History

CASPIAN ORIGINS

The Caspian is an ancient breed of small horse, believed extinct for 1,000 years until rediscovered in the 1960s on the southern shores of the Caspian sea, Northern Iran. Small numbers may still exist in a semi-feral state in the rice paddies, cotton fields, forests and foothills of the Alborz mountains.

FAVOURITES OF KINGS

Friezes, artefacts and ancient writings showed that small elegant horses were the celebrated favourites of Persia’s kings. King Darius the Great relied on their intelligence, courage and agility to pull his chariot in lion hunts, and honoured them on his famous Tri-Lingual Seal, ca. 500 BC (British Museum,)

His palace at Persepolis shows a tribute parade of animals on the stone frieze of its great staircase. Mighty Nisaean, Cappadocian and many other horses are led past the King. The smallest horses reach only to their leaders’ waists and have the pronounced forehead and elegant carriage of the royal favourites – the ‘Lydean’ horses.

Wars between Islam and Mongolia destroyed most of the great libraries and museums. After the 7th Century AD, there is no further recorded trace of these horses. It was assumed that the breed had been extinguished.

In more recent times, small, slim horses seen occasionally along the southern shores of the Caspian Sea and in the mountains and villages above it were known locally as ‘Mouleki’ or ‘Pouseki’ ponies (little muzzle). Worked hard as pack or cart-horses, they grazed the shore or the mountains in pitifully small numbers. In 1965, they were ‘discovered’ by Louise Firouz, searching for small ponies for her riding school near Teheran.

THE LIVING LINK

Slender cannon bones found in an ancient site in Northern Iran were thought, until then, to be those of a type of wild ass. Then cannon bones from the slender ‘Pouseki’ ponies were compared with the ancient bones. Extensive studies of bones, blood, skeletons and teeth showed them to belong to the same type of horse, sharing several unique factors. This amazing living link had clung on, un-noticed or ‘improved’ by man, in isolated pockets among the wild and remote Alborz Mountains.

This ancient line is almost certainly the original Horse Type 4, the ancestral line of the Arabian, with the Caspian in the most senior position. Thus the Caspian has had considerable influence on the hot-blooded breeds of horse and pony that we know today.

Tri-Lingual Seal, ca. 500 BC (British Museum,)

Evidence that a Caspian type horse existed as early as 3000 B.C. can be found in ancient writings and artifacts. Kings Ardashir 1 (AD224) and Shapur (AD260) were depicted on stone reliefs with small horses that stood no more than waist high.

Small horses of Caspian type were portrayed in gold as part of the Oxus Treasure - 5th-4th Century BC (courtesy of the British Museum).

Louise Firouz

Louise Firouz, who rediscovered the Caspian in Iran in the 1960s, died on the 25th May 2008 aged 74.