From small beginnings it now sees entries from all over the county and this Monday will mark the 125th anniversary of the Flora Day Horse Show.

Moved a few years ago to May Day Bank Holiday, rather than Flora Day itself, the show began in 1892 with prizes given for cobs and ponies, ridden or driven, and with two jumping classes.

At the time it was predicted in a local newspaper that “being a new feature, [it] will attract considerable interest.”

Three years later it had become an annual event and it was estimated more than 1,500 people visited the show field that afternoon, where there was an additional attraction – the full band of the Royal Welsh Fusiliers.

In 1907 the show received a visit of Sir William Purdie Treloar, Lord Mayor of London and the band of the 1st Battalion, Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry performed on a bandstand close to the ring.

By 1919 the Flora Day Association had taken over the organisation of the dance as well as the horse and dog shows, due to the fact that only four of the “old” stewards were by then alive. Taking place just six months after the end of the First World War, the horse show was described in the paper as “one of the greatest features of the day” and while not as big as pre-war shows it “far exceeded expectations,” attracting the largest attendance since Lord Mayor Treloar’s visit 12 years earlier.

Two years later saw a record number of entries – and also a dramatic event during the judging of the cob and pony classes. One of the judges, a Mr Spooner, had decided to test one of the animals and got into the saddle to ride about the ring. The animal, however, took fright and bolted, dashing into the crowd and knocking some of the people down, before colliding with a car in which a group of women had been sat watching the show. The impact twisted one of the car’s mudguards and smashed the windscreen, but no one was injured, with the judge leaping into the car. Mr Spooner subsequently returned to the ring to continue judging.

In 1924 the show was described in the newspaper as “one of the most popular events of its kind in West Cornwall,” but it was suspended a year later, due to the Royal Cornwall Show being held in Helston the following month.

There was controversy in 1928, however, when Helston’s then-mayor Mr JB Martin accepted the customary nomination to become president of the Flora Day Association but subsequently resigned both as president and a member of the general committee in protest at the horse show committee agreeing to admit bookmakers onto the field. A devout Methodist, Mr Martin refused to be president of the show during his tenure as mayor, with the position instead taken by Sir Montague H Rogers – possibly the only person to hold the title of president while not being mayor as well.

In 1932 there was an attempt to hold a gymkhana instead of a horse show, but this was cancelled when there was no guarantee that the three local hunts would enter.

Prize money had reached record sums by 1933, when despite the organisers having an overdraft of £35 5 8d (around £1,500 in today’s money), it was agreed prize money should be £57 – the equivalent of £3,000 today.

By 1938 the horse show was behind held at Nansloe by permission of Mr Bray, but the following year it was moved to Tresprison and entries “eclipsed all previous records,” with attendance of between 6,000 and 8,000 people.

It was still being held at Tresprison Farm in 1950 – the show now run by a separate committee, after behind handed over by the Flora Day Association in 1946 – but four years later it returned to Nansloe Farm, where it has remained ever since.

This year’s show will take place at Nansloe this Monday from 9am, with classes for light horses, ponies, mountain and moorland, cobs, coloured and working hunter horses.