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...