A Harmones Way Teaching Story With Art To Read to Children 7 thru 11 Years Old Story by Vicki Johnston Art by Oksana Marchenko THE BIOMES OF IRAN A book of stories of the relationships Of its flora, fauna and humanity Companion to Journey To Ancient Persia By Vicki Diane Johnston Art by Oksana Marchenko Copyright 2005 Wings of Alaya Publishing The Biomes of Iran To Inspire the Imagination, To Nourish the Heart, To Stimulate Appreciation for All Life, To Inform the Mind, To Provide a Springboard for Expression, Research and Design
The Caspian Horses By Oksana Marchenko
Part Three The Story of the Caspian Horse The stallion tosses his head as his hooves dance restively on the rocky foothills of the Zagros Mountains. He has caught the scent of lion somewhere upwind of his herd of mares, foals and yearlings. The stallion s nostrils flare and he snorts in protest against the alarming whiff of air. The twelve mares and yearlings are grazing peacefully nearby, while the foals prance, leap and gambol among their mothers. The coats of the herd shine in the sunlight, signifying their radiant health. With a range of several miles extending from the Zagros foothills and into the plains beyond, the horses live in perfect balance with the ecosystems that support them. The grasses and forbs in turn benefit from the nitrogenous horse dung that carries seeds and fertilizes the ground. When the pounding of a hundred hooves thunders across the plains, sending clouds of dust in their wake, they are plowing the grassland soil. As the herd grazes, moving from place to place, seeds and roots benefit, while the horses breathe desperately needed moisture into the dry soil. A large bush screens the lion, which has alarmed the stallion. The predator is guided by instinct to remain down wind of the herd, but he has been betrayed by an unexpected change of wind direction. Rearing on its hind legs, the bay stallion screams a shrill, drawn out call to alert the herd of danger. As the dominant horse of the herd, the ability to instantly hit high-frequency notes, while forcefully exhaling air is his alone. The subordinates in his herd are limited to soft whinnies and pure-tone whistles. Nature has designed the stallion s scream to alert them to full attention to the leader s cues. Tail raised, full mane flying above his arched neck the stallion gallops around the herd and off in the direction they are to follow. Sensing that their safety depends on his protective vigilance, the herd gallops behind him. Fortunately for the foals, nature has designed them to be all legs at first so they can remain right by their mothers sides as the herd gallops away from danger. The stallion leads his herd toward the base of the mountain, across the belt of steppe grasses and into the desert. Nature has specially equipped these small horses for crossing deserts. They can last two, even three days without water, feeding on the scarce tufts of tough desert grass. A few weeks before the pregnant mares retreated to sheltered spots away from the herd to lie down and give birth. After a gestation of 335 days the foals were born with all their senses operating. Soon after birth the foals could stand and follow their mothers to the safety of the herd. Nature designed the babies to respond instantly to their mothers cues. When danger lurked, a special whinny called their young to them. The fiercely protective mothers were ever ready to aggressively repel any intruders. Their equine bodies well-matched to the rigors of living in uneven terrain, the herd of Caspian horses has sharply angled hocks. A Caspian s limbs are slender but strong, with extremely hearty hooves, enabling them to keep their footing both on rocky ground and flying across desert sands. Like other desert horses, the Caspian has thin skin to allow its cooling system to operate
at maximum efficiency in the searing heat. Yet, it also develops a heavy winter coat for protection from the cold winds that howl across the desert steppes. Because of its diminutive appearance, the Caspian is often wrongly labeled a pony. According to the International Caspian Society, the Caspian is a horse, not a pony. The overall impression of the Caspian is of a well - bred, elegant horse in miniature. Although small, averaging only 10 hands high, all aspects of the little horse are in similar proportion to those of a larger horse breed, the exquisite Iranian Asil, also known as the Arabian horse. The Caspian has large, almond - shaped eyes and ears set on top of a wide vaulted forehead. Its muzzle is small and well shaped and the neck is long and arched with a slender throatlatch. Many centuries ago, royal eyes fell on the diminutive horses and admired their speed and fast maneuvering. We know this because archeologists and historians have noted that etchings and paintings of the small, but elegant horses graced the seal of King Darius the Great and decorated the walls of ancient palaces. Research has demonstrated that the Caspian is depicted in ancient Persian statuettes, friezes and writings going back to 300 B.C. Ancient scenes depict them as treasured gifts offered to Persian kings and as teams for horse drawn chariots in royal ceremonies. The most famous artifacts are the stone frieze on the eastern staircase of the Palace of Persepolis (the Lydian Horses ). The tri-lingual seal of King Darius the Great (processed by the British Museum), and Gold Oxus Treasure of Darabgird depicts four tiny horses pulling a ceremonial chariot, all dating back to the sixth or fifth century B.C. As a public ritual demonstration of Persian Kings fitness to rule, they captured lions, which were brought into amphitheaters and released. Portraying this event, the seal of King Darius depicts a team of the small horses pulling a chariot and its rider. The small horses were prized for their ability to accelerate quickly and maneuver at high speeds in the confined space holding the fierce beast.. For this particular ceremony, the Caspians were apparently highly prized by King Darius and his royal successors. The last known record of the Caspian Horse in ancient times was in 224 A.D. A rock relief of King Ardashir is depicts a king mounted on a horse so small the king s feet are almost touching the ground. Then came a great war in 637 A.D. This was the last recorded sighting of these fine purebred horses. The Royal court of Persia was