The Year in Horses: 1995

1995

Equestrian safety became mainstream news fodder when actor
Christopher Reeve, most well-known for playing Superman, fell from his horse
while competing at a horse trials in Virginia. He survived, but was paralyzed
from the neck down for the remainder of his life. Reeve was an experienced and
responsible rider who was wearing both a helmet and a protective vest when he
fell.

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In the Pages of Horse Illustrated
In our February 1995 issue, editor Audrey Pavia introduced a
new column called Training Talk. Readers had requested a forum in the magazine
where specific training questions could be answered, and the idea for Training
Talk was born. Training Talk, now divided into English Arena and Western
Roundup, is still one of our popular features in 2011.

Click for larger image

Once again, we brought you the latest and greatest equestrian fashions. This time it was awesome winter wear for the barn, featured in the February 1995 issue. Winter riding pants are a brilliant idea, but some of these mid-nineties versions were baggy and had a windproof outer shell that made them look dangerously similar to what we affectionately call, “hammer pants.” (Google it, whippersnappers.) We also featured a couple of western-themed, full-length coats specifically NOT for riding. It’s difficult to get into the saddle when the coat you’re wearing extends to your ankles.

In May 1995, we announced a service called Equinet, a
horse-related classified service on what we then referred to as, “the
electronic highway.” This was one of the earliest references to the brave, new online world in our magazine.

“With just a computer and a modem, novices read ads by
simply sending electronic mail,” said Jon Batcheller, president of Equinet.
“More advanced users use the World Wide Web and see actual pictures of stallions
and horses for sale.” And with that, we all forgot how we ever did anything
without the Internet.

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Abigail Boatwright

Abigail Boatwright is a freelance writer and photographer based in Texas, and is the editor of Horse Illustrated’s sister publication, Western Life Today.

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Deborah says:
September 21, 2011 at 5:52 pm
I am the current President of he EMSA (Equestrian Medical Safety Association- formerly the AMEA/SRF0. We are a volunteere 501c(3) organization (www.emsaonline.net) interested in both safety of both the mounted & unmounted equestrian. Unfortunately not all equestrian injuries are preventable & helmets are extremely useful in minimizing head injury but not in eliminating spinal cord injury.