It should have been easy to predict that eventually, North Carolina native Allison Hinson would find success in the show ring.

Not many youngsters fall off not once but twice at their very first competition. But that’s exactly what happened to Hinson when, at the age of 12, she took her new horse, Asset Associate (by Good Asset) to a local open show.

That didn’t faze Hinson, instead she grew even more determined to succeed.

“I learned very quickly that he had a severe fear of paper (aka my pattern book and ribbons),” she recalled.

Up until then, Hinson had only ridden horses at home for fun. Growing up in Monroe, North Carolina, Hinson spent a lot of time with her grandfather, while her parents, Lynn and Pam Hinson worked. She enjoyed riding along in her grandfather’s truck as he tended to his cattle and on occasion, they would stop in to have her grandfather’s truck looked at by Phillip, the local mechanic. Phillip’s daughter, had a few horses and they’d go off together riding bareback across the pasture.

“When I turned 5, my grandparents gave me my first riding helmet and purchased a lesson package for me at a local riding academy,” Hinson recalled. “The lessons only made my obsession grow.”

When she turned 9, Hinson’s grandfather gave her a “good as gold” Paso Fino mare named Sally May.

“I could do anything and everything with her and she will forever be my favorite horse,” Hinson said.

Hinson continued riding Sally May until her health started to fail and that’s when Asset Associate came into her life.

“Before showing him, I just rode my horses at my farm for fun. A new boarder came that year and she showed her Quarter Horse at the open show level as well. She urged me to start showing and she helped me for a very long time as a friend,” Hinson explained. “After showing Asset Associate for about two years at my local saddle clubs, I realized just how much I loved competing and decided that I wanted to advance to the Quarter Horse level.

For that journey, Hinson paired with Sheza Career Girl, a 2008 bay mare, by Potential Career and out of Lord Sheza Loper. 

“She was my first show horse for the Quarter Horse level,” Hinson said. “Sadly, Hannah was diagnosed with navicular about a year after I bought her, but I still have her and she loves just being a horse in the pasture.”

Hinson took a break from showing following her 2014 graduation from Metrolina Christian Academy to attend Wingate University in North Carolina, where she majored in Human Services.

“I actually committed to Clemson University first, as I was already accepted into the Pre-Vet program there but I changed my mind less than a month before classes started,” she said.

When she was ready to return to showing, Hinson looked all over for the perfect horse. She had already decided she wanted to compete for the South Carolina Quarter Horse Association Queen title so she knew she needed a partner who could compete in Horsemanship. At the same time, her first love has always been Hunter Under Saddle so this new horse would have to be able to excel in that as well.

“I actually went to Missouri and Michigan looking at horses without any success and then found Dillon (TheseIronsAreStrait) on Carey Ready Performance Horse’s Facebook Page,” Hinson said. “He was only an hour-and-a-half away from me in South Carolina. Go figure. I have always had a thing for palominos and he seemed like the perfect fit.” 

Ready had started TheseIronsAreStrait, a 2013 palomino gelding by These Irons Are Hot and out of Barbie Strait To You in Hunter Under Saddle and following the purchase, Hinson continued to show under Ready’s guidance.

In 2017 Hinson and Dillon won their first World Championship title in Amateur Hunter Under Saddle at the Palomino Horse Breeders of America (PHBA)’s World Championship Show in Tunica, Mississippi. That same year they also claimed a Reserve Championship title in Amateur Hunter In Hand.

Then in 2018 they returned to the PHBA World Show to capture the Amateur Golden Horse (Amateur All-Around) title by winning the Amateur Hunter In Hand, Amateur Road Hack, and Amateur Hunter Under Saddle World Championship titles.

They also claimed their first All-Around Award at an American Quarter Horse Association show and at the National Snaffle Bit Association’s World Championship Show in Tulsa, Oklahoma, they finished eighth in Color Amateur Hunter Under Saddle and sixth in the Breeders Championship Futurity 3-6-Year-Old Color Non-Pro Hunter Under Saddle.

