Tina Busse-Irwin
Tina was a working student for Canadian Olympic rider Evi Strasser, and after graduating high school went to train in Germany with Klaus Martin Rath at Germany's famous Schafhof. She also trained with Holger Münstermann in Werl Germany. Holger continues to be her coach now. Tina has been long and short listed for the Canadian Dressage team since 2003. Her most recent accomplishment is being short listed at the Grand Prix level for 2008 with Amicelli.
Throughout her Young Rider years, Tina has shown four different horses at the FEI Young Rider Level. It wasn't until the year of 2000 that Tina gave up her German citizenship to become a Canadian citizen and compete for Canada. In 2001 Tina represented Canada at the North American Young Riders Championships with Grandetto, a 6 year old Oldenburg gelding. In 2002 Tina competed Amicelli at the NAYRC and was Canada's top placing combination. Tina and Amicelli were recipients of the Dr. Brian Mills award, which is awarded to the top placing Canadian pair at the Championships. The pair also went on to win double silver medals at the Coupe de Americas in Blainville Quebec in the same year.
In 2007 Tina was the chef d'equipe for the Gold medal winning Canadian Junior Team at the NAJYRC in Lexington Virginia. Continuing her role as chef d'equipe in 2008 for the Bronze medal Canadian Young Rider Team, as well as coaching her own Junior rider in Denver, Colorado at the NAJYRC. That same year saw this pair competing for a spot on the Canadian Olympic Team, having declared for the Beijing Olympics. A new Equine TV show featured Tina on their hit series "Equi Stars" in the Spring of 2008 in Florida, which premiered on the USA Sports channel CSS.
In 2008 Tina continued with an impressive list of accomplishments, including riding Amicelli to the win of both the Grand Prix and Grand Prix Freestyle at the Blainville CDI (a World Cup Qualifier!) The duo also placed 5th in the Grand Prix at the prestigious Dressage at Devon CDI and placed 7th in the Grand Prix Freestyle. Later that year Tina and Amicelli made their Royal Winter Fair debut in the CDI. They are short listed at the Grand Prix level for both 2008 and 2009.
In 2009, Tina was invited to compete at the World Dressage Masters held in Wellington Florida in January. Only two Canadians were invited to represent their country at this invitation-only competition. This was the first time that this large competition has taken place in North America and top riders from around the world were competing, including Anky van Grunsven, Steffen Peters, Edward Gal, and Hans Peter Minderhoud. In February 2009 Tina and Amicelli placed 4th in the Wellington Spring Classic CDI in both the Grand Prix and the Grand Prix Freestyle.
Tina's future goals include representing her country at the World Cup, World Equestrian Games and the Olympics.