A Brief History of Horse of the Year Show (HOYS)
The Horse of the Year Show began life in 1949 as an idea by Colonel VDS Williams (father of the legendary Dorian Williams who would be so influential as commentator in later years) and Mike Ansell. Colonel Williams was chairman of the British Horse Society at the time and the idea was to have an event that would be the finale to the showing and show jumping year so that winners could be truly crowned ‘horse of the year’. The first venue was at Harringay in North London at the greyhound racing track.
Not a very auspicious start you might think but one of the overriding reasons for choosing this site was the Greyhound Racing Association were persuaded to underwrite the event. The dates of this show were 13th – 15th September 1949. Britain was still recovering from the Second World War but bread and clothes rationing was over, the first laundrette had opened and Laurence Olivier’s film of ‘Hamlet’ had become the first British film to win an Oscar. The country was also still on a high from hosting the successful Olympic Games in 1948 and life was becoming a little more comfortable.
At these first shows the prize money for the showing and show jumping classes was very similar. The Pony of the Year received £100 while the winner of the Horse and Hound Cup (under British Show Jumping Association rules) won £120. There were only four showing championships in 1949, Hunters, Hacks, Cobs and Ponies. In the first year the showing classes had a rather slow start and were in danger of being dropped altogether, however they soon picked up.
Some of the most famous show ponies won these early championships including Legend and Pretty Polly after whom the Pretty Polly Championships at the Royal International Horse Show are named. There are many other notable champions from this era but none more so than Lucky Strike. Ridden by Anne Davy he was Champion Hack in 1962 and went on to become a very successful show jumper with Malcolm Pyrah. They jointly won the Puissance in 1971 with Piero d’Inzeo riding Believe. Pairs showing classes were very popular in the early years both with horses and ponies. This photo is of the finale in 1958 the last year the show was held at Harringay.
In 1959 it moved to the Empire Pool, Wembley which soon became synonymous with Horse of the Year Show. Instead of the question ‘Have you qualified for HOYS?’ it was ‘Have you qualified for Wembley?’
With the move came numerous problems for the showing fraternity. Poor quality going, dust, nowhere to exercise except walking round the car park. In spite of all these difficulties showing continued successfully throughout the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s. However, through the 90’s the whole show was struggling financially and very nearly sank.
It had a new beginning in 2002 with the move to the NEC at Birmingham. Happily, people took to it well. More space, better arenas and going, easy to get to without being snarled up in London traffic.
British Miniature Horses were first shown at HOYS in 2000 when the champion was Sarah Hampton’s Farthingwood Romeo. An outstanding two year old who went on to win many county show championships and to sire plenty of good miniature horses. To date there have been very few horses who have won the coveted HOYS title more than once, they are Wendy Edgar’s MH Apollo (2005, 2007, and 2009), (photo opposite), Scott Creek My Key to Fashion (2011 and 2013), Ujenik Dudes Sombrero (2014 and 2017) and Scott Creek Monarch Red Graffiti (2015 and 2018).
