While expectations run high every year at the Horse of the Year Show no one could have predicted the success of Scottish exhibitors at this year's event which was impressive by any standard.

From early on Wednesday morning through to Saturday afternoon Scots not only led classes but featured prominently in the show's prestigious championships.

Fittingly, it was HOYS Dales Pony Breeder of the Year, Bill Ireland, who took the first scalp when his homebred Kilmannan Robert the Bruce claimed the third class of the morning in the NPS/Baileys Horse Feed Ridden Mountain and Moorland section. Professionally produced and ridden by Richard Telford; the 9 year old stallion is closely related to the 2004 champion Kilmannan Black Velvet. With joint top marks for conformation throughout the entire section and one of the leading overall scores of the day, it was no wonder that judges Fiona Leadbitter from South Wales and Erik Mackechnie from Perthshire had Robert the Bruce in their sights come the championship the following night. Rightly billed as the most impressive championship of the week, the Dales stallion did well to stand overall reserve to the New Forest winner, Marleydenes Shiraz, an impressive performer in front of the Birmingham crowd.

The ringside had only just witnessed the first Scottish victory on Wednesday when another quickly followed in the same ring when Lindsey MacDonald was asked to step forward into first place with her Highland pony gelding Dunedin Merlin, whose sire, Dunedin Marksman, was champion at HOYS in 2009. A double champion at this year's Royal Highland, Merlin's rider by contrast had just completed a week of night duty at the Forth Valley Hospital where she is a doctor of obstetrics and gynaecology. It was a triumph relished by his breeder, Anne Mitchell, whose ponies are in great demand for the ridden classes.

There was a great atmosphere in the Caldene showing arena on both mountain and moorland days reflecting the popularity of these classes across the length and breadth of Britain. Interestingly it was another champion from the Royal Highland, Chris Macmillan's black Welsh section C gelding, Coathamdene Just Dylan, which marked up another Scottish victory when he went one better than the Dales pony to stand champion of the Science Supplements Mountain and Moorland Working Hunter Pony section. Ridden by student nurse Rebecca Macmillan, not only did Dylan beat last year's champion Waitwith West Wind, but he also won his class convincingly as only one of two clear rounds over the jumps and an impressive eight marks clear of his nearest rival.

Indeed it was the working pony arena which recorded one of the most impressive performances of the entire Show when yet another Royal Highland champion, Caroline Orr's Victor IV claimed the Underwood Intermediate Working Hunter Pony of the Year award. Over a huge track the grey Warmblood, ably piloted by Holly Miller from Aberdeen, had one of three clear rounds, top marks for style and presence as well as performance from one of the judges, Fiona Stewart from Cupar. However in the overall championship in the International Arena at night, her heart as well as that of senior judge, Jean Mackaness, fell for the 133cm winner Stambrook Miss Bellini with Victor in reserve.

Fuelled by native pony success, it goes without saying that Scottish spirits were running high by the time the results of the plaited classes came on stream beginning with Kirstine Douglas's good second place the Middleweight Hunter of the Year title with Susan Carr's dark bay mare, Primitive Dancer II. They had a good vanquisher in Robert Walker's impressive five year old, Caesar's Palace, which has been a big winner all season for his owner Jill Day; they went on to take the coveted hunter championship. Meanwhile in the show pony section held on the penultimate day of the show, Scottish interests heightened when Julie Bankier and her 148 cms gelding, Hollowmarsh Oliver, fought off some of the season's best to win a strong class and reserve championship . By the leading sire, Cusop Dimension (also sire of the eventual champion Broadgrove Only You), this beautifully made pony, who always seems to go well, is produced for the Bankier family from Motherwell by doyen producers from Wales, Ron and Debbie Thomas, specialists at this event.

Little did we know that Scotland's success had not run its course by the end of the morning's session and better was to come when the Sanbal BMW Intermediate Show Riding Type championship fell to Ayrshire-based Mary Nicoll-Thompson's 10 year old bay mare. Firefly by well-known hack sire, Fairlyn Gemini. Ridden by Kimberley Nicoll, the combination just failed to qualify for HOYS in 2013 having taken eight second places at qualifying shows despite a section championship at the Royal Highland. This year they qualified early in the season at the Derbyshire Festival of Showing only to lead the country's best at HOYS.

2014 will surely go down in history as one of the best ever for Scottish exhibitors at the Horse of the Year Show with several others placed in classes throughout the Show. Given that they conquered in the face of stiff opposition from the rest of Britain, it is no mean feat and one which should be congratulated. So the curtain fell on the show scene at the NEC Birmingham once more, only to rise again in 2015 when no doubt more stars will come to the surface with the prospect of some interesting new classes in the schedule next year.

The success of our showing exhibitors notwithstanding, by way of a change it was our World champions in vaulting who thrilled a bigger audience in the main International Arena at the show and not our show jumpers. Appearing by special invitation of organisers, Grandstand Media, the 'Wee County' vaulting team, headed by World medallists Joanne and Hannah Eccles, sent packed audiences on Saturday and Sunday nights to their feet. Seldom does their sport come to the attention of such a large and varied audience in Britain and seldom do these youngsters achieve the level of acclaim they enjoyed at HOYS.