The latest horses to be added to the BHS Hall of Fame are as follows:
Ryans Son
Was born in 1968 and at the age of five was bought by Malcolm Barr and his then future son-in-law, John Whitaker, for £2,500. The bay Irish bred gelding formed a partnership with John Whitaker, winning more than £250,000 during the course of his prestigious career.
He was a winner at the BHS-owned Royal International Horse Show, Horse of the Year Show and Olympia and was the leading national money winner four times (1976, 1978, 1979 and 1983)
Sadly, Ryan's Son died in 1987.
Yes he died outside of the ring, old YO worked at Hickstead at the time, and saw it all, she said it was horrid, as they did all they could to save him,
thought he was a fantastic horse.
Yup, I remember that very clearly, he fell at he second, or third fence (can't remember exactly) He looked stunned, John Whitaker looked stunned, and led him out of the arena. A few hours later I was checking Ceefax and it said the horse had been found dead in it's stable. Eventually it came out that he'd had a heart attack (presumably why he fell, it was a very strange fall - he just dropped like a stone in mid-air) and died later.
Great horse, sill miss him to this day when I hear John's name on TV.
God, that's just brought tears to my eyes reading the link.......what a star he was. That fence was the downfall of a few good horses, I think that now the hedge is a bit lower with a more obvious gap between the rails and the top of the hedge so that the horses don't confuse it with the bank.
I remember John Brown's horse taking a terrible fall, and I think it's the fence that Lisnamarrow went lame after......
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God, that's just brought tears to my eyes reading the link.......what a star he was. That fence was the downfall of a few good horses, I think that now the hedge is a bit lower with a more obvious gap between the rails and the top of the hedge so that the horses don't confuse it with the bank.
I remember John Brown's horse taking a terrible fall, and I think it's the fence that Lisnamarrow went lame after......
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Sorry to be pedantic, but you have the wrong fence.
Ryans Son fell at the second fence...in front of what is now the Champagne and Oyster Bar. It's the white oxer with christmas trees in the middle. You are thinking of fence 6, the privet hedge.
I was very close by when he fell....in fact i think up until a year or so ago it was the last time i was at Hickstead
He died later that evening in his stable from a massive haemorrage.