The millennium year 2000 saw WAHO celebrate its 30th birthday. As we move into the 21st Century, we thought you might be interested in a quick look back at WAHO's main achievements of the past three decades.
So, what is 'WAHO'? The acronym stands for 'The World Arabian Horse Organization'. WAHO has the responsibility of ensuring that standards acceptable to all its Registering Authority Members are established and maintained in the matters of regulations, methods of registration and production of Stud Books. We have a President, an Executive Committee and a standing Stud Book Investigation Committee. Registering Authority Members are each entitled to send two voting delegates to the biennial WAHO General Assemblies. Associate Members may send one non-voting delegate, and Individual Associate Members may attend as observers. We also arrange a Registrars' Meeting at each Conference.
The basic objectives of WAHO are, in brief, "To preserve, improve and maintain the purity of the blood horses of the Arabian breed and to promote public interest in the science of the breeding of Arabian horses ...; To promote and facilitate the acquisition and distribution of the knowledge in all Countries of the history, care and treatment of horses of the Arabian breed ...; To advise and co-ordinate the policies and activities of Members of the Organization ...; To co-operate with any person or body of persons ... domiciled throughout the world in an endeavour to promote uniformity in terminology, definitions and procedures relative to the breed of Arabian horses; To act in a consultative capacity in discussion and negotiation with International, National .... and other authorities .... on matters concerning horses of the Arabian breed."
The Arab Horse Society of Great Britain hosted the first ever conference of International Arabian Horse Societies in 1967. There were nine nations in attendance. The result of this meeting was that those present agreed that a world organization should be formed to aid in the protection and orderly development of the Arabian Horse throughout the world. The conference was then adjourned for three years so that attending nations would have an opportunity to reflect on the first conference and be better equipped to discuss the future objectives of such an organization.
In August 1970 the AHS, under the chairmanship of the late Major T.W. Ian Hedley, hosted a second conference, attended by representatives from Australasia, Denmark, German Federal Republic, Hungary, Israel, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Egypt, United Kingdom and the United States of America (AHRA and IAHA). The main achievement of this meeting was the creation and naming of the World Arabian Horse Organization, and the appointment of an international steering committee to formulate the bye-laws, objectives and purposes of the Organization.
For the next two years the steering committee, chaired by Jay Stream, worked together through correspondence and personal meetings to write the WAHO Constitution. WAHO was also established as a non-profit charitable organization, based in the United Kingdom. WAHO’s income is derived from subscriptions and levies from our members,
and the occasional generous donation.
Since 1970 WAHO has held a Conference every second year. At the first full WAHO Conference in Seville, Spain, in 1972, twenty-two countries were represented, those named above together with Canada, France, Germany Marbach, Germany GZF and ASD, Hungary, Jordan, New Zealand, Sweden, and the Soviet Union. The Constitution was ratified and the President Jay Stream, Secretary, Treasurer and Executive Committee (some of whom still serve to this day) were nominated and approved by a unanimous vote.
At that meeting one of the subjects under discussion was the need for a ‘Definition’
of the Arabian horse which would be acceptable to all member countries. Between 1972 and 1974, some of the brightest minds in the Arabian horse world of the time wrestled with this all-important question, one that over the years has had many different answers in different countries, but never an internationally acceptable solution. Following their deliberations and extensive discussion, the Executive Committee of WAHO, having carefully considered national differences in phraseology and procedure, recommended an official Definition of the Purebred Arabian Horse. This was presented with applicable conditions and was unanimously accepted by the delegates at the WAHO Conference held in Malmo, Sweden, in 1974. The WAHO Definition was accepted by the WAHO Membership as a means of determining the purity of an Arabian horse.
The WAHO Definition is deceptively simple but has proved its worth time and time again. It is further updated at each biennial conference as required. At the 1998 WAHO Conference in Bahrain, the Delegates voted unanimously to re-confirm the WAHO Definition and make its application mandatory. For those of you not familiar with it, the Definition reads as follows:-
"A Purebred Arabian Horse is one which appears in any Purebred Arabian Horse stud book or register listed by WAHO as acceptable." Since the 1998 Conference, it is a mandatory rule that a horse entered in a stud book or register for purebred Arabian horses fully accepted by WAHO must be acceptable as purebred to the Registration Authorities of all WAHO Members and must not be rejected on a pedigree basis.
