The Horses tried to challenge Alaric and although we saw through Peters eyes what happened the “official story” probably centres around Alaric snubbing the Khans (in turn the entire CHH). The Ghost Bears recognized Alaric and when asked to join the new Star League they said it had to be discussed. For reasons only known (so far) to Alaric he openly insulted the Ghost Dominion. There were no spin doctors to say who was directly was at fault and a lot of people sought someone to blame.
Not the case, actually. This book has Fulk Lassanerra directly stating that it was Gottfried Amirault that refused to acknowledge Alaric as ilKhan in front of the entire Clan Council. It was laid at his feet as a condemnation of his leadership (among a lot of other things, lol).
In addition the CHH also invaded former Falcon holdings (see Operation Stampede) and like the events in Dominion Divided proved a successful campaign can unify any faction.
Not the case, either. Operation Stampede had middling results
at best, and some really embarrassing losses for the Horses. Another charge that Fulk added to the list during the Council meeting. It seems that getting rid of Gottfried has been more unifying for the Horses than anything, but Fulk's not looking too much better yet.
In the end it may be a big deal but I see any future conflict may centre around the Periphery since (to my knowledge) no faction in the Tamar region has any wish to engage the CHH as of 3150.
It
is a big deal. It's the biggest deal. A Clan just won Terra, has been acknowledged as the ilClan by its peers (except for the Horses, and that's apparently only
because of Gottfriend), and has declared to the Inner Sphere that they're finally restoring the true Star League. This is as close to an equivalent of the Second Coming from the Clan sociological perspective as could possibly happen, the entire reason the Clans even exist in the first place... and we haven't gotten to see the Horses really
acknowledge that outside of Peter lecturing Gottfried about it (sidenote: you know your Khan's got to go when he doesn't have you in a Circle of Equals for that, the Loremaster had to send him out of the room, lol).
Maybe we'll get more in the future, but I can only speak to what's out there now. I'd like to be optimistic here though and think something
big is in the works now that we have an ilClan and a Star League that needs building, because I've noticed a lot of cliffhangers coming out of the post-ilClan material (like the RasDom's random sneak attack on the Combine, the FWL attack on the Wolf Empire, etc), and it almost feels like we're in the setup phase of whatever's coming next.
I hope that's where we're at with the Horses, because it's been a pretty disjointed journey for them for a while now (there's been, what, three line developers and a change of ownership since the Horses' Dark Age story began?), and I feel like that's causing things to get lost by the wayside, like the Horses' good relations with their lower castes that set them apart from their peers. I'd like to really see something
great come out of all of this for them as they enter this bold new era.