Lompoc horsewoman making a name

Competition, training lead to recent showing in world championship

Raiza Giorgi/Contributing Writer – Jan 19, 2014
Tina Robinson was introduced to horseback riding by her grandmother, and she said she is forever grateful because it has given her passion and purpose. “I grew up playing sports and knowing I had to want to work hard to get where I am, especially in this sport that is male dominated I want them to see me as a competitor,” said Robinson, who won third place in the Junior Working Cowhorse at the American Quarter Horse Association (AQHA) World Championship in November in Oklahoma City.

The Lompoc resident was riding TF Choice Sugar “Chili,” owned by Sandy and Michael Focht of Travelers’ Farm in Santa Ynez.

Originally from Colorado, and after spending several years working for horse trainers in Idaho, Oklahoma and Colorado, Robinson came to Buellton to work with famed horse trainer Sandy Collier. Collier was the first and only female horse trainer to win the prestigious National Reined Cow Horse Association (NRCHA) World Champion Snaffle Bit Futurity, among many titles she’s won. In 2011, Collier was inducted into The Cowgirl Hall of Fame.

“Sandy was the start of my success because she pushed me to follow my dreams and gave me the tools I needed to be a good showwoman,” Robinson said.
In February 2013, Robinson and her husband Tucker Robinson bought a training facility on Cebada Canyon Road in Lompoc and now train 22 horses under the name Robinson Performance Horses. They married in April after dating for more than eight years.

“I am more happy for her when she wins than when I do, she just has this way with horses and teaching people to ride that’s unexplainable,” Tucker Robinson said.

Tucker Robinson is the 2010 NRCHA Snaffle Bit Futurity Open champion. He has been a finalist in all the NRCHA major events that he competed in. He is ninth of the top Open NRCHA riders and the son of Ted Robinson, with seven NRCHA (National Reined Cow Horse Association) Open Snaffle Bit Futurity World Championships and two World’s Greatest Horseman titles.

“We have been able to put together this wonderful business and life and share a love of horses and competing,” Robinson said. Tina Robinson said she isn’t a good trainer without a good horse. ”The horse has to be willing to be trained and an all around athlete. They have to be quick footed, soft in the face, agile, graceful and have eye appeal,” Robinson said.

Robinson said her goals are to be the best rider and teacher she can be as well as a fierce competitor, especially at next year’s NRCHA in Fort Worth, Texas, in February.

The competition will test abilities in cutting, reining and fence work to determine the champion — Robinson hopes she will be a finalist.