Watching John Whitaker win the Cock O’ The North at the Great Yorkshire Show last week was an incredible experience. To lift a major trophy 51 years after your first victory is an achievement you simply couldn’t replicate in any other sport.
John admitted afterwards that this was the best of his seven wins and the atmosphere in the arena was special. The whole experience gave you goosebumps.
If last-man-in Richard Howley had jumped clear and snatched the win, I think the crowd would have booed him out of the ring. That’s despite how many years he’s spent living in Yorkshire! The backing you get from the home crowd is unmatched.
The Cock O’ The North is a unique class. While the Hickstead Derby is equally timeless, the Cock is accessible to most grand prix horses. That said, it usually takes a round in that massive arena for horses to settle and get their heads around the obstacles, like the double of walls and brushes.
There was a time when course-designers put real imagination into creating these enduring challenges. They carry just as much prestige today as they did half a century ago, which makes me wonder if we are capable of creating modern equivalents.
It remains one of a handful of events that hasn’t lost its value or respect and is arguably our biggest truly national class. Part of the magic is how easy the class is to follow for the public, to the point where even the security staff were buzzing about John’s win.
Despite everything he has achieved, John remains completely down to earth. I spent two hours wandering around the cattle lines with him. The Great Yorkshire is a proper county show, where you can still sit in the Jersey cattle shed and have a coffee with a group of local farmers.
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A show is only ever as good as the riders on the entry list, and while big names still want to win at Great Yorkshire, how many of our top 20 riders do you see supporting our national championships? In Belgium or the Netherlands, team selection dictates that riders must compete at their national finals and it preserves their status.
Many of our finals have lost their gloss. The Big Star six-year-old final was fantastic when it was held at the Horse of the Year Show (HOYS), but now it has dwindled to the point where we sometimes see only 12 to 15 entries in a qualifier.
I talked about the talent seekers in my last column, and how difficult it was for course-designers to build a track that could cater for seven-year-olds and a broader spectrum of horses.
It’s a class that undoubtedly needs a rethink, but it’s attracted the biggest numbers of any qualifier this year. So when the discussion happens, we have to remember that changes need to benefit not only horses and riders but the show centres, who are also trying to make a living.
A framework for progression
One thing they have on the Continent that we lack is a framework for progression. Countries like France require riders to lodge a certain number of clears before they can step up. In Britain, someone jumping a 1m track today could enter a grand prix next weekend.
A tiered structure would raise standards, protect horse welfare and give riders meaningful milestones.
Without the current blanket approach, tack rules could also be tiered. Grouping a grassroots rider jumping 80cm into the exact same bracket as a professional jumping 1.30m makes zero sense.
Other countries adapt bit rules by level. In Germany, young horses must compete in a simple snaffle until they are six years old.
You only have to look at the Billy Stud to see the success of that approach; their young horses are almost always in snaffles.
It reminds me of a brilliant exchange between Tony Pavitt and Marcus Ehning in a collecting ring. Tony asked Marcus what they do in Germany if a young horse can’t go in a snaffle. Marcus just smiled and said: “We sell them to England!”
● Do you agree with Chris’s comments? How else could we improve the framework for progression? Let us know your thoughts at hhletters@futurenet.com, including your name, nearest town and county, for the chance to have your thoughts published in a future issue of Horse & Hound magazine
Chris Smith is an international showjumper as well as a producer of young horses and a highly respected coach. He has won at Horse of the Year Show and secured plenty of other prestigious accolades.
