Search for the world's rarest horse: Great-grandmother flies to remote Central Asia on a dangerous quest to find the perfect spotted Appaloosa stallion
- Scott Engstrom 71, traveled to Kyrgyzstan in search of rare horse breed
- Horse breeder convinced Channel 4 presenter Conor Woodman to join her
- Wants to import Appaloosas from Kyrgyzstan to New Zealand, her home
To look at her, Scott Engstrom would appear to be just a white-haired elderly woman, a grandmother to nine - and the last person in the world you’d expect to cross the world chasing a dream.
That was until the day two years ago when a chance glimpse at a TV programme made her jump out of her chair.
Scott, 71, is horse-mad, and has been fascinated with one particular breed since she was a little girl: the Appaloosa, descendants of the horses ridden by the Nez Perce tribe of American Indians.
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Scott Engstrom, 71, traveled across Asia in search of the Appaloosa horse, a rare breed with mottled skin
Appaloosas are beautiful, famed for their myriad coat patterns, mottled skin, striped hooves, eerily human-looking eyes, and a graceful one-foot-on-the-ground gait, known as the Indian shuffle.
It was thought that there were fewer than 200 true Appaloosas left in the world as cross-breeding has threatened their integrity.
On her ranch in New Zealand, Scott has been breeding the real McCoy since 1996.
But on one fateful Sunday in 2012, Scott settled down to watch what she thought was going to be an old movie, Around The World In 80 Days.
Instead it was a repeat of Channel 4 series, Around The World In 80 Trades, in which former City analyst Conor Woodman travelled the globe buying and selling local commodities.
The series, which first aired six years ago, showed him horse-trading in the former Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan.
Conor Woodman joined Scott on her quest after she saw him horse-trading in the former Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan on the Channel 4 program Around the World in 80 Trades
‘And then I stood up in my lounge and screamed my head off...’ recalled Scott.
For the horse that Conor had bought and called Martin was surely an Appaloosa. ‘He had everything an Appaloosa should have. I was sure of it.’
Most breeders would say that Appaloosas arrived in Mexico with the Spanish conquistadors and made their way north.
But American-born Scott always believed they came from Asia across the Bering Strait between Alaska and Russia, and that’s why there were so many in the Pacific North West, the home of the Nez Perce tribe.
‘I thought, “I’ve got to get hold of this guy! I’ve got to convince him that he needs to go with me to Kyrgyzstan and find that horse.”’
A flurry of emails followed. ‘I’m not crazy,’ Scott assured Conor, who lives in London. ‘I’m just trying to keep a wonderful breed alive – I need to find Martin.’
If they succeeded,she argued, then DNA tests might prove her theory about the breed’s origins. Conor was intrigued.
So that was how Scott came to be flying to Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan, before setting off across Central Asia to make a film, Secret Horse: Quest For The True Appaloosa, shown on BBC4 tonight.
Scott is looking into importing horses from Kyrgyzstan to New Zealand where she lives
She hadn’t met Conor until she arrived, but she didn’t have a moment’s trepidation. ‘I was just so excited, so ready to go!’
Her family, however – three grown-up daughters and a son – thought differently. Her youngest daughter Canada, 28, said, ‘How can you even think about it? You have grandchildren who will never know their grandmother!’
She said: ‘The last words I heard at the airport from my grandson – he’s the son of my other daughter, Summer – were, “Auntie Canada says you’re going to die!”’
But Scott is fiercely individual. Five-times married (her first marriage lasted only a day, number four lasted three months) refuses to stand any nonsense from husbands. ‘I wish I’d married a cowboy,’ she said. ‘I’m so horsey and none of my husbands were.’
Nor was this her first big adventure. Scott was in her 50s when she moved from her remote home in Idaho to New Zealand.
She was accompanied by two daughters, three horses including an Appaloosa mare, two old English sheepdogs, a boat, a pick-up truck and a horse trailer.
‘We came to New Zealand sight unseen. So that was an adventure!’
Filmmaker Conor hadn’t a clue that Martin was special when, as one of his 80 Trades, he bought him for the equivalent of £610 from local breeder Munarbek Kuldanbaev.
After an unsuccessful day trying to hack it as a horse dealer, he sold him on to a farmer for £500.
But when Conor and Scott tracked down that farmer, with Munarbek’s help, it turned out Martin had been sold a month later to a man in the same village. Then he’d been sold again, this time at market to an unknown buyer.
An Appaloosa horse with its distinctive black spotted white coat in a farm in Wexford, Ireland
They’d reached a dead end. ‘I was so upset, I cried for three days,’ Scott said. Appaloosas in the US cost up to $100,000 (£64,000).
Scott has refused an offer of $150,000 (£99,000) for her stallion Eagleheart. But this wasn’t about money. Her dream was that by breeding from the purest Appaloosas in the world, she could strengthen the bloodline.
They had a stroke of luck when they attended an ancient horse game called kok-boru, Kyrgyzstan’s national sport.
Like polo, highly skilled riders compete to drag a goat carcass into goal. There they learned about a remote valley where there were horses that sounded like Appaloosas.
They spent three days driving, then onwards on horseback, sleeping rough in wolf country. At 4,200m Scott was clearly suffering from altitude sickness, though she insists it was just the flu.
But then came the moment that made it all worthwhile: the first sighting of a herd of what were clearly Appaloosas. ‘It was so wonderful. I was so relieved to know they existed,’ she said.
Locally, the horses are known as chaar, which means spotted. Their nomadic owners said that during the Soviet regime, the Russians tried to eradicate them by cross-breeding; but in this remote valley they survived.
Their owners let them be DNA tested, but Scott was already convinced, ‘I thought, “Here’s the true Appaloosa!”’
Her instincts were confirmed when Conor turned up in New Zealand with the DNA results. True Appaloosa, indeed. ‘I knew it!’ said Scott.
But she isn’t done yet. She’s looking into importing horses from Kyrgyzstan to New Zealand.
‘Spending the kids’ inheritance,’ she said cheerfully. ‘I want to go back and pick out three good mares. I’ve got 20 more years in me, at least.
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