Louise Firouz
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Louise Firouz was an American-born, Iranian horse breeder and researcher. As a member of the Iranian Royal family and an Iranian princess, she is known as "Iran's lady of horses".[1]
Firouz specialized on Caspian horses and she was one of the main horse breeders in Iran. The Caspian horse is a breed of horse which was once believed to be extinct. Firouz was instrumental in reviving this species.
She died in 2008 in Gonbad. She lived more than half a century in northern Iran.
[edit] See also
Louise Elizabeth Laylin was born on Christmas Eve 1933 in Washington, DC. She grew up on her family farm in Great Falls, Virginia. It was there that she nurtured her love for animals, with a special devotion to horses. She was attending the American University of Beirut where she met her husband Narcy Firouz, a Yale - trained civil engineer. They were married and returned to Iran in 1957 to live.
They moved to Shiraz, not far from the ruins of Persepolis, and Mrs.Firouz immediately got involved with her life long passion of raising horses. They then moved to Tehran where she founded Norouzabad, an equestrian center created for children. In 1965, she was searching in the Caspian area for the perfect ponies to buy for her riding center when she discovered a pony thought to have gone extinct, her first Caspian Pony. She searched for, and purchased every pony that she could find that met the criteria of the ancient horses that are depicted throughout Persian friezes, sculptures and paintings. Unlike traditional ponies (Where their bones are stunted giving them their small stature), the Caspian Pony has a completely developed skeletal system like that of a horse, but are only 9 to 13 hands. Their heads a similar to that of the Arabian horses with a beautiful dish-shaped head, intelligent eyes, strong neck, and slender body. Akin to the Arabian, they are extremely durable for long rides, pulling carts, and have excelled in endurance riding and the show jumping arena. They are full of personality and rather mischievous making them a perfect match for children.
Mrs. Firouz survived the Islamic Revolution. She was to be imprisoned for three months, but was released after a fortnight when she went on a hunger strike. She had her entire farm and Caspian Pony herd confiscated by the government and had lost her entire life's work of saving the Caspian's. Upon the ending of the eight year Iran-Iraq conflict she was visiting a building that housed more than 1,000 horses which had been used during the war, when she identified a few Caspian Ponies and, once again, started to re-establish the Caspian bloodline on her farm in the Turkoman Steppes of north-east Iran. She was also successful in getting a small number of breeding Caspian's out of the country and found them homes in Europe and America in an effort to protect the breed from extinction.
On May 25th, 2008 Louise Elizabeth Firouz passed away, and is survived by two daughters, one son, and seven grandchildren to carry on her Legacy of the Caspian Ponies. This past December she was quoted by Reuters as saying that she had defied a doctor's orders not to ride because of her age, her response, "I'm not too old to ride. I'm too old to fall off!"
