Mill Spring, N.C. – Aug. 1, 2016 – The Sock Inc. team continued their winning ways this summer, capturing tricolor after tricolor ribbon each week of the Tryon Summer Horse Show series.
Sock Inc. wasted no time kicking off competition at the Tryon International Equestrian Center (TIEC) as Paige Wilson and Steve Heinecke took home championships in two divisions during Week Two.
Wilson claimed a first and three second place ribbons on her 7-year-old Dutch Warmblood gelding Dicaprio in the Amateur-Owner 3’3″/3’6″ Hunter division to secure the championship, while Heinecke took reserve champion in the Baby Green 2’6″ Hunter division on homebred Pink, a 5-year-old Holsteiner/Oldenburg mare.
Sock Inc. client, Sarah Laffoday, and her own Pamina proved to be hack winners in the Adult Amateur 18–35 Hunter division, while Wilson also exceled in the jumper ring on her own Aaron 287, winning a blue ribbon in the 1.10m Jumpers.
Week Three saw Laffoday capture reserve championship honors with Pamina, a 7-year-old Canadian Warmblood mare, in the Adult Amateur 3′ Hunter division after winning another first in the undersaddle and a second and a fourth place in the over fences portion of the division.
Heinecke also led the victory gallop in the $10,000 USHJA National Hunter Derby with sale horse Hercules VD Vromboutshoeve, owned by the Freedom Group, after earning a total score of 181 throughout both rounds of competition.
The pair started off with a first round score of 91, and finished strong with a handy round score of 90 to take the top prize. Heinecke obtained “Hercules” at the end of the 2016 Winter Equestrian Festival circuit, and has been showing the 9-year-old Belgian Warmblood gelding all summer in the Performance 3’3″/3’6″ Hunter division as well as hunter derbies at the TIEC.
Heinecke co-owns Hercules with U.S. Olympic show jumper Laura Kraut and is optimistic of the gelding’s bright future in the hunter ring.
“He has an enormous stride and is very easy,” said Heinecke. “You can see where you are ten strides away and if you need to adjust, you can. If we still have him in the fall, we may try to do an international derby.”
In addition, Sock Inc. client and working student, Morgan Bullock, rode sale horse Quibelle, an 11-year-old Holsteiner mare owned by Summerfields Equine, LLC, to a first place finish in the classic round of the Adult Amateur 3′ Hunter division.
The Sock Inc. team closed out the Tryon Summer series in full force clinching a championship and two reserve championships.
Heinecke and Laffoday rode Pamina to a champion tricolor ribbon in the Performance 3’3″/3’6″ Hunter division and a reserve championship in the Adult Amateur 3′ Hunter division. Heinecke also finished fifth with Pamina and sixth aboard Hercules in the Week Four $10,000 USHJA National Hunter Derby.
“Sarah was reserve champion both Week Three and Week Four at the Tryon Summer series,” said Heinecke. “That was a really big deal because our goal for her was to just consistently be in the top five in the adult division. We surpassed our goal and she ended up being reserve champion both weeks.
“Sarah’s mare, Pamina, went really well too,” continued Heinecke. “I rode her in the $2,500 USHJA National Hunter Derby during Week Two and she got a score of 91 in the first round. I just started working with her last year, but this year everyone’s starting to notice her and she’s been really successful.”
Wilson grabbed reserve champion honors with Dicaprio in the Amateur-Owner 3’3″/3’6″ Hunter division and also placed third on Aaron 287 in the $3,000 1.20m Low Amateur-Owner Jumper Classic.
“For this show, our goal with Paige was to get her bumped up into the 3’3″ Amateur-Owner division on Dicaprio, which we did,” said Heinecke. “She was champion Week Two and she did some of the derbies as well. She’s doing really well in the bigger division so far. Then the goal with her jumper, Aaron 287, was to get him to the Low Amateur-Owner Jumper division so we did that during Week Four and she was third on the last day in the classic. She was the fastest 4-faulter and there were only two clear. That was a good result for her and we got in the division we wanted to be in.”
Sock Inc. offers top quality sale horses developed by Heinecke through classical and proven training methods. At Sock Inc., meticulous attention to detail is the overarching theme. Each horse is catered to with the upmost professional care personalized to their individual needs. Current sale horses Pink, Quibelle and Hercules, who all produced top results at the Tryon Summer Horse Show series, will continue to be trained, shown and developed by Heinecke as they await new homes.
“Pink did really well at Tryon, Hercules obviously did well and Quibelle also performed really nicely,” said Heinecke of the Sock Inc. sale horses. “All of the horses surpassed my expectations so I was really pleased to see that over the past few weeks.”
The Sock Inc. team will continue on with their summer show schedule competing in Lexington at the upcoming Kentucky Summer Horse Shows series in July and August.
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