Sagacious HF Named TransFormer™ Sport Horse of the Week

Chase Hickok and Sagacious HF with owner Al Guden and trainer Endel Ots

Wellington,FL - Adequan Global Dressage Festival — One of the most consistent and celebrated horses to ever enter a dressage arena, Sagacious HF and rider Chase Hickok were recognized with the TransFormer™ Sport Horse of the Week Award during Week 5 of the Adequan Global Dressage Festival at the Palm Beach International Equestrian Center in Wellington, Florida.

Al Guden's Sagacious - The Gift that Keeps on Giving

The KWPN (Welt Hit II x Judith x Olympic Cocktail) gelding, owned by Al Guden and Hyperion Farm, Inc. of Wellington and ridden by Hickok, an Equestrian Sotheby’s International Realtor, were fifth in the CDI-5* Grand Prix on February 8, with four out of six judges giving the pair scores of 70% or better.

Born in the Netherlands in 1999, the Dutch Warmblood gelding bred by G.Van de Boogaard has had a legendary international career under several notable riders since 2007, when he qualified for the US Pan American Games squad under Lauren Sammis and won Team Gold and Individual Silver medals; in 2013, he took Caroline Roffman to reserve championships in the U-25 Grand Prix and U-25 Grand Prix Freestyle at Aachen before starting his partnership in 2014 with Hickok. In that year alone, the dynamic new duo delivered a streak of 10 consecutive CDI U-25 Class wins.

“For me, the biggest compliment is when people tell me that he really seems happy and enjoying his job,” Hickok says. “As soon as he knows he’s being prepared for a show, it’s like a switch flips. He says, ‘I’m ready, let’s do this!’”

“His willingness knows no bounds,” says Hickok, 27, of the mercurial veteran known as ‘Kitty’ around the barn. “He’s gotten five people their gold medals. He makes you work for it and want it, and hold yourself to a higher standard.”

Chase Hickok and Sagacious Share Winners' Circle with Famed Dressage Champion Patrick Kittel

Last year, that standard was set at their first Open European Tour and Nations Cup: “We were the highest-placing U.S. combination on both teams we competed for. We did the Freestyle in Falsterbo and ended up second behind Patrick Kittel! At Hickstead, we were second in the Grand Prix and third in the Grand Prix Special, so I was happy.”

Keeping an equine athlete like Sagacious HF in top scoring condition, she says, includes mornings on a treadmill or hand-walking, and arena or hack work around lunchtime before the horse’s preferred “afternoon siesta.”

About Transformer Equine

The Sport Horse of the Week Award at the Adequan Global Dressage Festival is sponsored by TransFormer™, makers of Equilize, the all-natural throat wash and daily supplement formulated to normalize and stabilize a horse’s body systems while performing strenuous activities, without the use of drugs. Based on a horse’s individual metabolism, the ingredients in Equilize support the immune system, encourage tissue repair, reduce throat and lung irritation, stimulate appetite and reduce stress.

The TransFormer Sport Horse of the Week Award winners are hoping to earn a slot on this September’s World Equestrian Games squad: “We have our work cut out for us, but he’s super fit and sound. There is so much more in the tank with him. He is both physically and mentally up to the challenge and he enjoys what he is doing. I don’t think he’s ever been as sound.”

Equilize contains only test-free ingredients. TransFormer™ Equine is based in Lexington, South Carolina. Learn more at www.transformerequine.com, email info@transformerequine.com or call toll-free (800) 615-8829.