Grabbing the attention of both the judges and the crowd, Tina Irwin began her freestyle test to music with one of the more challenging movements, the two-tempi changes. And, she never let up on the level of difficulty, performing three-tempi changes on a bending, serpentine line, and navigating a pirouette straight into an extended canter. The intricate choreography, combined with perfectly synced music made for a crowd-pleasing performance from start to finish.

“The people who designed my freestyle music are really good friends, Wendy Watson and Lewis Manne from Zap Productions in Toronto,” said Irwin of the music, which incorporated a medley of songs, such as Hey Brother by Acivvi,(I’ve Had) the Time of My Life of Dirty Dancing fame and the much-covered Life is Life, originally by Opus. “Zap Productions were more into the film industry and documentaries, but they also produce some of their own music. They did the theme song for the Canadian show, Degrassi with the famous Drake. I tell them which pieces of music I like, then I put the choreography together and they compose a whole new piece for the freestyle.”

While Irwin has a team silver medal under her belt from the 2011 Pan Am Games in Guadalajara, MEX, and Team Gold in 2019, Lima represents her first individual medal.

“It’s amazing to get the silver medal. I was obviously thrilled with the team gold, and now to be on the podium individually is fantastic, so I’m thrilled,” she said. “It was definitely my goal, I was coming to win a medal. I was hoping for gold, but that’s okay. My horse was amazing through the whole competition. We did our best and they’re not machines. At the end of the day, one little mistake can cost you first position, potentially. I’m okay with that, my horse tried his heart out. Now, my plan is to go back to grand prix. We’re going to take a little break after Pan Ams and then we’ll make a new plan for 2020.”