Tina Cook has been eventing full-time since she was sixteen. When she was twenty she won a Land Rover scholarship to be based at Gatcombe with Captain Mark Phillips where she trained for a year.
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Her father Josh Gifford was four times Champion Jockey, her mother Althea Roger-Smith was a successful international show jumper who won the Queen Elizabeth Cup, came second in the Hickstead Derby and represented Great Britain in the Nations Cup. .
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Tina and her younger brother Nick, now also a racing trainer, rode throughout their childhoods and were active members of the local Crawley and Horsham Pony Club. It was through the Pony Club that Tina had her first taste of serious competition when she was selected to compete at the Junior European Championships in Rome on a 15.3hh thoroughbred called Song and Dance Man, where the team won the gold medal. Tina left school soon afterwards and took up eventing “seriously”.
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Tina won Individual Bronze and Team Gold on Smithstown Lad at the Junior European Championships in Dijon in 1988, Team Silver at the Young Rider Championships at Achselschwang the following year and the National Young Rider Championship at Bramham in 1991. After her Bramham win, Tina came out of Young Riders and took both horses to her first Badminton. Weather conditions were appalling that year and Smithstown Lad had a mistake cross country, but Song and Dance Man went clear and Tina finished tenth after starting nearly last after the dressage. She was the named as reserve for the European Championships but made it onto the squad to take the silver medal.
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Tina was part of gold medal winning team at The Hague on General Jock in 1994. She won another team gold at the European Championships in Italy in 1995 and again at Luhmuhlen in 1999. She won Necarne and Le Lion D’Angers in 1996, and Burgie in 1999. In 2000 she was second at Boekelo, ninth at the European Championships in Pau, and third in Pau in 2003.
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In 2007 Tina Cook got straight back into the saddle after the birth of her second child Harry, and came seventh and ninth at Bramham on First Flight and Miner’s Frolic. Tina and Miners Frolic then went on to win at Brightling Park and Gatcombe, second at Blenheim and third at Boekelo”. Kristina and Miners Frolic gained a Bronze for the Individual Eventing at the 2008 Olympics held in Hong Kong.
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| 2009: | 6th Luhmuhlen CCI**** (Miners Frolic) |
| 2008: | Team & Individual Bronze Beijung Olympic Games (Miners Frolic) |
| 8th Chatsworth CICW*** (Miners Frolic) | |
| 2007: | 3rd Boekelo CCI*** (Miners Frolic) |
| 1st Gatcombe Park CIC*** (Miners Frolic) | |
| 7th & 9th Bramham CCI*** (First Flight II & Miners Frolic) |
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