zoltansingh

Guru Hargobind Ji was known for his great wrestling ability. So more than likely wrestling related exercises (e.g. Dand Behtaks) would have formed a mainstay of the Khalsa fauj.

Guru Ji used to have horses bought over from Persia, so more than likely arabi, Akhal-Teke, turkoman inspired the breeds used by the Sikhs. Old european paintings of the court of Maharaja Ranjit Singh Ji show horses of arabi appearance. The Budha Dal used to have 80 mares at Raqba at one time for breeding and still have some puratan nasal horses from the famed lineage of Mundra, Raju Baba aka Karamati etc etc. These lines have good size (16hh+)and ears smaller than the marwari etc. If you ever chat with old Nihangs like Baba Maghar Singh then he can give you lots of information on this great bloodline. Sadly one of the stallions from this great puratan line was in very poor shape last I heard. The Bidhi Chand have a stallion in their fauj named Sawai which no one rides as he is reserved for Guru Ji, he is a bit old now but also a fantastic looking horse with good height and some say he has arabi type looks. It is important that these bloodlines are preserved and hopefully horse lovers in Punjab will come together to do this before it is to late. There are also other bloodlines in Punjab (usually these distinct bloodlines are ignored as the Marwari's from rajasthan get promoted as some sort of super war horse, reality is that the rajasthani horses are nothing when lined next to the punjabi bloodlines). There is also the famous Chuner Wala Ghora who has good height and some of his offspring are amongst the most highly sort after horses in India. Due to the craze for the Nukra (so called Albino) horses across Punjab we have lost some of our traditional colours due to breeding but you can gauge the size etc of Punjabi horses from good Nukras. They will have better height and be heavier than the rajasthani marwari etc.

There are many horses at Sri Hazur Sahib which have been gifted by devotees for Guru Ji. The horse that has the gaddi currently is Anmol (photo posted above), he has no link to Guru Ji's horse. He was sired by a Sindhi stallion that was with someone near Jodhpur but is now in poor condition in Punjab. I do not have much time now but will post more information on Sikh horses later today,