Beyond each country's Arabian horse registry is an organization called the World Arabian Horse Organization.  WAHO was formed to act as a liaison between countries in setting up guidelines and assisting in the transfer of Arabian horses from one country to another.  When a country applies for membership, WAHO examines their stud books and procedures and grants or denies membership.  The benefit of membership is the ability to sell horses to clients in other countries that are WAHO members.  Horses from a registry not accepted for WAHO membership are not accepted by WAHO members as eligible for their stud books because the records for the horses in non-WAHO registries have not been inspected to ascertain that they are indeed purebred.  The following comments were taken from remarks by Lorry Wagner, with her kind permission, who has closely followed the events that led to expulsion of AHRA from WAHO, and was present at the final meeting.

"The delegates of WAHO have agreed for years (since the 1972 conference in Sweden where the definition was originally adopted) that any WAHO-member registry must accept any Arabian horse registered with any other WAHO-member registry. Any registry applying for membership in WAHO must have a thorough and total investigation of every horse in their submitted stud book for proof of being a purebred Arabian horse before WAHO will approve that stud book. Thus, these horses are proven purebred Arabian horses. Agreement on the WAHO defintion was reaffirmed at every WAHO conference held since that time by voice-vote of the delegates.

In 1996 at the Abu Dhabi conference, AHRA was charged by Brazil for not adhering to this agreement. At the next WAHO conference in Bahrain, the delegates made a motion from the floor that the "acceptance of the WAHO definition is mandatory." That means it is a concrete rule put in place by the delgates. So, it was a "fellow" WAHO-member registry that finally made the original "official" complaint against AHRA, and it was WAHO-member registries that backed up Brazil and demanded AHRA accept the same rules. The motion in Barhain was in response to AHRA's stubborn insistence that it was "a purity issue" and no one had the right to tell them what to do. Well, they are right on that one. No one has the right to tell them what to do. However, WAHO does have the right to reject membership of anyone who does not agree to follow their rules. And, they did! When you join an organization, you must agree to follow the rules. Rules change and you either follow them or get out. That was AHRA's choice and they knew it, but just pushed the envelope thinking the rest of the world just couldn't get along without them."

AHRA was given chance after chance to come to the table with WAHO to discuss resolution of this problem in an equitable way. AHRA, upon being called on the carpet in Abu Dhabi in 1996, promised that Bart Brown would call Jay Stream and set up a meeting right after the first of the year (1997). He did not do that. WAHO then extended an invitation to AHRA asking that they attend the June, 1997 meeting of the WAHO Executive Committee held in London. AHRA declined the invitation. Finally, in November of 1997, AHRA agreed to attend a meeting of the WAHO Executive Committee scheduled in Los Angeles for the "convenience" of AHRA; i.e., close to home. WAHO EC members and the Executive Secretary came from Argentina, Uruguay, Australia, France, Syria, United Arab Emerites, England, and a couple of other countries to attend a meeting that was scheduled for Saturday and Sunday to resolve the problem. I was also in attendance, having been asked by Mary Anne Grimmell (then President of IAHA) to represent IAHA as a witness to the proceedings. AHRA was a half hour late to the meeting scheduled to start at 9:00 a.m. (Bart Brown, Bob Fauls, and Ralph Clark attended for AHRA). After introductions, Bart Brown read a prepared statement which was insulting to WAHO, Ralph Clark answered a couple of questions regarding horses tracing to 30-Maria breeding already in the AHRA registry, then Bart announced they had to leave by 11:00 to catch planes since they had so far to go to get home, then they left. It was only after this meeting that WAHO made the decision to revoke AHRA membership as of 1/1/98. The door to negotiation has remained open as far as WAHO is concerned ever since that day, but AHRA has not made any attempt to take advantage of WAHO's open invitation.

In an effort to provide a means for Arabian horse owners  to sell their horses to "overseas" clients, a group of people pooled their own funds and formed the Purebred Arabian Horse Registry (PAHR), then applied for and received membership to WAHO.  The formation of PAHR went relatively unnoticed in the majority of Arabian horse communities in America.  According to a recent poll¹, 90% of the AHR members that were queried did not consider the ability to sell their horses outside of America to be an an important issue.  Most of these people felt that as long as they could show their horses in America, the current registry was quite adequate.  But to many breeders, especially breeders of straight Egyptian Arabians, the feeling is that the formation of an alternate registry was an important and necessary action.  Now people that want to maintain the option of foreign sales but still sell and show in America, must register their horses in both registries.  

There is another point beyond the pragmatic; namely, what are the long-range effects of isolationism?  If the issues can be condensed into a few simple points, I would attempt to classify them as follows:

1.  AHRA recognition of other stud books

2.  Recognition by WAHO of an American registry

3.  The roles of the AHRA, IAHA, and PAHR

4.  The future of American-bred Arabian horses.

AHRA acceptance of other members' stud books.  One of the conditions for membership in WAHO is that all its members accept the stud books of member countries.  This means that, whether we agree or not, the horses in those studbooks must be accepted as "purebred Arabian" horses.  By definition -- the registering countries definition -- the horses in their studbooks are purebred. . . by definition.  When a horse registered in one of these stud books is sold to another country and the new owner tries to register the horse with the new registry, it must be accepted as a purebred based on its registration in the previous country's stud book, and no comment or notes to the contrary may be entered in the new registry concerning the relative purity of the horse. 

Recognition by WAHO of an American registry.   When AHRA refused to register certain horses with questionable ancestors, horses that were already listed as purebred in another country's registry, they were eventually dropped from membership in WAHO.  I guess you could say Good for you for sticking up for your standards, AHRA!  Except -- now none of the horses registered in the AHRA (unless double registered in PAHR) are considered acceptable by the rest of the world because AHRA is not a member of WAHO.  

The roles of AHRA, IAHA, and PAHR.  There is another war raging between the AHRA and IAHA.  There is a lot of noise, especially on the Internet, about the corruption, incompetence, and generally poor management of both organizations.  Some people want to merge the two organizations, other people want to AHRA take over promotion and show sanctions and replace IAHA, yet others want IAHA to take over the registration of purebred Arabian horses.  Originally, the AHRA was formed to register Arabian horses,  the IAHA was formed to promote Arabian horses.  Sounded like a good plan and, in theory, still is a good plan.  Addressing charges of corruption, incompetence and poor management are best answered in ways other than restructuring the mission and responsibilities of each organization.  Additionally, PAHR is now the recognized registry for America and would have to be purchased by whichever organization wound up being THE American Arabian Horse registry. 

The future of American-bred Arabian horses.  All anyone has to do is look at the original imports to America, then look at the latest issues of the two largest Arabian horse publications, to see a remarkable change in the looks of the Arabian horse in America.  American Arabians have become a distinct type just like Polish-bred, Russian-bred, Spanish-bred, etc. have become distinct types.  It is said around the world that Americans have managed to reinvent the American Saddlebred -- with a slightly prettier head.  But the world loves the look and sales continue to grow for American horses overseas.  Until now.  The people I have spoken with that have sold horses overseas, have all gone through the process of registering  their horses with PAHR.  But what will result if the majority of American breeders choose to confine their sales to AHRA members only?  There are over 500,000 registered Arabians in America so even with a closed gene pool, there appears to be diversity enough, but at some point, the influence of the American Arabian horse will cease to be a factor in the global scheme.  American breeders of Arabian horses will have lost the freedom to think and breed globally and their horses will reflect it by fixing the traits of a fad.  It is my humble opinion that the results will be disastrous.

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