History about production and use of mare's milk

In China mare’s milk was used as a medicine 3000 years ago. It was treated as Miracle medicine. Rulers of the Ming dynasty called it “Divine Nectar”.

In the 8th century B.C. the poet Hezoid, in his poem Work and days, described mare's milk as everyday's food.

Greek antique poet Homer wrote in his lliad that men who did the milking lived from the mare’s milk. The Mongolian ruler Kublai-Khan drank the »khumis« e.i. fermented mare’s milk every evening. Only for him and his children the herd of white mare’s was bred.

Peoples from Asia, particularly from the Mongolian step as well as Siberia's nomads had always drunk mare's milk, which helped them to strenthen their imune system against various diseases. They also enjoyed the taste.


Eugene Delacroix (1798-1863); Ovid Among the Scythians, 1862, oil on canvas - 32 x 50 cm; New York, Metropolitan Museum
Foto: Sayn-Wittgenstein Fine Art Inc; http://www.thearttribune.com/

In recent history were Russians who first used Mare's milk for medical purposes. The first sanatorium was established in Sammara in 1858. Lev N. Tolstoy, the author of famous novels of Anna Karenina and War and Peace wrote “Mare's milk regenerates my body and perpetuates my spirit.” During World War II the German doctor Rudolf Storch acquainted himself with the effects of the mare’s milk for people's health. Upon his return from the captivity he set up his first stud farm for Mare's milk production in Germany.