Great Yorkshire Show 2025: Emotional moments as dreams come true for big winners at Great Yorkshire Show 2025

The victory in front of a packed crowd at the Great Yorkshire Show’s Main Ring follows a win for the combination at the Royal Windsor Horse Show.

Unable to hold back tears of joy, Hannah Owen, from north Wales, said she had not been expecting to win the in-hand supreme championship with small hunter brood mare with foal at foot King’s Mistress.

She said: “When we’re showing her in the ring she’s absolutely beautiful. She just sits up and she trots, she’s so easy to show and really floats.

"It means quite a lot because I’ve never qualified for Horse of the Year Show. It’s taken about 31 years, so it’s quite nice!"

Amanda Stoddart-West, who looks after the competitive side of the show as its Livestock and Entries Coordinator, said this year's edition of the event had seen a strong number of animals competing.

She said: "A lot of people enter and if they qualify for somewhere else they don't come. It's nice when you see so many animals entered coming forward. In a normal year we get about 85 per cent forward in most classes.

"I often hear how the Main Ring is the grass ring of the country. A lot of the big shows have got all-weather surfaces and we're probably one of the only ones that still has a big grass ring. You can imagine galloping along that long side - that would be some gallop!"

She said show organisers Yorkshire Agricultural Society had been closely monitoring the welfare of animals at the show, following mounting concerns over issues such as the tail docking of Shire horses and riders being the appropriate weight for their horses and ponies.

Amanda added: "We're never going to change things instantly. Hopefully the exhibitors that attend the show know that we're looking out for those things.

"Exhibitors have been warned no tail docking is a rule we are bringing in for next year because we want to give everybody plenty of warning to prepare.

"I have had talks with the Shire Horse Society and have more talks planned. We want to see all breeds here, not just a handful.

"The turnouts in the ring look fantastic as ever. All of their drays and just looking at their brasses and how much work goes into all of that tack, it's an amazing sight, and long may it continue.

"We have just got to work on making that happen."

Crowds surrounding the Ridings Ring also appeared enthralled as Alistair and Heather Maclellan landed the champion hunter foal title with black colt Kaloonah's Legacy.

They said the triumph was particularly sweet given the showground is just 12 miles from their home in Pool in Wharfedale and the 16-year gap since their previous win at the Great Yorkshire Show.

Alistair said: "We've been showing here for 20 years and this is the first time we've won with the foal."

Heather added: "We both work full-time., so this is our passion, I wouldn't class it as a hobby. It's a lot of hard work, but very very worth it when you get a win like this. They don't come along very often.

"We've been breeding for a long time and this one is super special because tragically we lost our mare and foal at the start of the season, just two weeks before he was due.

"He's an absolute little cracker. His confirmation is really good, he's fabulous limb, good bone and a fabulous temperament.

"The mare who bred him, Alice's Slipper, is half-sister to a horse that won here a few years ago doing the heavyweight hunter with Magnus Nicholson, another Bowland horse. He might be a good heavyweight hunter."

The couple said they planned to show Alfred, as he is known at home, in hand for the next few years and then break him to ride at four years old.

At the White Rose Ring Jane Turnbull, of Burghwallis Stud, near Doncaster, said she was thrilled to land the coloured youngstock championship with two-year-old Custom Made Sugar Pie, having already picked up a third placing in the ridden coloureds with Burghwallis Creme de la Creme.

She said: "It's fantastic. Yorkshire born and bred we all are and it's a big thing to win the Yorkshire Show when you're a Yorkshire person. We don't overbreed, it's a passion."

Ms Turnbull said she had bought the skewbald filly last year from Custom Made Cobs. She said: "She wasn't for sale, but I fell in love with her and I asked if they wouid sell her to me.

“She's going to be a future ridden pony and hopefully a future brood mare as well, so she'll not go anywhere now."