The Caspian is a rare and elegant horse in miniature standing between 9 hands and 12.2 hands. Research reveals the Caspian dates to 3,000BC, is important as a possible prototype Arabian and shares an ancestral position to all horse breeds (researched to date) along with the Turkomen horse.
Today small remnant herds of feral/semi-feral Caspians run in the remote Elburz Mountains of Northern Iran. The Caspian is known to local communities as the “Mouleki” or “Pouseki” and was never bred on purpose.
Occasionally a full sized mare would produce a miniature “throwback”, which when bred would produce offspring consistently true to size and type.In 1965 Louise Firouz, captivated by her first glimpse of a Caspian, began a search for these little horses.
Louise lived a semi nomadic lifestyle, travelling through the mountainous and coastal regions of Iran to succeed in finding a handful more. Louise was pivotal to the survival of the breed, establishing a riding school and stud in Iran which later came under the auspices of the Royal Horse Society of Iran.
The Caspian is now in Australasia, Europe, USA, Norway, Sweden and Scandinavia. Forty years on though, only 1000 live breeding animals exist outside Iran and fewer than 1900 Caspians were recorded in the studbook of the International Caspian Society by 2008The overall impression of a Caspian should be an elegant well-bred horse in miniature.
However, the Caspian exhibits some unique skeletal features:
1-The parietal bones bulge at birth (a vaulted forehead).
2-An extra molar where the wolf teeth appears in other breeds.
3-Shoulder blades narrow at the top and wide at the base.
4- Longer and slimmer cannon bones.
5-The first six vertebrae are longer, giving the appearance of high withers and a flat back.
6-Hooves are narrow and oval in shape and quite hardy and the frog is less prominent differences found in the Caspian Haemoglobin are also very unique.
The Caspian has proven to be a gentle, intelligent, versatile and fun mount for children. This breed has a natural floating action at all gaits and is fast and agile, with spectacular jumping ability, able to jump 4 ft from a standing start.
Caspians have been competitive at jumping, flat racing, pony trots, in harness, and pony club, excelling due to their natural speed and agility. Stallions can be handled by children, and have been ridden and raced by children, displaying the outstandingly kind and willing nature that characterises the Caspian.
http://www.caspianhorses.org/