In 2004, at the WAHO Conference in Warsaw, Poland, the General Assembly voted to
‘close’ the WAHO Stud Books to any horses which cannot be proven to trace on every
line to horses already registered in a WAHO-approved stud book.
The creation of the World Arabian Horse Organization some 30 years ago aroused a resurgence of international interest in this breed. Countries without registries asked for help in establishing new registries, and countries with existing registries not acceptable to most other registering authorities asked for help in making their stud books acceptable to other WAHO members. WAHO has never made any distinction or discrimination between registries, be they large or small, rich or poor, new or long-established. It is a fundamental premise of the Organization that every Registering Authority Member is treated with equal respect.
For the past thirty years, the WAHO Inspection and Investigation Committee has visited many countries, talking with their registrars, inspecting their records and in time putting forward for approval their stud books. As a result, at each Conference more and more countries have been represented as their stud books have been added to the WAHO Definition.
Over the years many decisions, large and small, have been taken at the General Assemblies. The proceedings of every conference are recorded and a book is produced and distributed to all members.
The continuity of service to the Organization by members of the Executive Committee has given WAHO a rare strength. Together with the ever increasing Membership, these visionary men and women have seen the growth of a remarkable world-wide community, as old resentments and suspicions of others' stud books and pedigrees have been overcome. For those of you who are too young to remember life before WAHO, it is hard to imagine how the distrust between registries in those days was so extreme that breeders were often unable to register imported horses. Today our Registering Authority Members work together and help each other regardless of political divisions, consequently Arabian horse enthusiasts are free to choose the horses they want from any Member country in the sure knowledge that they will be accepted in their own home Registry.
At that historic 1970 meeting in 1970, Ian Hedley said something which the Executive Committee of WAHO still believe in to this day. He said the world saw the Arabian horse in the beginning as a war horse, but he hoped that it would finally become an instrument of peace and understanding. WAHO's extraordinary achievement over the past 30 years has been to been to make this hope a reality.
From those small beginnings in 1967 when nine nations attended that first ever exploratory meeting, WAHO has now grown to a total number of 59 Member countries plus 10 countries
whose Arabians are registered for them by Member countries, making a total of 69
countries whose horses are included in the WAHO Definition. There are also a further
5 Applying Member countries. Among those Member countries are the all-important
original homelands of the Arabian horse, where there has been a huge resurgence
in interest in the traidtional breed of the region. Great efforts were made to include
every eligible horse in the stud books of the region, following detailed investigations
by the countries concerned, assisted where requested by the WAHO Inspection &
Investigation Committees.
Current major projects include the creation of a computerised World Arabian Pedigree
Database, to be accessible to all our Members, and the purchase, when sufficient
funds have been raised, of a suitable property to become the first ever WAHO Headquarters.
WAHO is also actively involved with important international initiatives such as
the use of equine passports and the development of the Universal Equine Life Number
system. The new WAHO Trophy initiative has also proved very popular. Information
on WAHO Trophy winers for 2005 and 2006 may be found through the News Page of this
website.
Over the years, nearly 3,000 people who share an interest in Arabian horses have joined as Individual Associate Members. All are welcome at our Conferences, our most recent was held in Damascus, Syria in April 2007, under the patronage of the Syrian Ministry of Agriculture and the Syrian Arab Horse Association. The WAHO Conferences very much combine the business of WAHO and its Membership with the pleasure of seeing old friends and making new ones in a convivial setting. We have guest speakers and excellent social events, and also have the chance to see some of the history and Arabian horses of the particular country we are visiting. You are most welcome to join us at the 2009 Conference in Muscat, Oman, which promises to be an exceptional location for this event. There will also be Post-Conference tours to choose from. Why not come and see for yourself just what makes WAHO so unique and so special. If you would like to come and you are not yet an Individual Associate Member of WAHO, just contact the WAHO Office. We hope to see many old friends and to welcome many new ones in Oman in January 2009.