Susan Hoenck of Winnemucca, captured the World Champion title in the Cutting Horse competition at the AQHA Adequan Select World Championship show in Amarillo, Texas.
Hoenck showed her Quarter Horse mare, Zena Angelena, owned by Bob and Susan Hoenck.
In the Cutting class, 59 competitors qualified to ride for the world championship.
More than 960 entries from the United States, Belgium, Canada, Costa Rica and Switzerland were competing for World Championships at this event Aug. 24- Sept. 1 in Amarillo.
Hoenck and Zena Angelena also captured the 2018 AQHA Adequan Level 2 Championship for Amateur Cutting. These achievements will appear on the Official records of the Horse and Rider.
The odds to win a world championship were in Susan’s favor when she qualified two horses into the Cutting Horse Finals. Only 15 horses were advanced into the Finals for the World Championship Gold.
Hoenck didn’t let her team down. She rode her first horse, Highbrows Swingin CD, a 5-year old gelding, to the herd first.
The pair put together a run good enough to earn a 9th place spot, finishing as Top Ten World Champions. But the odds were in favor of “Team Hoenck” as Susan drew up tenth in the fifteen horse finals on her 11 year old mare, Zena Angelena, and was feeling more relaxed on her second trip into the show pen. The performance the duo put together garnered a score 2 ½ points higher than the nearest competitors, earning them 1st place and the World Championship!
Hoenck gives all the glory to her horses and team members in making this all happen.
“Any day, at any given time, a horse and rider team who have practiced tirelessly in heat, wind, snow and pain can put together a winning performance. To be the team with the luck of the day and all the practice in their back pocket is where I want to be.”
Hoenck’s husband Bob has always been in the show pen with family members.
He knows the weaknesses and strengths, has helped train and coached in the practice pens. It takes the family and their horses, together as a team, to make opportunities like this World Championship happen.
The Hoenck family are not strangers to the cutting horse world. Bob Hoenck showed cutting horses in the 1980’s and 90’s and won championships of his own on family owned horses. Susan has been an NCHA Champion, Regional, State and Local champion as well.
Bob and Susan’s son, Bobby Hoenck, has multiple AQHA, Pacific Coast and NCHA Top Ten Championships of his own plus Top 4 and Performance Championships in National High School Rodeo.
The family is most proud of the fact that all these accomplishments have come on family owned horses that have been schooled, trained and shown by the Hoenck family.
To watch the interview and some of the performance, go to www.aqha.com/selectworld. Scroll down to 2018 Winners, cutting on left side of page, click for more action.
