomans (Fergana or “Heavenly Horses”) to develop their legendary tall and muscular frames.

On the Nisean Plains south of Media in Central Asia, the ancestors to the Akhal-Teke grazed on fields of wild alfalfa. It is this food source that ultimately fed and shaped history’s most famous and coveted cavalry mounts. The Heavenly Horses with their alfalfa built bodies would shape the world.

Access to these sacred grazing grounds influenced ancient cavalry prowess and gave empires nestled south of the Pontiac Caspian steppe great early advantage in raising and supporting elite warhorses. Horses that Alexander the Great and Emperor Wu would use in their expansion campaigns.

It was these horses, fueled by Median alfalfa, that would give Assyrians, Scythians, Persians, Han Dynasty China, Alexander’s Macedonians, and the Ottoman empires one of the world’s greatest pre-ammunition and pre-engine powers. Horses that would go on to develop many other swift wartime breeds.