Hinson also tried Longe Line for the first time at the All-American Quarter Horse Congress in Columbus, Ohio last October, placing seventh in the Southern Belle portion of the Non-Pro English Longe Line class with Shez That Sweet (Lila), a 2017 bay mare by Full Metal Jacket and out of PS Im Sweet. 

“That was a big accomplishment for us as we were so new to the Longe Line,” Hinson said. “We are so excited for her under saddle career this year.”

One of the most ironic things about Lila is that her name is Shez That Sweet, and she really is that sweet. 

“She absolutely loves to be loved on. If you go in her stall she just wants to lay her head in your arms and she gets jealous if I show any kind of attention to the other horses,” Hinson said. “She was previously owned by Alyse Roberts and Alyse says that she was always that sweet even as a newborn foal!”

Hinson also accomplished her goal of serving as South Carolina Quarter Horse Association’s Queen, both in 2017 when she finished ninth overall, and again in 2018.

This year Hinson is showing under the guidance of Jennifer and Steve Reams Quarter Horses, Ellerbe, North     Carolina. She will compete with TheseIronsAreStrait in the Novice Amateur and Amateur Hunter Under Saddle classes and will hopefully get to show Shez That Sweet in 2-Year-Old Non-Pro Hunter Under Saddle classes this year as well.

“We plan to go to several of the shows held by the NCQHA, SCQHA, HQHA, as well as the Spring Break Out in Lexington Virginia, the AQHA Novice Championships, The Madness, The Big A, the NSBA World Show and the Congress,” she said.

Hinson has set a goal to qualify for the AQHA World Show in Amateur Hunter Under Saddle.

“This has been one of my dreams ever since I started showing and I am finally starting to feel like it is achievable,” she said.

Hinson loves watching a wide-range of events but her favorite class in which to compete is, by far, Hunter Under Saddle.

“I’ve always loved tall horses, I guess because I’m pretty tall myself. When I first started out taking lessons, they were English lessons, but more on the hunter side,” she explained. “I worked so hard to improve my balance and to strengthen my legs to be able to post for extremely long periods of time. I love trying to challenge myself and to make each ride better than the last. While this is not a pattern class, I feel that there is so many little things that I can work to improve on, to make all of my riding skills better.”

When she is not hard at work preparing for or competing at a show, Hinson is busy working as Human Resource Manager for Lens of Faith, LLC, a heavy utilities company, owned by her family. She also does clerical work for her family’s other businesses, Fletcher Oil Company, Inc. and Hinson and Company, Inc., a commercial real estate company.

“I recently opened my own online boutique called Strawberry Chic Boutique that I am successfully operating as well,” Hinson said. My long-term goal for my career is to take over my family’s businesses. Being the daughter of a very strong business women who owns and operates several businesses of her own, my career ambition has never been something that I have questioned. My mother has always been my role model, teaching me that hard work does pay off. She has given up so many things to run her businesses successfully, but not one time did she sacrifice being a mother. No matter how hard it was she was always a mother first and an entrepreneur second. By starting my own boutique, I feel that I am already following in her footsteps. I only wish that I will be half as successful as she has been.”

Hinson also enjoys spending time with her boyfriend of two years, Bricesen Burton, who was recently sworn in as a Monroe (North Carolina) Police Force. They recently bought a house in Monroe and they have a year-old Labrador named Remi.

They both love spending time on the water.

“We have a lake house in South Carolina and I love when we get to spend time there, jet skiing, fishing, and swimming.,” Hinson said. “My boyfriend’s family also lives in Myrtle Beach, so during free weekends in the summer we enjoy spending time on the beach, banana-boating and of course shopping at all of the outlets. 

Hinson said she feels like she’s accomplished so much in her show career but still has a lot she wants to do. Her inspiration is still her grandparents, Doris and Claude Broome. 

They are the ones that got me started in the very first place with horses,” she said. “When I started showing they would come to every single show and bring me tons of homemade snacks. Their health wasn’t the greatest then but they would drive their car up to the ring so they could sit there and watch me show, even if the show lasted all day. Now they are almost 90 years old and are not able to come to any of my shows, but that doesn’t stop them. Doris has an iPad and she watches me show in every single class at a show that offers a live feed. And I mean she watches every, single, class. even if it’s at midnight her time!”