Was 2014 the first ever contest, or is it the earliest that info could be found for? I remember I joined a team for a contest years ago, and the team was called Team Awesomesauce. The horse was an Andalusian stallion named Everso Saucy. I also remember there was some cheating by one of the teams!

I looked up Everso to see what had become of him and the only one I could find was this one which was in the H.A., so I had to rescue him.
https://horsephenomena.com/horses.php?id=14243

The mascot contest you're talking about was the one the HMF ran on here waaaay back that Aurum won! Not an offical HP one though, so it didn't make the list!

Ahhhhh, that's right! Good ole H.M.F.