[4]: 12  During the Soviet era of Kyrgyz history, the Kyrgyz Horse was cross-bred with imported foreign breeds, including Don and Thoroughbred strains, to create a new and larger breed, the Novokirgiz or New Kirgiz.

[3]: 489 In the late nineteenth century there were some two million Kyrgyz horses in the area that is now Kyrgyzstan.

[3]: 489 [5] Numbers of the traditional native breed were greatly reduced,[5] but have since shown some recovery.

A breed standard was drawn up, based partly on a description found in archives in Saint Petersburg, and was approved by the national ministry of agriculture.

[3]: 480  Horsemeat production in Kyrgyzstan in 2002 was 24 800 tonnes, about one eighth of the total meat produced in that year.