Born in 1975 in Rochester, New York, Tina grew up with horses on the small family farm in Spencerport. She began riding at five and joined Parma Pony Club at eight. Tina passed the D-3 at nine and stayed very active in Pony Club. She began eventing at nine, and of all competitions, this was her favorite throughout her teens. She competed in Dressage, Stadium Jumping, and Combined Training Events.
By the age of 15 she was competing at Second Level Dressage and Training Level Eventing. At 16 she passed the C-3, and became interested in Junior Jumpers. Tina began training her Thoroughbred gelding, Flint, with instructor, Bob Rosenburg, to jump 5 ½ feet. After she succeeded, she felt that her horse was suffering from the excessive height and decided to revert to Eventing at Training Level.
Tina had three horses she trained and evented at the time, Flint, Sweet Solo (an Appendix), and Mandragana (a Trakehner mare). She loved them all dearly.
She also attended clinics with top Olympic riders.
At 18 Tina decided she was interested in Dressage and purchased Kashan, a Trakehner gelding. In pursuit of more dressage horses, she bred Mandragana twice to Tarim. Her current horses, Majestic and Marlaya, are the result.
Competing with much success, with her horse Kashan, winning the First Level classes with scores in the 70’s she felt that there was something missing. She wanted a deeper relationship with her horse. She decided to pursue another style of riding — Classical Dressage. Her whole life she perceived riding as an art form and this was it! An actual riding style that emphasized the ART of horsemanship!
She began studying under Linda Legrande in Buffalo, NY who was a student of Nuno Oliveira. From there she met Bettina Drummond, who is an authorized representative of The Nuno Oliveira School of Classical Dressage, and began studying under her. Since that day in 1995, her riding changed and from that day forth she has dedicated her teachings and training to the Art of Classical Portuguese Horsemanship.
Since 1998, horse trainer Tina Cope has been operating her own training facility teaching many different riders about classical horsemanship and training many horses. Over the years, she has welcomed and successfully trained a wide variety of horse breeds according to classical principles.
One cannot forget, Tina is a mother to a beautiful and gifted daughter, Gabriella Joy, born in 2007, whom she is very proud of and spends all of her spare time with. Gabriella also rides a little and has a genuine love for horses too. The apple does not fall far from the tree…
Click here to view Tina Cope’s profile at LinkedIn.
