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.

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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