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The Year in Horses: 1979

1979

  • Combined Driving is added to the United States Equestrian Team’s
    (USET) roster of international equestrian sports. Prior to this, the Olympic
    disciplines of show jumping, dressage and eventing are the only ones under
    USET’s jurisdiction.
  • The first reports of what we now know as Potomac Horse
    Fever
    appeared this year. Happily, there is now a vaccination available to
    treat this disease, which was named for the area around the Potomac River in Maryland where it was
    first discovered.
  • Horse lovers and film buffs swooned at the film adaptation
    of The Black Stallion that was released this year. Fewer people swooned over
    another horse movie released in 1979: Wild Horse Hank, the story of a teenage
    girl who saves a herd of Mustangs from a gang of poachers intent on capturing
    the horses to sell them for meat.





Go back to the Horse Illustrated 35th Anniversary main page.

View Comments

  • I love The Black Stallion and Wild Horse Hank!
    This clip brought back wonderful memories of sitting at home when I was a little kid pretending the chair was a horse - I would rock the chair back and forth to simulate a horse running.

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