Rider Profile - Tina Knoyot

Tina grew up around horses. Her grandfather was discovered in Europe by the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus and became the main horse trainer and was inducted into the Circus hall of fame in 1974. Tina's father opened an equine training facility in Ft. Lauterdale, California and helped many amateur riders achieve Olympic Rider status, including a young Robert Dover who later went on to receive six Olympic gold medals for the United States dressage team.


Tina riding her first pony, Smoky

Tina soon excelled at training and competing horses. But she knew that in order to become great, she would need more knowledge and insight than was available in the US in that time in order to be successful, and eventually started training in Europe. After five years of training in Europe, she returned with her young stallion Justice to compete in the final Olympic selection trials where the pair finished seventh.

Tina and Collecto V competing at Dressage at Devon

She began competing her own horse Collecto V in 2007, and by 2009 they had won the Grand Prix Freestyle at Dressage at Devon. In 2010 they participated in the USEF Festival of Champions, winning all four of the Grand Prix tests and were named the 2010 Grand Prix National Champion of 2010. At the 2012 Olympic Selection Trials the pair won the first test they competeted in with a score of 80.149% and placed second in the other, leaving them in second place overall and qualifying them for the 2012 London Olympics.

She placed 27th in the Individual Dressage competition in London out of 50 riders with a score of 70.456%.

Jonathan Wentz: Olympic Para-Olympian Passes away

Jonathan Wentz had recently competed at the 2012 Para-Olympics and placed fourth in the individual competition in dressage and was the highest placing rider from the United States in both the Para-Olympic games and the Olympic games.

Jonathan at the 2012 Olympics, his dream come true.

Jonathan was born with Cerebral Palsy and started riding as therapy at age five. After he got better at riding, he started to focus on Dressage and wanted to become competitive. His goal was always to ride at the 2012 Para-Olympic games. He had a very successful career, qualifying for USDF Region 9 Championships his first year, and the next year won a top placing at the 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian games. In 2012 he placed second at the Para Olympic selection trials which earned him his spot to achieve his dream and compete in the Olympics in London, saying it was "a dream come true".

As well as going to the Olympics Wentz was also a strong advocate for Para Olympic dressage and hippo-therapy and was always involved wherever he could be. Members of USEF say they miss Jonathan's "big smile and great personality". Jonathan passed away at the young age of 21 after returning from the Para Olympics.