This ancient line is almost certainly the original Horse Type 4, the ancestral line of the Arabian, with the Caspian Horse in the most senior position. Thus the Caspian Horse has had considerable influence on the hot-blooded breeds of horse and pony that we know today.
Please click here to watch the story of the rediscovery of the Caspian horse.
The Caspian Horse 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. A few of these magnificent horses 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,).
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,).
King Darius's 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.
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 Tehran.
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.
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 Tehran.
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.
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