Caspian Horse - History - Louise Firouz

Louise Firouz

At first thought to be a pony, the Caspian Horse was re-discovered in 1965 in this mountainous region of northern Iran by the American-born breeder of Iranian horses, Louise Firouz, while searching for small ponies to be ridden by children. She saw a small bay stallion in the town of Amol pulling a clumsy cart, but with the body of a "well-bred oriental horse." She purchased the stallion, naming him Ostad. Following his discovery, Firouz concluded:

" ….. there was an elusive beauty and grace about this small horse which did not seem to fit into the accepted picture of ponies. Ponies are chunky, strong little equids generally developed under austere conditions of climate and food. Why a "pony" on the relatively lush shores of the temperate Caspian: and, in spite of his small size, was the light, graceful animal on the Caspian a pony at all? Was there any historical precedent for a pony-sized horse in Iran and, if so, how well documented was it? These questions initiated a study in the spring of 1965 to determine the range, nature and historical precedent for a horse of this size in Iran."

With seven mares and six stallions, Firouz began a breeding program at her riding school in Norouzabad, with the horses she named 'Caspian' from the area where she had found them. The horses themselves were much enjoyed by the children; Ostad became a successful sire of children's ponies and was ridden daily in the company of mares. Firouz started the Iranian stud book in 1966. In 1973 the stud was sold to the Shah of Iran, who established the Royal Horse Society at the Norouzabad Stud.

In late 1965, while visiting her family in Great Falls, Virginia, Firouz told Kathleen McCormick the Caspian story and showed photographs of the ponies she had brought to Norouzabad. They decided to export a Caspian stallion from Iran to the United States and McCormick selected the foundation stallion Jehan from the photographs. In April 1966, William M. Santoro, DVM, accompanied Jehan on the four-day, 8,000-mile journey to New York. Due to the difficulties experienced in exporting Jehan from Iran, only a part-bred breeding program was established in the US at that time and plans to import mares were put on hold. In 1975 a further stallion was exported to Venezuela from Iran.

The Caspian Stud UK later imported the remainder of the Bermudan stock, apart from a mare given to Prince Philip. Meanwhile a new herd of twenty mares and three stallions established on the Turkoman Steppes by Firouz, suffered repeated and fatal wolf attacks. This forced the emergency evacuation of six mares and a stallion to the Caspian Stud UK in 1976 and the remainder were taken over by the Royal Horse Society of Iran. They were later widely dispersed during the Iranian Revolution, leaving only one traceable stallion. The subsequent ban on keeping horses ended the breeding programme in Iran until 1986, when Firouz found and purchased three mares and a stallion.