Hortaya Borzaya

The Hortaya Borzaya, also known as the Chortai, is a sighthound from Ukraine and Russia. It is said to look like a cross between a Greyhound and a short-haired Borzoi: quite a heavily built running dog, but with the typical sighthound outline.

History

The Chortai is believed to descend from two breeds that no longer exist, the Krymstaja and the Gorskaja. It was a favorite of the Russian nobility. One was shown at the London Zoo in 1829 under the name Russian Greyhound, but otherwise the breed has rarely been seen outside its homeland.

After the October Revolution of 1917, the kennels of the nobility were abandoned. The dogs that were left were widely crossed with local hounds, producing what is now called the South Russian Steppe Hound. Even so, Soviet authorities recognized the Chortai at a cynological congress in Moscow in 1952.

Numbers fell steadily during the Soviet period until the breed was close to extinction. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, interest in Russia’s pre-revolutionary breeds has revived, and efforts have been made to rescue it.

Appearance

The Chortai is more solid than most sighthounds while keeping their general features. It is also called the Eastern Greyhound or the Ukrainian Greyhound.

Temperament

This is a hunting dog. It is usually worked in the traditional Russian way, with mounted hunters accompanied by a pair of hounds and a bird of prey.

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