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%.