Clarence L. “Honey” Craven has been around horses all his life. His many decades with the National and Devon Horse Shows, two of the country’s oldest and most respected events, saw him provide outstanding service to the sport and to those in it.

When Craven was born in 1904, many years prior to the emergence of the automobile, his father was working as a coachman for Harris Upham’s big brokerage firm in Brookline, Massachusetts. By the age of 12, Craven was stopping at a local blacksmith’s shop everyday after school. He would help pick up horses from nearby estates and bring them to the shop, sometimes riding them bareback.

Craven left high school after his freshman year in order to work galloping horses at the Jamaica Raceway. From there, he went on to Woodbine Racetrack in Canada. He returned to the U.S. to work for Bill Naughton, who trained hunters and jumpers for Charles Van Brant Cushman near the Hartford Academy in Pomfret, Connecticut.

While attending a horse show in Rochester, NY, in 1926, Craven was approached by W. Reginald Reeves, a great amateur coach driver and secretary of the National Horse Show. Reeves asked him if he would consider becoming an assistant to the National’s ringmaster, Dutch White. Craven accepted and began working in 1927 for $10 a day.

The following year, Craven was promoted to ringmaster when White left the Show unexpectedly. He served in that position until 1958 when he began a distinguished 25-year tenure as manager of the National Horse Show.
As manager, Craven oversaw the National’s move in 1968 from the old Madison Square Garden at 49th Street and 8th Avenue to the present Garden above Penn Station. He has heavily impacted the way horse shows are managed and how the equestrian sport has evolved. Always, his primary concern was the welfare of the horse and rider. It was Craven who suggested holding classes on Sunday during the National. Previously, that day had been reserved for exhibitions – trick riding, demonstrations, and the like. So Craven added the Maclay and Good Hands saddle seat finals. Following the National’s 100th Anniversary in 1983, Craven became Manager Emeritus of the National, a position he continues to hold despite retiring from the Show in 1991.

Craven began working at the Devon Horse Show in 1936 at the invitation of Tom Clark, the show manager. Craven started by calling the classes. There was no public address system back then, so he rode Clark’s son’s polo pony over by the ring, found out how long it would be until the next class, and then galloped up to the barns. Craven then became ringmaster at Devon before taking over as manager and ultimately serving as manager emeritus.
Craven also served as ringmaster at many other shows including Piping Rock on Long Island, Pin Oak in Texas, Eastern States in Massachusetts and North Shore in New York.

A USA Equestrian Lifetime Achievement Awardee, Craven has a brilliant sense of humor and is the one to whom horse show committees, officials and exhibitors have long looked for guidance and support. He has never disappointed them. His passion for the sport and his sense of fairness have greatly affected all those who have a love for the horse.