Gina
Miles
Olympian 2008
0
GOLD
1
SILVER
0
BRONZE
Athlete Bio#
Age
51
Hometown
Creston
Olympic Experience: 2008: Silver medal in Individual Eventing
Horse: McKinlaigh (14-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding by Highland King out of Kilcumney Hostess; Owned by Gina Miles, Thomas Schulz and Laura Coats)
A California native, Gina Miles had her first taste of eventing as a spectator at the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles with her mother. Gina burst onto the international scene herself in 2001 with seven-year old McKinlaigh and has kept up a steady pace ever since.
Seventeenth out of 93 entries at their first CCI*** at Fair Hill International that year, they caught the eye of the U.S. selectors and headed to Rolex Kentucky the following spring. They were 11th at their first four-star, earning a spot on the squad for the 2002 World Equestrian Games. They put in a solid individual performance at the WEG, another good effort at the 2003 edition of Kentucky and finished third the following autumn at the World Cup Final in Pau, France.
Gina took some time off to have a second child, Taylor (20 months), to accompany Austin (age 8) and came back with a vengeance in 2006, winning the CCI*** at Fair Hill International aboard McKinlaigh. They traveled to Badminton in the spring of 2007 and made light work of the course, finishing 15th and adding only cross country time faults to their dressage score. That performance led to team gold and individual bronze medals at the Pan American Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and they started 2008 off by winning at the Twin Rivers Winter Horse Trials in California and then the CIC*** at Galway Downs.
McKinlaigh and Gina are an unlikely pair, with McKinlaigh towering over his 5-foot-3 rider at 17.3 hands. Despite his stature, Gina finds him very rideable in every phase.
"You go into the dressage ring and he acts like a dressage horse," says Gina. "But then he goes and blasts around the cross-country."
Gina is married to Morgan, and when she isn't riding likes to go to Disneyland with her family, read the Harry Potter books and cook.
Olympic Experience
- 1-time Olympian; 1-time Olympic medalist (1 silver)
- Olympic Games Beijing 2008, silver (Individual - Open), 7th (Team - Open)
