, celebrates 120 years

Horse & Hound was launched on 29 March 1884 with the strapline: “The best of my fun, I owe it to horse and hound” from George Whyte-Melville’s poem, The Good Grey Mare.

The “mission statement” from the 23-year-old Editor, Arthur Portman, a racing enthusiast and crack shot who chose the title, was to provide a “reliable journal of sport and agriculture”.

It had a cover price of tuppence and comprised 16 A3 pages of dense, pictureless reportage on hunting, racing, polo, horse shows, agricultural and bloodstock sales, plus other sports, theatre reviews, society gossip and political comment.

In the 120yr since, Horse & Hound has charted the horse industry’s tireless regrouping against world crises, economic deprivation, scandal and political strife. Yet Portman’s early leaders reflect extraordinarily similar preoccupations to those of 2004.

In 1884, he expands on road safety (the gratifying tolerance of riders towards a gigantic increase in “wheelmen”), safer fence construction (in racing) balanced with the need to educate horses properly in jumping, and the threat to hunting.

Portman wrote: “Disguise it as we may, there’s a formidable party in this country opposed to all field sports… There are even British-born subjects who, if they had their wicked wishes consulted, would put down foxhunting…”

He exhorted all sportsmen to “form square” and remember: “Union is strength”, opining prophetically: “If the thin end of the wedge is once inserted, no man living can tell where this crusade against sport will stop…”

The big stories: 1884 to 2004

1885 — Launch of the Hunters’ Improvement Society

1907 — Launch of Olympia Horse Show

1925 — The BSJA is officially recognised

1939 — Outbreak of World War ll

1947 — Dressage meets the public at White City

1948 — Britain’s first three-day event

1949 — Build-up to the first Badminton

1949 — Early anti-hunting Bills

1949 — The first ever Badminton Horse Trials

1949 — Launch of The Horse of the Year Show

1952 — Britain’s first Olympic equestrian gold

1956 — Pat Smythe makes history as the first woman to ride on a British team

1956 — The first Olympic eventing gold for Britain

1960 — Aussies upset the form at Badminton (does this sound familiar?)

1966 — Arkle’s Gold Cup hat-trick

1968 — Uproar as Sheila Willcox is omitted from Britain’s Olympic team

1971 — Mill Reef’s year

1971 — Princess Anne wins the European eventing title

1971 — Harvey Smith and his famous V sign

1972 — Richard Meade wins double gold at ‘murderous’ Olympics

1972 — Ann Moore wins hearts with her silver medal-winning show jumping round

1977 — Red Rum wins his third Grand National

1980 — Equestrianism boycotts the Moscow Olympics

1983 — Lester Piggott wins a record ninth Derby

1983 — Shergar is kidnapped

1988 — Seoul Olympics highlight way forward for British breeding

1990 — The FEI’s slow response to cruelty allegations overshadow the first World Equestrian Games

1991 — MFHA expels Quorn masters over handled fox

1992 — Dick Pound decries equestrianism in Olympics

1992 — Britain ‘blows it’ by using the wrong tactics in Barcelona

1993 — Grand National ‘shambles’ as chaotic start leads to race being declared void

1999 — The Coral Cove affair unfolds

1999 — Disbelief as Polly Phillipps is killed in fall

2003 — Pippa Funnell wins the Rolex Grand Slam in eventing

2003 — Britain’s show jumpers hit rock bottom by failing to qualify for the Olympics

2004 — Best Mate equals Arkle’s Gold Cup record

2004 — Incompetence surrounds the eventing in Athens

2004 — Olympic Champion show jumper tests positive

2004 — Hunting is banned

Read Horse & Hound’s full retrospective of the past 120 years in the current issue (30 December ’04), on sale now.