The Year in Horses: 1997

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    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.
    1997 Horse Illustrated Online
    Click for larger image

    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.

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