A rare grey Shire found himself at the top of the line in the Barber Family British ridden heavy horse championship, providing his producer with a second victory since this Horse of the Year Show (HOYS) final was introduced in 2016.
Emma Green rode six-year-old Cardington Billy Bob (out of Cloverfield May Queen) to victory, a gelding she bought unseen as a three-year-old.
“He’s a dead easy, genuine horse – his stablemate is completely different in that respect – but he’s taken it all in his stride. When we qualified him, we thought well we’ve got two that are very different but let’s run him because it’ll do him good,” Emma said.
“Billy Bob has totally exceeded all our expectations. He’s such a lovely boy. When I ride out at home I ride this one and lead Charlie, the other one I had in today, and he does that in the dark, he’s so genuine and so special.”
Emma intends to keep going with the Burlington Park Loose Valley son, who seems to have found his calling in the show ring:
“He’s one of those horses that loves it, likes the attention, likes the shows so I think this is his job and he can keep coming back.”
“Queen of the heavies” Emma, who was also in the placings with Lindy Winship’s Higher View Charlie for the final, last won the final in 2022 with Westfield Calendar Girl who, she notes, is a “very different” character.
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“We’ve had seven or eight qualify for this final and it’s just about keeping going and finding horses to bring out, especially when there just aren’t the numbers.”
Shire horses are deemed at risk by to the Rare Breed Survival Trust – having declined in response to “agricultural mechanisation”, and only surviving to modern times owing to “the support of a small number of individual breeders” – and grey Shires even more so; some sources say there are only 200 or so globally.
Emma added: “Shires are rare anyway but even more so are the greys. We are wanting to promote the breeding of them so it’s good for him to come. The only problem is we need more on the ground because people want them but it’s just breeding them.”
Runner-up in the ridden heavy horse championship “keeps getting better and better”
A second Shire took up the runner-up position in the ridden heavy horse championship and this was Neil Wray’s Acle Mojo, with Neil’s partner David Drake at the bridle.
The Rookhills Leapley Lad eight-year-old is out of Acle Queen Of Diamonds, and Neil bought him as a five-year-old unbacked stallion. Mojo was bred by Bryan Banham, whose Acle Carousel won the Shire horse of the year accolade in 2022 and featured in the line-up again this year alongside three others boasting the same prefix this time.
“We’ve spent the last three years showing Mojo. He was here last year when he was third, and the year before he was fourth – we’ve got better. But this may be our last season as we have young horses at home and we will be looking for a new home for him unfortunately.”
Neil found the horse advertised on Facebook.
“He was with a Shire horse breeder called Jonathan Worthington from Cheshire; he’d been his stud stallion for a couple of seasons. We were lucky enough to pop across, see him stood in the field and thought, ‘That’s the one.’”
In his third HOYS final, low-mileage Mojo has only ever contested 10 shows in total. He qualified this year at the National Hunter Supreme Show, and other highlights include second place at the National Shire Show this spring, having won there the previous year.
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Bethan joined Horse & Hound as showing editor in January 2025, after spending two years as Editor for Showing World. Having adored ponies since childhood, she started showing as a teenager and has enjoyed wins at major shows up and down the country, including Royal Highland, New Forest, and the Royal Welsh, as well as HOYS, RIHS and London. She is particularly passionate about Welsh breeds and is also a Welsh language commentator.
