BOOK EXCERPT
BOOK OF QUEENS
The True Story of the Middle Eastern Horsewomen Who Fought the War on Terror BY PARDIS MAHDAVI Excerpted from BOOK OF QUEENS: The True Story of the Middle Eastern Horsewomen Who Fought the War on Terror by Pardis Mahdavi. Copyright © 2023. Available from Hachette Books, an imprint of Hachette Book Group, Inc.
LOUISE, 1984 Louise fell in love not only with Maryam’s horses but also with the mountains and the sea of the Gilan, Mazandaran, and Golestan Provinces of the North. Tired of the dusty chaos of the capital, she yearned for fresh air and ached to spend her days riding, not in a ring, but through the forest and into the sea. It took three months to convince Narcy they should move, but once he agreed, Louise wasted no time creating a new life for them in the North. She had a new purpose, too: bringing the Caspian horse out of the paintings of history into the living present. From what she could glean, these horses were stronger, smarter, and more reliable than any breed she had ever met before. After training more than five hundred horses in the United States, Louise thought she could anticipate the movements and personalities of every horse after meeting them once. But the Caspians continued to surprise— pleasantly. They rarely bucked their riders or their packs. No matter how much weight Louise piled on their backs, they continued forward, not missing a single hoofbeat, tripping, or deviating from a straight line. Growing up in the United States, Louise had always taught new riders that the hardest thing to make an American Quarter Horse do was walk in a straight line. They always wanted to fall in to the center of an arena or pasture, favoring one shoulder or another. The main
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THE PLAID HORSE
objective for the rider was to know when to anticipate the fall or deviation and correct it with leg pressure. But Caspians were different. They walked perfectly, rarely favoring one side or the other. Louise had to teach them a trick only once or walk a new road one time, and they would remember it. They were unflappable. The more she got to know them, the more Louise understood why these horses had been the perfect animals to ride into battle, to conquer empires, to deliver their riders safely. As far as she could tell, however, they had fallen out of favor in the 1900s as locals grew taller and larger horses came into fashion. Caspians stood no more than fourteen hands from the ground. As such, riders over five foot ten would find their feet dragging on the ground. Louise had experienced this herself the first time she mounted Asghar at Maryam’s house. Because of this, she worried she was too heavy for the animal. But Maryam had shown her how to fold her legs and rest them in stirrups against his sides, or how to curl her legs at the knee and lean forward so she could rest the tops of her toes on the back of his hindquarters. With the right posture, anyone of any height or weight could ride a Caspian. And sitting atop them was a dream. No more choppy gaits like American Quarter Horses. This was like riding in a rocking chair, Louise thought. It reminded her of nights curled up in her mother’s lap on their favorite upholstered chair.
December 2023/January 2024
Everyone who met the small, mighty creatures fell in love with them. Word spread, and soon the most prominent families in Iran were asking for their own Caspians. Even Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, son of Mohammad Reza Shah, fell hard for the animals; he particularly loved that their lineage traced back to the glory of the Persian Empire. He declared them a national treasure, founded the Royal Horse Society of Iran (RHS), and proclaimed himself the patron and protector of the Caspian horse and its history. The history of a horse that led the greatest empires of all time— Persians, Greeks, Romans, Mongols— to conquer territories and expand their reach: this horse, it seemed to the royals, was the key to geopolitics. In 1969, the Duke of Edinburgh visited the RHS and became the second royal to fall under their spell. Prince Philip had been visiting the region on annual scouting trips where he would purchase new breeds for his wife, the queen of England, who was an avid equestrian. When he heard about the Caspian horses— word had traveled to Europe via Turkey— Iran jumped to the top of his list. He told Louise and Narcy that he simply must have Caspians of his own and tried to persuade them to export a few to England. Louise was reluctant, but Prince Philip promised not only to take excellent care of them but also to promote their story worldwide. For a devoted conservationist, the idea was tempting. PHOTO: CHRISTINE JOHNSON
