About Tori
Victoria, better known as Tori, is a passionate professional dressage rider, trainer, and instructor. She is a USDF Gold, Silver, & Bronze Medalist, and Silver Freestyle Bar recipient.
Tori is the 2018 National Dressage Pony Cup First Level Open Champion. Butterfly Encounter, her mount, is the 2018 National Dressage Pony Cup Grade Pony Champion.
Tori began riding horses at six years-old. At the age of ten years-old, Tori decided dressage was the discipline she loved, and she never looked back. Her dressage career began in the Arabian circuit with much regional and national success. The Arabians gave Tori a great introduction to dressage, but she quickly learned that she needed to branch out in order to reach her dreams.
A seasoned FEI show ring competitor, Tori trains at her family's boarding facility, Wanaja Farm in Goshen, KY (Louisville). Tori rose through the Young Rider program. She placed in the top ten at the USEF Dressage Seat Medal Finals at Lamplight Equestrian Center in Wayne, IL (2010). Tori competed at the FEI North American Junior Young Rider Championships in Lexington, KY (2011 and 2012) and Festival of Champions in Gladstone, NJ (2012). In 2012, Tori was a recipient of the KWPN-NA Willy Arts Grant. In the same year, she placed in the top ten at NAJYRC and was the highest scoring Young Rider, not only on the Region 2 team, but also on the east coast and in the central United States. In the same year, Tori was invited to the USEF Elite Youth Dressage Training Session in Alpharetta, GA.
She competed in the U25 Grand Prix division from 2014 to 2016. She was accepted into the USEF/USDF Young Rider Graduate Program in both 2016 and 2018. Tori enjoys volunteering with the local dressage community. She is an active member of the Louisville Dressage Society and serves on the USDF Youth Programs Advisory Subcomittee(YPAS) representing Region 2. She was also the Kentucky Dressage Association's (KDA) first ever Junior/Young Rider Chairman (2010-2012).
She holds a Bachelors Degree in Business Administration with a concentration in Marketing from Spalding University.
Tori has ridden with many top clinicians and instructors. She considers JJ Tate, Jeremy Steinberg, Angela Hecker-Jackson and Nancy Baker to be the major influencers of her riding.
Tori's current dressage partner 'World Champ'
World Champ (Wally) is an OTTB gelding. Wally has impeccable royal Thoroughbred bloodlines, including his sire Afleet Alex who in 2005 won the Preakness and Belmont and placed third in the Kentucky Derby. Afleet Alex later became the overall Champion 3-year-old in the United States. As a result, Wally is a true natural-born athlete. He has an exceptional work ethic and talent for dressage and began competing in 2016. He has numerous USDF, KDA, MSEDA championship year-end awards and has competed at the USDF Region 3 Championships at the Georgia International Horse Park, home of the 1996 Olympics, in Conyers, GA. He is currently schooling Third Level.