As the Upperville Colt and Horse Show celebrated its 152nd year last weekend, riders, friends and families met again under the oaks to celebrate everything that it means to be a horseman.

Resisting the temptation to forgo showing and competing in the predictable heat, humidity and occasional thunder shower that have come to define the mid-June event, literally thousands of horse and rider combinations gathered to participate in the nation's oldest horse show. It is, apparently, too much to resist. Because where the non-horsey set (we're told such people exist) might only question the sanity of spending 90 degree days in close companionship with large sweaty beasts, the horsey among us see Upperville as the most alluring event of all.

In fact, amongst the horseman of Virginia and beyond, it might even be considered discourteous to mention heat or rain (how pedestrian!) When discussing Upperville. After all, there is so much more to it – the oldest horse show in our country, the beauty of Grafton farm, the shade of the oaks, the seemingly endless parade of perfectly conformed, behaved and turned out horses, the equally elegantly turned out riders. What heat? And as long as there is no mud, what's a little rain?

Beyond all the beauty and the elegance (and the shopping) that Upperville offers is that feeling, that most pleasant inescapable impression that one is tied somehow to this long line of horsemen and women that have gathered here before us and will continue to do so (hopefully) for a long, long time to come. After all – while change and progress might define the century behind us, here at Upperville tradition and continuity and steadfastness of purpose are the defining factors.

Sure, a two-day show predominantly featuring drafts has grown and evolved into a week long affair with a focus on fluid hunters and nimble jumpers (though drafts are still there, in all their glory). But the place is the same. The trees – the same. And the purpose, the goal, the raison d'etre remains the same across the span of so much time: the improvement of the horse. For what else does a ribbon from Upperville signify more than proof of ones horsemanship skills?

Before the coolers, before the trophies and the grand prix and the sponsorships, when history and tradition were still in the making, there were just farmers and their horses. It all began with one man, Richard Henry Dulany of Welbourne Farm.

The story goes that on a cold winter's day in the middle of the 19th century while out on one of his daily rides Dulany came upon a young horse, frozen and trapped beneath of a fence. He stopped to help the horse, and decided that something should be done to encourage the nearby farmers to better care for their horses.

Dulany was an appreciator of horses and a great horseman himself. He and his family had traveled to England, fox hunted there, and returned to Welbourne with a pack of foxhounds that would one day become the Piedmont Hunt. The drafts that were commonly used in the area were heavier than those he'd hunted in England and Dulany's thought was that while motivating the farmers to take better care of their horses they might also be encouraged to breed a lighter, fleeter horse as well, yet one not as light as the local Thoroughbreds – a horse that might carry a man over varied territory, during a long day's hunt.

With this purpose in mind Dulany held a competition, with offered prizes including a silver cup from the newly established Tiffany & Company of New York City, in June of 1853. It was a resounding success right from the start, with entries arriving from all over Fauquier and Loudoun County.

Inspired to pursue his goal further, Dulany started a club, "The Upperville Union Club for the Improvement of Horses," that would hold the competition on an annual basis at Number 6, what we now know as Grafton Farm. The club grew, its name changed, the Civil War interrupted – but Dulany and his fellow members remained resolute in their purpose. Dulany remained club president until 1905, then died after a morning ride in 1906.

By then the competition had grown with classes offered in Ponies, Hackneys, Gaited Saddlehorses, Hunters, Thoroughbreds, General Utility and Pony Jump ("3 1/2 to 4 feet, ridden by a boy 15 years or younger.")

A perusal through the collection of Upperville Colt and Horse Show programs carefully catalogued and stored at nearby National Sporting Library reveals the slow and steady evolution of the show into what it is today. By the 1920s the show still includes a preponderance of draft classes but fewer "gaited" entries and more "hunter improvement" divisions. By the 1940s, when proceeds of the show were proudly collected on behalf of the Red Cross, we begin to see photos of what look to us now to be the epitome of the classic Hunter – strong yet sleek, bold, fluid, brave, powerful.

Before Salem Farm, on the other side of Route 50, became the permanent home of jumper divisions we notice that the show rings are shared by hunters and jumpers. By the 1980s we recognize so many names from today's program that we have our proof of the continuity, the very real permanence, of our community.

To honor those individuals, and those horses, who to the greatest degree personify that connection to our past and purpose, we now have "The Wall of Honor." Beginning this year the event will recognize outstanding individuals or horses that "have contributed to the UCHS goals through participation, horsemanship, leadership or service." Sixteen individuals were named to the Wall of Honor this year along with eight horses.

The wall, which is made from oaks on the show grounds property, will remain on the grounds during the entire event.

Another tradition is born.