Tori Colvin

Tori Colvin

Why I Choose Platinum Performance

"I love Platinum CJ for a number of reasons. It not only gives my horses a healthy coat, skin and body but also has improved their overall health. The joint ingredients in CJ have helped their joints tremendously, and the added hoof supplement has the horses’ feet looking amazing."

Wunderkind

Tori is considered the winningest young rider in the history of the sport. Beginning in the pony ranks, ringside watchers noticed her aptitude to get along with many different types of ponies and bring out the best in each one of them. At 9, Tori piloted legendary rider Scott Stewart’s pony, Cortina, around the 2007 United States Equestrian Federation (USEF) Pony Finals, receiving incredible over fences scores of 95, 95 and 96, earning them not only the Medium Green Pony Hunter championship, but the Grand Green Pony Hunter title as well. She continued to win multiple more championships at the USEF Pony Finals over the course of her pony years, which is a feat in and of itself with upwards of 800 stand-out ponies from across the country competing at the event in any given year. And that was just the start.

The successes in her childhood continued as she won an unprecedented five Best Child Rider titles at the lauded Devon Horse Show and County Fair. At 13, she entered, and won, her first Grand Prix. Her junior career continued to amaze with countless Junior Hunter wins across the country. In the equitation ring, Tori dominated. Some of the most distinguished trainers in the country, including Andre Dignelli, Scott Stewart, George Morris, Missy Clark and John Brennan, polished her natural talent, helping her to earn the 2012 and 2014 Annual George Morris Excellence in Equitation Championships. In 2014, she also won the ASPCA Maclay Finals as well as the USHJA Hunterdon Cup Equitation Classic. Not slowing down in 2015, her last year as a junior rider, Tori claimed the Platinum Performance/USEF Show Jumping Talent Search Finals—East title and the Washington International Horse Show (WIHS) Equitation Championship. This same year, she scored an elusive 100 on Dr. Betsee Parker’s horse, Way Cool, in the handy round of the Junior Hunters at the Upperville Colt and Horse Show in Virginia. This perfect score has only been awarded a handful of times and never to another junior rider. She won the $100,000 WCHR Peter Wetherhill Palm Beach Hunter Spectacular class at the Winter Equestrian Festival (WEF) four consecutive times as a junior, and twice more, to date, as a professional. When asked how this remarkable childhood career shaped her as a professional, Tori says, “It was a very smooth transition. I knew this is what I wanted to do for my life.”

Empire Maker

In 2016, Tori started her professional career. Victoria Colvin, LLC, is based out of Loxahatchee, Florida, located just outside of Wellington, Florida, the host city of the world-renowned Winter Equestrian Festival that runs January through April. Tori and her team (including the Colvin’s seven dogs) travel across the country in the spring and fall and are back home in Florida to compete throughout the winter at WEF. Brigid manages Tori’s professional business, organizes all the travel and cares for the 20+ horses in training. Tori’s dad, Jim, is a blacksmith and keeps the horses healthy and sound from the ground up. Tori relies on her parents for a lot and realizes what a strong foundation she has in them. “My mom and dad are completely supportive. I would thank them first and foremost for everything they’ve done for me,” she says.

There are several things that have propelled Tori to the top and influenced her longevity to remain there: her catch riding prowess, her innate ability to adapt to the horse and a Zen-like ring mindset. Then and now, her catch riding talents remain unmatched. In 2019, she captured the title of the $10,000 World Championship Hunter Rider (WCHR) Professional Finals at the Capital Challenge Horse Show in Marlboro, Maryland. This unique hunter final pits the best four pros against each other on unknown horses. Each rider shows all four horses with limited warm up over 8-10 fences set at 3’5” in height.

Her ability to mold her way of thinking to the horse that she is sitting on is another of Tori’s super powers and allows her the capability to duplicate the same beautiful course over and over. This was true of her mirror trips on three very different horses to win three consecutive Platinum Performance/USHJA International Hunter Derby Championships (2017—on Cuba owned by John and Stephanie Ingram, 2018—on Private Practice owned by Brad Wolf and 2019—on El Primero owned by Bryan Baldwin and Meralex Farm). She was only the second rider to win the Championship more than once following fellow Platinum athlete, Liza Boyd, who won three times on her superstar, Brunello. Tori remains the only athlete to ever win aboard three different horses.

In 2018, she earned the WEF Overall Hunter Rider Circuit Championship. She was awarded that honor again in 2019 along with the Emerson Burr Trophy at the US Equestrian Pegasus Awards. This award recognizes excellence in competition for the current year while displaying superior sportsmanship and dedication to the principles, vision and mission of the United States Equestrian Federation, specifically in the hunter ring. That same year, at 23 years old, she was honored as the National Show Hunter Hall of Fame Rider of the Year.

With all that Tori has accomplished, the question bears asking: “What’s left?” But Tori still has lofty goals. “I’m hoping that one of my young jumpers ends up being a Grand Prix horse. That is the one thing I truly miss is doing the Grand Prix classes. And I’d love to compete with the Team (the United States Equestrian Team).” While she is the reigning queen of the hunter ring, she still has room to grow in the show jumping sphere. She has several lovely young horses that she is bringing up the ranks including her beloved “Pancake,” who she considers one of her ‘ultimate’ favorite horses. To all of the incredible horses along her journey, she says, “They are the ones who have brought me to where I am.”

Read the Full Article in Platinum Magazine, “The Natural”