Special Edition: The stylish equestrian for Tina Dufour

Meet Tina Dufour: show jumper, blogger, (part-time) groom  and horse braider extraordinaire.

Tina started riding when she was 5 years old, but unfortunately due to allergies, had to give up riding for a year when she was 7. Thankfully, she grew out of the allergies and could continue riding at her local riding school in Denmark, which was only a 5 minute walk away. She remembers spending many many happy hours there when she was young.

She felt like the luckiest 9 year old in the world when her parents bought her her very own grey pony. Together they did showjumping on a beginner level as well dressage and eventing.

Currently Tina is the proud owner of 2 amazing horses: one irish Sports horse and one Swedish warmblood, both jumping at level 110-125. Her special heart horse is her Irish Sports Horse Carlton Homeboy. She has had the best results with him, but that is not why he is her favorite. He is one of those special horses that manages to crawl under her skin every single day and right into her heart. He has this amazing pony-mentality: he gets goofy when bored and he talks when Tina doesn’t give him enough attention. On the other hand, he is extremely well behaved and easy in every situation. Of course Tina’s other horses (Copyright and Quinthago) are also very special to her!

Tina told us, she thinks every girl in this sport at some point would like to turn into the next world ranking showjumper when they are young and she definitively had these dreams too. When she grew older though, she wanted to become a veterinarian, but ended up with a bachelor in Economics instead, working as a freelance show groom for a young pony family with 3 ponies. She now freelances as a groom occasionally, but it is difficult to combine a full time job and training 2 horses and showing. She also does private grooming clinics and grooming events showing focussing on how to get the perfect braids and groomed horses for shows.
Some of Tina’s amazing horse grooming can be seen on her instagram and blog. The fotoshoots in collaboration with danish photographer Erik Kunddahl in particular, show her artistic eye and extreme braiding and grooming skills. A few of her favourite shots are the ones of her horses Quinthago and Copyright in the Cherry blossom garden and at Christianborg castle.

Additionally, Tina had started a braiding photo album and after many requests took it a step further with very successful youtube tutorials. Her braiding perfection comes from a deep founded love for order … and a tiny little bit OCD…  😉 According to Tina it can never be too perfect which you can see in the presentation of her horses.

In every day life Tina is a black, blue and brown kind of girl. She likes to shop for quality over quantity. At the moment she’s into earth colours like brown and army green, keeping it simple and classy.   “Im not a glitter girl – nor do I put glitter/bling on my horses” Tina said.

We made sure we incorporated her style and brand favourites in her look today, here are all the details:

As Tina often rides in quite cold temperatures, we went for a layered look starting with a brown Uniqlo light weight down jacket, over a Patagonia Prow green vest, a Cavalleria Toscana Sport Tech navy blue sweater and as the base layer an Equiline Isira showshirt. Tina likes to wear high collar show shirts not only for shows, but also for schooling. We added a pair of Horze Crescendo Leah beige show breeches, which Tina wishes would be allowed for showing in Denmark (white only) but loves to combine them into an everyday look.

She loves classic brown and navy rider accessories, so we’ve added pair of Tucci Harley field boots a matching Dy’on belt, her favourite navy blue Samshield helmet and a pair of blue SSG Gloves.

A horse groom of Tina’s caliber can’t live without a top notch grooming bag, like this one from PS of Sweden and she of course needs a good protective case for her phone like this one by Native Union (to continue taking pictures of the excellent braiding work).

Follow Tina on Instagram or on her blog!

Have a stylish ride!