Riding Through Revolution

Louise Firouz was an American horsewoman who was unable to find suitable mounts for her children to ride in her husband's native Iran.

With three other women she went in search of ponies that were rumoured to live in the inhospitable Caspian Mountains in the north. She travelled through rice paddies, remote villages and ancient civilizations, to the edge of Russia and returned with three tiny horses, only waist high. They looked like Arabians and were gentle and friendly the perfect find for her young children and their friends!

Then she realized that these could be the same horses that she had seen pulling chariots on the ancient friezes at Persepolis and on the seal of King Darius the Great in 500 BC. Could these be the ancestors of their mountain ponies? Had they survived 3000 years of turmoil in the remote Caspian Mountains? Would they survive the gathering storm of Iran's Civil War?

The discovery of these tiny ancient horses would test the limits of Louise Firouz' strength and resolve. This is the story of that remarkable journey.