In just a few short years, the Blowing Rock Charity Horse Show will be celebrating a century of horse showing in this revered mountain town. That day will not only be a thrilling time for the Horse Show, but it will also celebrate 126 years of horse sports in the High Country.
The Lenoir News Topic carried an article on September 8, 1897 which referred to the “Tournament at Green Park.” This equestrian event was a gymkhana consisting largely of games on horseback, which can best be described as an equine fashion show for the amusement of Green Park Hotel guests.
In 1923 Mr. Tate held his first Blowing Rock Horse Show on Green Hill Road, just up the mountain behind the Green Park Hotel. During these early years, the show gradually took on a more formal atmosphere with rules and decorum better fitting an official sporting event, but through the years it remained a “fun show” as it was often referred to by Mr. Tate. After decades of expansion and improvements to both the facility and to the level of competition, the show has never lost its “fun show” appeal.
By the mid-1920’s Mr. Thomas H. Broyhill had purchased much of what we know today as the Mayview section of Blowing Rock, being around 1,000 acres at the time. The horse show moved to a small, little-used golf course on land owned by Mr. Broyhill; the intention being to make it an attraction for guests of the nearby Mayview Manor Hotel. In 1934 Mr. Broyhill sold the “horse show grounds” to the Blowing Rock Charity Horse Show Association for the tidy sum of $1.00.
Uninterrupted by recessions, depressions, foul weather, or even World War II, the Blowing Rock Charity Horse Show has survived one national and regional crisis after another, and the show is stronger today in every respect than it has ever been before.
