The Year in Horses: 1997

1997

Horse lovers and fans of great children’s literature mourned
the passing of Marguerite Henry, author of classic horse-themed books including
Misty of Chincoteague and King of the Wind. She was 95 years old.
From the department of breed registry wars, this year the
World Arabian Horse Association (WAHO) gave the U.S.-based Arabian Horse
Registry (AHR) the boot after AHR refused to accept WAHO’s new definition of
breed purity. AHR argued that the new definition allowed horses that were known
crossbreds. The controversy continued for several years until the AHR merged
with the International Arabian Horse Association, the organization that
sanctioned most American Arabian shows at the time, to create the Arabian Horse
Association in 2003. AHA was readmitted to WAHO in 2007 and is presently the
only Arabian registry in the United States.

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In the Pages of Horse Illustrated

Horse Illustrated entered the series of tubes known as the
World Wide Web this year. Although we still hadn’t moved out of our corporate
parents’ virtual house, so to speak, we at last had a presence at
AnimalNetwork.com. Back then we hyphenated the word “on-line” and were best
viewed using Netscape Navigator.
Two-time horse of the year Cigar made headlines when the
mares he bred in his much-anticipated inaugural season at stud—with a fee of
$75,000—failed to conceive. Cigar’s owner walked away with a $25 million
infertility insurance settlement. In the November 1997 issue, we reported that
the insurance company, which was now the unstudly stallion’s manager, sent him off for
some R&R with strict orders for him to have at least 12 hours a day in a
private paddock and to be generally left alone. The hope was that decompressing
after the stressful racehorse life would reverse his infertility. We now know
how that ended. While the world may never see the next generation of Cigars,
the opinionated old stallion is now living the good life at the Kentucky Horse
Park’s hall of champions.