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Den Caspiska hästens ursprung och historik
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This history of the Caspian breed is as colorful as the horses themselves. Small wild horses had roamed west central Iran seemingly forever. Because their territory was bounded by the sea on one side and mountains on the other, the purity of the breed was maintained over the centuries.

The Caspian is an ancient breed of small horse rediscovered on the southern shores of the Caspian sea. Small numbers still exist in a semi-feral state in the rice paddies, cotton fields and forests of the remote Elburz mountains.

Evidence that a Caspian type horse existed as early as 3000 B.C. can be found in ancient writings and artifacts. A terracotta plaque from 2nd millennium Mesopotamia showing a small horse ridden with a nose ring can be seen at the British Museum. Kings Ardashir 1 (AD224) and Shapur (AD260) were depicted on stone reliefs with small horses that stood no more than waist high. The Caspian Horse was believed to be pets of the Royal family of Persia (now the country of Iran). King Darius would use these brave and agile horses to pull chariots in public demonstrations of battling lions, to prove his strength as a leader. He valued his little horses so much that they were engraved on his Royal Seal in 550 B.C.

Horses of Caspian type were presented as gifts to King Darius the Great (522-586BC). These horses were depicted on the huge stone relief flanking the staircase in the palace at Persopolis.

Mrs. Louise Firouz rediscovered the breed in the mountainous regions of Iran, just south of the Caspian Sea during the mid-1960ís. Mrs. Firouz purchased seven mares and six stallions to form the foundation stock for a private breeding center in Iran. She used modern genetic testing to maintain a wide variety of genes in her herd to ensure the continued diversity of the captive breeding stock. She also began the first research into the history of this ancient breed.

She trained the small horses for lesson programs she taught children. In 1970, the Royal Horse Society (RHS) was founded to maintain and improve Iran's native horse breeds by the Shah of Iran. The RHS included the Caspian horse feral herds.

IIn 1974, the RHS seized all of Mrs. Firouz´stock. Following the loss of this herd, Mrs. Firouz again located horses in Iran and began another breeding herd. In 1977, this second private herd was forced to close because of a government ban on exporting Caspian horses and financial difficulties. While Mrs. Firouz was working to re-establish the breed in spite of the intervention of the RHS, the situation was further complicated over the next several years by Iran's political turmoil, the overthrow of the Shah, the Islamic Revolution, the long Iran-Iraq War.

Mrs. Firouz was, however, able to export nine stallions and seventeen mares representing nineteen different Caspian horse bloodlines from Iran to Europe during the early 1970ís. These 26 horses made up the European foundation herd.

At the end of the Iran/Iraq War, the 1992 International Caspian Stud Book listed 38 registered Iranian Caspian horses. Mrs. Firouz captured additional feral horses or purchased them when she could throughout Iran. Working with modern genetic methods, she was able to establish that none of these horses were lineal relations of the European horses and DNA studies proved they were all part of the same unique gene pool and were all purebred Caspian horses.

Terrakottaplatta från 2000 år f Kr Mesopotamien, föreställande liten häst som rids med nosring.

Kung Darius sigill med häst av kaspisk
typ. ca 500 f Kr

Hingsten ZEELAND * i ursprungslandet Iran

Bild från Iran med Caspisk häst som drar vagn .