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| Born | January 29, 1981 Hagen, Germany | |||||||||||||||||
| Home town | Breslau, Ontario, Canada | |||||||||||||||||
| Website | teamirwindressage | |||||||||||||||||
| Sport | ||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | Equestrian | |||||||||||||||||
| Event | Dressage | |||||||||||||||||
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Medal record
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Tina Irwin (née Busse; born on January 29, 1981) is a Canadian dressage rider and coach. She won silver in team dressage at the 2011 Pan American Games in Guadalajara, Mexico. She also won gold in team dressage and a silver in individual dressage at the 2019 Pan American Games in Lima, Peru.
Tina Busse was born on January 29, 1981, in Hagen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.[1] Her family moved to Breslau, Ontario, when she was one year old,[2] and she started riding horses at four years old.[3] She currently resides in Whitchurch-Stouffville, Ontario.[4]
Busse met Jaimey Irwin at the 1999 tryouts for the Canadian Young Riders.[3] The two later married and had two children.[3] Tina and Jaimey jointly operate Stoney Lake Equestrian, a horse training and breeding stable in Whitchurch-Stouffville, Ontario, which serves as their homebase.[5] They both became certified High Performance 1 (HP1) coaches upon completion of Equestrian Canada's coaching program in November 2017.[6]
In August 2011, Irwin, Thomas Dvorak, Crystal Kroetch, and Roberta Byng-Morris were announced to be the members competing for Canada in team dressage at the 2011 Pan American Games in Guadalajara, Mexico.[7]
Individually, Irwin was awarded a score of 70.737% for her performance on Winston, and the team overall placed second with 70.413%.[8] The team's performance qualified Canada for team dressage at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, United Kingdom.[7]
Irwin began competing at the FEI Nations Cup in 2015. On March 15, she and Fancy That achieved a first-place finish in Freestyle at the Adequan Global Dressage Festival (AGDF) in Wellington, Florida, with a score of 74.375%.[2]
In February 2016 at the ADGD, Irwin, on top of Laurencio, won first in the Intermediaire I twice with 76.842% and 76.579% respectively. She also placed sixth in Prix St. Georges with 68.289%. Later in March at the AGDF, Irwin scored 70.307% in the Prix St. Georges and 70.368% in the Intermediaire I.[9]
From May 20 to 22, Irwin and Laurencio competed at the Ottawa Dressage Festival and placed first in all three of her events. She scored 74.333%, 73.509%, and 71.404% in Freestyle, Intermediate I, and Prix St. Georges respectively. She completed the same feat from June 17 to 18 in Cedar Valley, York Region, Ontario. Irwin placed first in Intermediate I with 74.605%, Freestyle with 79.208%, and Prix St. Georges with 71.974%.[2] From September 30 to October 2, Irwin completed yet another sweep of the events she participated in, in Devon, Pennsylvania. On Laurencio, she scored 71.009% in the Prix St. Georges, 73.579% in the Intermediate I, and 77.175% in the Freestyle, placing first in all three events.[10]
At the AGDF on February 23 and 25, Irwin placed third in the Prix St. Georges and Intermediate I events with scores of 69.781% and 73.860% respectively.[2] On February 26, during her Freestyle performance, a power outage resulted in a stoppage of music, and she was forced to start over.[11] On her second attempt, she achieved a 2017 world record small tour score, achieving a score of 78.708%.[11]
Later, in March at the AGDF, Irwin placed first in the Intermediate I with 73.237%, Freestyle with 76.500%, and Prix St. Georges with 74.026%.[2]
At the AGDF, Irwin made her debut in Grand Prix events; she placed fifth in Grand Prix freestyle with a score of 68.700%.[2]
On May 19, Irwin competed in Grand Prix freestyle at the Ottawa Dressage Festival, where she won silver with a score of 67.700%, 2.75 percentage points behind Jill Irving.[12]
In 2019, Irwin returned to small tour competition, as opposed to Grand Prix, in attempt to qualify for the 2019 Pan American Games.[13]
Prior to the AGDF in Wellington on February 20, 2019, Irwin injured her left hand as a result of a kick by a horse.[14] On February 21, 2019, her husband, Jaimey, took over for her on Laurencio, placing first with a score of 71.324.[15]
On March 5, 2019, Equestrian Canada announced that Irwin would be on the Canadian dressage team competing at the AGDF, along with Jill Irving, Lindsay Kellock, and Belinda Trussell.[16] Canada won silver at the event with a combined score of 433.685, 4.008 behind the United States. Irwin achieved a personal best with a score of 74.912%, then followed up with 73.588% on her second attempt.[17]
Later in March, Irwin won all three small tour events at the AGDF. She scored 74.460% to win the gold medal in Freestyle,[18] 73.588% to win Intermediate I, and 74.912% to win Prix St. Georges.[2]
It was announced on July 19 by the Canadian Olympic Committee and Equestrian Canada that Irwin would be a part of the Canadian team participating in the team dressage event at the 2019 Pan American Games in Lima, Peru.[19][20] On July 29, she competed on top of Laurencio, alongside teammates Jill Irving, Lindsay Kellock, and Naima Moreira Laliberté — the team won gold with a score of 440.111, 2.2 points ahead of the American team's 437.791. Their performance qualified Canada for the team dressage event at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan.[21][22]
On July 31, in the individual event, she placed second with a score of 77.780%, 1.2 percentage points behind first place American, Sarah Lockman, who scored 78.980%.[23]
