It was bred in the nineteenth century at the Striletsky State Stud in Luhansk Oblast of Ukraine,[a] from Arab and a variety of other stock.

Two stallions and a few mares survived, which was judged to be too small a number to allow the breed to be recovered.

[4]: 258 [3]: 507  The Strelets also contributed to the development of the Don[5]: 80  and Kustanai breeds.

[4]: 312 [6]: 294 The Strelets Arab was bred in the nineteenth century at the Striletsky State Stud[a], near the village of Striltsivka [uk], which at that time was in the Starobelsky district of the Kharkov Governorate of the Russian Empire, and is now in Milovsky Raion of Luhansk Oblast in easternmost Ukraine, close to the Russian border.

It derived from a complex series of cross-breedings, initially of Arab and Anglo-Arab or Thoroughbred stock, later with some input from Karabakh, Orlov-Rostopchin, Persian and Turkmene horses.