Champing at the Bit
The first ‘show of horses’ occurred on the third day of the 1831 Spring Show and consisted of just one class – agricultural draught horses. Some fifty years later, the Pembroke Challenge Cup was awarded for ‘best young horse suitable for use as a hunter’, and the Croker Challenge Cup for ‘best thoroughbred stallion’ at the, by then, world-renowned Dublin Horse Show.
Probably the most famous of the Society’s trophies is the Nations Cup, better-known to show-jumping fans as the ‘Aga Khan cup’. First held in 1926, this international competition is the oldest and most prestigious team challenge in equestrian sport. The cup can be won outright if any team wins the competition for three consecutive years; the present cup is the sixth incarnation of the trophy.
William Evelyn Wylie and Edward Bohane are credited for making the Dublin Horse Show the international success that it is today. Bohane was director of the Society from 1921-36 and an exceptionally efficient organiser, and Wylie - who later became President of the Society - recognised the importance of equestrian events in creating a unique identity for the new Irish state.
In the 1930s, the Society commissioned American artist Olive Whitmore to design advertising posters for the Dublin Horse Show. These posters were used to advertise the Show all over Ireland and on the Cunard White Star shipping fleet.
The painter John Lavery was a regular attendee at the Dublin Horse Show. His viewpoint of a competitor taking the water jump in the Hunter Class at the 1926 Dublin Horse Show is seen from the Judges’ Box which overlooked the main show-jumping arena. Lavery presented the painting to the Society the following year.
The Society established the Dublin Horse Show in 1868 to exhibit the best of Irish workhorses and hunters. Today, the RDS Equestrian Programme continues to showcase Irish breeders and show-jumping competitors on an international stage.