Tiffany Foster is So Cool

Tiffany Foster (left) from her Instagram.
Tiffany Foster won the 1.50 Suncor Winning Round Saturday morning riding Brighton.

I spoke with Tiffany shortly after the Nation’s Cup on Saturday. While I was chatting with the Irish brothers, Tiffany strolled in to order food. She bobbed up next to us, and immediately proceeded to rib Jordan Coyle about his fall in front of the water jump, crowing that it was, “the one time his horse listened to him” while pantomiming a backseat ride to the jump, whipping the air behind her with an imaginary crop. She had an inner warmth that was instantly likable, and flashed me a huge smile when I asked her if I could ask her a few questions. I turned on my recorder.

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What do you like about coming here to Calgary?

I really think it’s a huge thing for Canadian riders to be able to bring horses here. You get the experience of, you know you have a little bit of younger horses to jump some bigger tracks. I go to Europe, I jump in America, I jump all over the place, but here they really build real fences. And I think for horses to learn how to jump big, you have to be able to jump big, and sometimes it’s hard to get into the shows in Europe where these kinds of classes are on offer. So I think to have Spruce Meadows is just huge for us and I always aim to come with as many horses as I can.

Your mom said you’ve been coming since you were a teenager?

Yeah, I came to watch when I was a little kid and then I came back… I think I rode here the first time in 2006.

So obviously went well today, how do you feel about it?

Yeah, my horse is a little bit green, again doesn’t have a ton of experience. This was only her second Nation’s Cup ever. So I thought she responded great. She’s usually a super fast horse and I went early, I was the first person to complete a round, so I had a time fault, which normally I don’t think I would have with her, but I didn’t want to stress about it too much early, and I ended up having one in the second round which I don’t really know why - but I was really happy with her. I made a mistake to the skinny, it was totally my fault - she wanted to go double clear.

She looked awesome. Do you have a favourite moment or memorable moment from all your years coming to Spruce Meadows?

Yeah, my most favourite Spruce Meadows moment so far was….I was the only double clear in the Nation’s Cup with my great old horse Victor. I can’t remember what year it was but that was a huge moment.

I think I was here for that. If you could ride any horse here, which would you want to ride?

Here? Probably Northern Lights. If I had to pick someone else’s, maybe Fine Lady – I like her.

Thanks for chatting Tiffany!