Sophie Click and Hot Wheels. Photo by Shelby Allen.
Hot Wheels, a horse beloved and known by many, but especially his rider Sophie Click and her family, passed away on April 30, 2024.
Sophie was 14 when she first started riding Hot Wheels, aka “Wheels” and it was the kind of situation where everything happened for a reason, leading to the strong partnership of Sophie and Wheels.
At the time, Sophie was riding a different horse; her mother, Amy, had bought Wheels for herself. Amy and Wheels were cross country schooling when she fell off into a ditch and broke a rib. Sophie’s horse had an abscess, so she started riding Wheels– and the rest is history.
In her Instagram post announcing his death, Sophie said that Wheels taught her “bravery, courage, patience, and resilience” throughout their time together.
Well-deserved pats for Wheels. Photo by Shannon Brinkman Photography.
Wheels is not your typical eventer– on the surface. His unusual breeding and love for the sport made him unique and special. The Paint/ Thoroughbred by Three Alarm Fire (TB) and High Mountain (Breed Unknown, but most likely a Paint/QH) went from prelim to advanced before he retired. “The vets used to always say ‘he’s a Thoroughbred from the knee up and Paint from the knee down. That’s why his conformation wouldn’t hold up to the gallop,” Amy Click says.
While his conformation limited his eventing career, his heart did not.
“I always knew he was going to keep her safe. They were unbelievable to watch together. It was purely what he wanted to do,” Amy says.
Sophie Click and Hot Wheels. Photo by Shelby Allen.
As a mom watching her daughter compete at the upper levels at a young age, Amy knew that Wheels would keep Sophie safe at all times.
“He was smart and quick. She didn’t have to have perfect striding, which for a young rider going at that level, he was able to compensate for her youth,” she says.
Sophie and Wheels encountered their first prelim level competition together, competing up to the advanced level in their career together. The pair represented Area VII at NAYC in 2014 and 2015 in the 2*. They competed at NAYC again in 2017, but in the 3* and placed 8th individually. They went on to finish 2nd in the Aspen Farms Advanced Gold Cup, then placed 4th in the Galway Downs International CCI3*-L, receiving the Top Finishing Young Rider Combination Award.
Sophie and Wheels. Photo courtesy of the Click family.
The pair’s overall record is impressive, and their cohesiveness on cross country is worth mentioning. Wheels loved cross country, to say the least.
It took the pair some time to figure each other out, especially when it came to dressage and show jumping.
“We would say that he would pop wheelies– because he would. She would take contact, he could be at a full gallop and he could still pop a wheelie,” Amy says. Wheels and Sophie’s journey together was of course full of ups and downs, like any other, but it was always unmistakable that the two of them had a tight-knit bond.
Amy says that a big takeaway from Wheels and Sophie’s relationship is that in order to be a successful eventer, a horse does not need to look like a cookie-cutter eventer. “They don’t always have to look exactly the part to be wonderful.”
“He was her heart horse, and always will be.” There is no doubt in the fact that Wheels left a long-lasting impression on not only Sophie and her family, but also the eventing community as a whole. You will be missed, Wheels.
