Did you see or were you part of the Horse of the Year shows at the Harringay arena?

As you may know, Harringay arena was home of the Horse of the Year Show for its first ten years, from 1949 to 1958.

In its final year at Harringay, the show featured in the first broadcast of the BBC's new Saturday afternoon sports programme Grandstand.
This from the Horse of the year show website

"Did you watch, compete or appear at HOYS in 1949? Horse of the Year Show is searching for past competitors and participants from the very first Show in 1949 and every decade since as part of its 60th Show anniversary celebrations this year. Was your horse first to be crowned the Supreme Champion, did you see the first person to jump at Horse of the Year Show in the Harringay Arena or did you compete in the Show itself in the past six decades?

As part of the HOYS Diamond Jubilee’s celebrations, visitors will be treated to a trip down memory lane with a historic memory wall comprising past visitors’ and competitors’ memories. Throughout the Show the memory wall will be a prominent feature in the main entrance to welcome visitors and highlight the past 60 shows. We are looking for competitor and spectator photos and memorabilia from the past 60 years, which can be displayed on the memory wall. If you have any memorabilia or photos (copyright free), from any year, and would like it displayed on the HOYS memory wall please email press@hoys.co.uk for more information.

We are also interested in your stories from past Shows. If you were involved in the Show in 1949, the fifties, sixties, seventies, eighties, nineties or noughties HOYS would be delighted to hear your story. Please email your story to press@hoys.co.uk.

To jog your memory: the Show began in 1949 following an idea from Captain Tony Collings to have qualifying shows, at county level, across the country, with winning horses and ponies gaining points. The highest scoring animals would go on to compete in an annual show that would have classes for Hacks, Hunters, Cobs and all types of ponies, as well as show jumping. The first Show was held in the Harringay Arena 10 years later it moved to Wembley where it spent the next 43 years until, in 2002, HOYS moved to its new home at the NEC Arena, Birmingham where it has developed and expanded and now experiences record numbers visiting the Show every year."