Louise Firouz
| Louise Firouz (née Laylin) | |
|---|---|
| Occupation | Trainer/Breeder |
| Born |
December 24, 1933 Washington DC, United States |
| Died | May 25, 2008 (aged 74) Gonbad-e Kavus, Iran |
Louise Firouz née Laylin, was an American-born, Iranian horse breeder and researcher who 'discovered' and helped to preserve the Caspian horse, a breed believed to be the ancestor of the Arab and other types of what are called “hot-blooded” (agile and spirited) horses, and previously thought to have been extinct for 1,300 years. Remembered as a "phenomenon; a charming, intelligent, adventurous, American woman", she married a Persian Prince from the Qajar dynasty and together they ran a horse breeding programme and riding school and raised a family through revolution, war and intrigue. That the horse now exists in sustainable numbers in several countries worldwide (including Australia, America, New Zealand and Britain) is considered largely due to her efforts. Firouz has been dubbed Iran's lady of horses.[1] She died in 2008 in Gonbad having lived more than half a century in northern Iran.
Born Louise Elizabeth Laylin in Washington DC, Louise's father was an international lawyer who owned a farm at Great Falls, Virginia. She hoped to become a vet, but she failed her physics course and studied classics and English at Cornell University instead.
She remembers I was brought up on a farm in Virginia. This was before the days of beltways and asphalt roads leading into the wilderness of the Virginia countryside so that when it became time for my two brothers and me to go to school we rode horses to the two room red brick school house. In fine weather, especially in the autumn when the chincopin nuts were ripe we found it hard to abandon the horses so instead we abandoned school along with similarly inclined friends also mounted and sped towards the Potomac river and its heavily forested banks. We spent the days swimming and speculating what we would do with the rest of our indolent lives.
As the second world war was in full swing no one paid attention to our lack of reading or writing skills. As long as we were up in time to milk the cows, make sandwiches for lunch and were off on the horses in the direction of school our Mother was too pre-occupied with her war work to notice our pristine exercise books. To this day, even with a college degree, I cannot write long hand but continue to print."
Eventually Louise's parents divorced. After a short, unhappy stint in New York City her Mother bought a small farm in New Hampshire. Our farm was ten miles away on a dirt road with nothing else in sight except pastures, forest and deer. My brothers, John and David, were sent off to boarding school while I was enrolled in the local grammar school. At first, when the weather was fine, my Mother drove me to school but when the snows started we were stuck. We bought a small Morgan mare, a sleigh and a buggy and this was our transportation. Getting up in the dark each morning to hitch up the mare and drive the ten miles to school has given me a lifelong aversion to arising in the dark.
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Wikipedia