As riders and organisers prepare for the first event of the Point-to-Point season this weekend, Granville Taylor looks back over the origins and history of this popular - and demanding - equine sport.

The history of point-to-pointing goes back to at least the 1750s.

The origins of point-to-point horse racing are also the origins of steeplechasing. Ireland takes the credit for being the birthplace of the sport with a match between Mr O’Callaghan and Mr Edmund Blake in 1752. The race was over hunting country from Buttevant Church to St Leger Church.

The term steeple-chasing reflects on the line taken that day from one church steeple to another.

It is virtually impossible to pinpoint the first “organised” point-to-point meeting in Britain but it was probably 1836 when a Worcestershire Hunt meeting took place with a race won by a certain Captain Becher – yes the very same person who christened Becher’s Brook when he famously fell into that brook at Aintree.

Point-to-points took place in the West Country in the late nineteenth century and records exist of a joint meeting of the Tiverton Foxhounds and Tiverton Staghounds (at that time called Sir John Amory’s Hounds) in 1899 at Chevithorne Barton. Their fixture in 1900 at Gornhay included a crossing of the River Lowman.

The Stevenstone also held one of the early fixtures in the area at Melbury near Bideford in 1908

It was not until 1913 that point-to-point racing got its own charter when the Master of Hounds Point-To-Point Association was formed.

The fixture list developed significantly after the First World War and from a local point of view the Eggesford held a meeting at Loosenden Cross in 1923, and from 1924 until 1939 the Tetcott and South Tetcott held combined meetings at Affaland Moor near Holsworthy.

The Dulverton Hunt raced at Anstey Common from 1925 and Bratton Down became the setting for the Exmoor meeting from about that time.

A course was opened at Kilworthy near Tavistock in 1926, where the Lamerton Hunt still race today.

Some Devon and Cornwall fixtures took place over banks until the early 1960s at a number of courses, and pony races over jumps were a regular feature.

Despite the longevity of Kilworthy, many tracks in Devon & Cornwall have come and gone over the years. Popular Devon courses to fall by the wayside include those at Shobrooke, Bishopsleigh and Forches Cross, whereas in Cornwall Tehidy, Lemalla and Trewornan have disappeared.

In the late 1920s and early 30s, Miss Sylvia Spooner was an outstanding rider in the West Country, and indeed the leading lady rider in the country.

Fred Smyth was one of the leading male riders in Devon and Cornwall in the 1930s, winning several races on Main Doctor. An outstanding banks performer of that era was Mr Snip with over 20 successes.

Point-to-Pointing resumed on a modest note after the Second World War in 1946, petrol rationing severely curtailing the fixture list. It is difficult to visualise a pointer winning as many as 65 races, but the little East Cornwall gelding Lonesome Boy achieved that feat, including an unbeaten sequence of 53 until retirement in 1959. He was equally proficient over banks and birch fences.

At about the same time a banking pony called Delilah recorded 48 wins until she retired in 1961.

Bank races disappeared in 1964 and the next few years would see a gradual change from the more rustic West Country point-to-point scene – natural hedges, water jumps, plough et cetera to more organised tracks that we recognise today.

Rules and regulations were tightened considerably in the late 1990s and today administration and control is vested in the Point To Point Authority.

In effect, it is a vastly different, unrecognisable sport compared with days gone by.