destroyed, and the Caspian horses were thought to be extinct. In 1957, American-born Louise Laylin married Narcy Firouz, an Iranian aristocrat and returned with him to his native country. Subsequently, she and her husband established the Norouzabad Equestrian Center for children of families living in the country s capital of Tehran. As Louise helped children onto each horse s back, she longed for smaller, more manageable mounts, especially for the more timid or younger children. Her search led her to a remote village above the Caspian Sea. In 1965, during an expedition on in the mountainous regions south of the Caspian Sea, Louise Firouz suddenly stopped in her tracks. A diminutive stallion was pulling a heavily laden cart. Louise approached the driver of the cart and asked to examine his horse. The animal was undernourished, flea-ridden and covered with sores from working under very heavy loads. But Louise saw through this dismaying first appearance. As she stroked the gentle animal an internal image nudged her to make an offer. Thinking this American woman was crazy to offer such a sum for a broken down workhorse, the farmer agreed. Louise named the
stallion Ostad. Soon Aseman (another stallion) and Almara (a mare) joined Ostad at Louise s Farm. Later expeditions discovered more small horses in the mountainous regions south of the Caspian Sea, centered near the town of Amol. Like Ostad, Aseman and Almara, the new arrivals were in often in very bad condition, undernourished, with lice and fleas, ill, and covered in sores from working under very heavy loads. With conscientious care, healing salves lovingly rubbed into sores, and diets rich in nutrients, the horses slowly recovered. As they returned to health, the interior image that had prompted Louise to purchase Ostad, came to life. The horses were beautifully proportioned with large protruding eyes, a prominent jaw, large nostrils, a dished head and a high-set tail. Once again the breed resembled its elegant ancestors that during past centuries galloped proudly across the plains. Louise dubbed this newly discovered breed as Caspian Horses, because of the vicinity in which they were found. Of course, the former owners of these often misused and over-worked horses had no idea of the breed s history or that it was near extinction. Finding the diminutive horses to be excellent mounts for her children, prompted Louise to continue to search for more Caspians. Eventually, she began a breeding program began from the initial stock. Between July 1965 and August 1968, Mrs. Firouz conducted a careful survey to determine the approximate number and range of the surviving Caspian horses. On the basis of this survey, it was estimated that there were approximately 50 small horses with definite Caspian characteristics along the southern coast of the Caspian Sea. The major concentration of these horses (approximately 30), occupied a 2,000 square mile triangle between Amol, Babol and Kiakola in the Alborz mountains. The remaining 20 horses were so scattered that it was impossible for the survey to consider them as completely pure. Louise was intent on saving the breed from certain extinction, and began carefully collecting and breeding only the purest Caspian horses. However, the escalating Iran/Iraqi War posed a new threat to the survival of the breed. To the Iranian military, the greatest value of the horses was as horsemeat. In the interest of keeping the horses alive, Louise decided to get some of the horses out of the country, before they vanished again. In 1971 Prince Philip wanted to help and imported two Caspians from Iran into his stable at the Royal Palace in England. Between 1971 and 1976, nine stallions and seventeen mares were imported to Europe. This angered the Royal Horse Society of Iran, who saw the horses as a national treasure, which ought to remain in Iran. The RHS completely took over the Caspian herd in 1974. In 1975 Louise went on an expedition to find more horses. Her search was rewarded with the discovery of 20 mares and 3 stallions from feral stock found along the Caspian coast. She established a new breeding center in northeastern Iran at Gara Tepe Sheikh. However, in 1977, the Royal Horse Society forced this second private breeding to close its doors, and declared a ban on all Caspian exports. The society collected all Caspians remaining in Iran to breed selectively in a national stud farm to conform with a specific standard of the breed. But the victory of the Royal Horse Society was short-lived, for the government nationalized the horses. After Iran forced the RHS to surrender all but one Caspian horse, Mrs. Firouz founding stock was effectively wiped out. Unfortunately, The government promptly auctioned the horses to the Turkoman and Kazakh tribes who used them as pack animals or for meat.
Louise refused to cease her efforts to save the handful of remaining Caspian horses from starvation and slaughter during the early years of the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Repeatedly she and her husband faced arrest and detainment in the local jail. During one of these incarcerations, Mrs. Firouz went on a hunger strike in protest. The publicity over the danger to her health won her release, but she left prison weak and emaciated. After the war was over, Mrs. Firouz once again completely redeveloped a breeding center to save the Caspian from extinction in Iran. These horses and their offspring had been saved from the tragedies that happened to most of the Caspians during the war. The 1992 International Caspian Stud Book lists 38 registered Iranian Caspians. Mrs. Firouz obtained most of these horses for breeding through expeditions to the Caspian seacoast to capture more feral horses. She also purchased repatriated stolen or seized horses after the Iran-Iraq war. In 1993, Louise was able to get seven Caspians into England. With the thoughtful care and concern from their English owners, including Prince Phillip, the Caspian horses flourished and their numbers increased. From carbon-dated bones discovered in geological digs there is geological evidence of the Caspians dating back to 3000 years BC. They are the direct descendants of the prehistoric species of horse that occupied the Kerman-shah area, where the present time Caspian area is today. These unique horses, the Caspians, are believed to be the oldest living breed in the world.