Thousands of contestants have competed in the Pin Oak Charity Horse Show over its 70-year history.[/caption]

The Pin Oak Charity Horse Show began on James Abercrombie’s Pin Oak Farm in Bellaire. In the 1970s the show moved to the track at the Astrodome before settling into its current home at the Great Southwest Equestrian Center in Katy. Event organizers expect the event to stay in Katy for many years to come, having already equipped the track with 1,100 horse stalls and other necessary fixtures for the annual show.[/caption]

James Abercrombie (left) and Leopold Meyers opened the first Pin Oak Charity Horse Show in 1945. The show began as a fundraiser to fund the construction of the area’s first pediatric hospital, a facility that became Texas Children’s Hospital. The first event raised $30,000 for the hospital’s construction fund, which was matched by Abercrombie and Leopold.[/caption]

Since its inception 70 years ago, the Pin Oak Charity Horse Show has given out millions of dollars in prizes to its competitors. In 2014 the event featured over 2,000 competitors vying for over $600,000 in prizes. Prize money is funded by entry fees from competitors and has no bearing on the amount of money donated to the charities the organization supports.[/caption]

The Pin Oak Charity Horse Show is celebrating its 70th anniversary this year. Since it began, the event has turned into a world-renowned horse show that enabled the organization to help found one of the nation's leading pediatric hospitals, horse show president Lynn Walsh said.

"This is an event that's very special to Houston. This show is a part of Houston's history," Walsh said.

When James Abercrombie and Leopold Meyers held the first Pin Oak Charity Horse Show in 1945, they did so with one singular goal in mind–to raise the funds necessary to build Texas Children's Hospital, one of the country's first pediatric hospitals.

The first show featured local riders and their horses racing and jumping hurdles around the track of Abercrombie's Pin Oak Farm in Bellaire. That first show raised over $30,000, Walsh said.

"Back then $30,000 was a lot of money, but it wasn't enough to build a hospital," Walsh said. "The event was used to create awareness and to encourage more donors. That initial donation was coupled with Abercrombie's and Meyer's personal wealth to establish the fund to build the hospital."

The event and donation succeeded in raising the money to construct Texas Children's Hospital, which had its ground breaking seven years later in 1952. But the organization did not stop there.

In the 1970s the show moved form Pin Oak Farm to the Astrodome, a decade later the event settled into its current home at the Great Southwest Equestrian Center in Katy.

Through the decades, the horse show swelled to a two-week event in March that draws upward of 60,000 visitors a year, including the riders and handlers of over 2,200 horses who compete for over $600,000 in prizes at the show annually, Walsh said.

"I've seen [the show] grow from struggling to being extremely successful," she said. "It's a long process; it didn't just take a couple of years to do it. You have to build up the event into one that people want to see, and you have to do that financially conservatively because you want to give as much money as you can back to the charity."

Seventy years after it began, the Pin Oak organization still raises money for Texas Children's Hospital, said Mary Jones, charity liaison for the horse show.

"Mr. Abercrombie had a soft spot in his heart for sick children. He couldn't bear to know that there were sick children in the world. His plan was really grand; he didn't just want to have a hospital, but to have a hospital that would turn no child away. Pin Oak has stuck to that initial vision," Jones said.

In 2014, the organization raised over $200,000 for Texas Children Hospital, the Ronald McDonald House family rooms located within the hospital and the Candlelighters Childhood Cancer Family Alliance, which pays for parking for families at the hospital. Other funds have gone toward the construction of the hospital's newest campus in the Woodlands.