Good morning everybody and welcome to York Racecourse, hopefully Storm Claudia has not made travelling too difficult.
Another year seems to have passed in the blink of an eye, and this season is drawing to a close. As always there have been some outstanding champions, we have seen some beautiful horses, and we nearly made it to the end of the year without any major incidents. As always, the Board – who I would like to remind you all are unpaid volunteers who give up of their time freely and do have day jobs- have stepped up to help deal with these issues. All of which have been incredibly time-consuming with emails and WhatsApp’s flying around late in the evening and often at weekends when decisions need to be made.
None of the work done by the Board would be implemented without the diligence and hard work of Philippa, Tracey and Annabel in the Office. We thank you for your hard work, especially during the National Championships and at the moment, sorting out everything for today and the London International Horse Show in December. The Office is often the first point of contact with the British Show Horse Association and the impression you create is so important, so thank you for all your help guiding people and dealing with their problems.
For me like many the highlight of the season is our National Championship show held at Addington Manor EC. This year again under the watchful eye of our Show Director Sarah Carey, the show was better than ever. This was in part due to the amazing support of our fantastic sponsors, who enabled us to put on a magnificent celebration of our beautiful show horses, and due to their generosity we were also able recognise and reward the extremely hard-working grooms which was fantastic, and to also turn a profit, which will be used to make next year’s show even better.
Despite much speculation, we will be returning to Addington in 2026, this is the best championship showground in the country. Excitingly, we will be running a new novice championship for 2026 with 18 qualifiers across the country culminating in a big championship at the Nat Champs, this series will be generously supported by EasyChip/ New Horizons Plastics. We are trying to promote and encourage the showing of novice horses, giving them a full season of novice classes to educate and start them on hopefully a glorious career, with a major championship at the end of the season.
Next season, we will also be running the spring show at Addington.
This time last year Callum Potts very kindly agreed to help us with our social media. He has made great inroads in improving our “socials” this year with interesting posts on all sorts of topics and important notifications throughout the season. At the National Championships he was joined by Emma Rodman and between the two of them their social media coverage was phenomenal, resulting in huge numbers of followers watching the videos and posting very positive comments. This was making the best use of social media, reflecting its positive benefits and celebrating our sport. However, as always, not everybody uses this forum for positive purposes. Sadly, it is now so easy to return tired and disgruntled from a show and express one’s disappointment on social media without necessarily having time to think about the consequences. Before the advent of social media, if unhappy after a show, one would have at least a good night’s sleep, a large gin, and time to reflect before venting ones fury on the judges (as they are always to blame), the shows, other competitors and probably even the weather. Having done that then had to write a letter, find a stamp and post box, by which stage one probably couldn’t be bothered.
Finally, we have some of our senior and most long-standing members of the Board retiring this year. They have given a lot of their time and experience to the benefit of the British Show Horse Association, for which we wholeheartedly thank them – long service medals will be presented later. Fortunately, we have some new Board Members that are willing to join us, and we look forward to their views and input. It would be lovely to see some of our younger members stepping up to join us, you are the future of the Association, it would be fantastic if you could come and learn the ropes, so when we retire there is somebody to continue the legacy. I know Simon and I were both in our 30s when we first joined the Board, it takes time to fully understand the workings of the Association, and it is not until you look beyond going to shows that it becomes clear what is involved. Whilst I’ve always been aware that a lot goes in to organising a show, until I was on the committee I had no idea of the time and effort it requires to organise a three-day competition. So, you can imagine what it takes to manage the Association for a year. On that note, thanks to all of the Board for what has been achieved in this last year and roll on 2026.
Lucy Killingbeck
