| By the age of four, Tonya Henning had fallen in love with horses and began participating in vaulting before graduating to riding at the age of six. When she was seven, she had her first pony and started competing by doing the short stirrup and medium pony divisions. Moving onto a large pony, Tonya successfully qualified for the prestigious Royal Horse Show in Toronto at the age of 11. Having broken her leg, Tonya was so determined to ride at the Royal that she had her cast removed just three days before she was scheduled to compete.
Coached by Mike Grinyer, Tonya began competing in the equitation divisions with Skorpio, the horse she was most fond of. Moving to train with Eric Lamaze at the age of 13, Tonya acquired more horses and soon found herself competing in the High Junior/Amateur division as well as the Ontario Rising Star program.
After a year’s break from competition, Tonya returned to the show ring under the tutelage of Olympic medalist, Tim Grubb. With many young horses to work with at her father’s Mill Creek Stables in Cambridge, ON, Tonya began showing numerous prospects in the Canadian Young Horse Jumper Development Series.
In 2005, Tonya made her debut at the North American Young Riders' Championship riding Mill Creek Rosalinde and, one week later riding El Capricho Patrick , won the Paul Scriver Memorial Trophy awarded to the most successful junior/amateur competitor at the CSI-W Caledon Summer Festival . In August of that year, she rode in her first World Cup Qualifier at the Collingwood Horse Show.
In 2006, Tonya began training with Olympic champion Rodrigo Pessoa and, that summer, moved to Belgium in order to train full-time with Pessoa. The opportunity allowed her to compete at some of the world’s most impressive venues including Cannes, Monte Carlo, Valkenswaard, Lanaken and Brussels. There, she had impressive results with Mill Creek Sparky, a son of Skorpio, and Mill Creek Valentine.
Returning to North America in 2010, Tonya is now competing with several young horses, including Eli and Marlboro, both products of the Mill Creek Stables breeding program. She also has the recently acquired War End to show at the highly-competitive 2011 Winter Equestrian Festival in Wellington, Florida.
Tonya is a graduate of St. John's Kilmarnock in Breslau, ON. In her spare time, she enjoys reading and, time permitting, skiing.
Marlboro 2005 dark bay Canadian-bred Oldenburg mare by Rodero
Owner: Mill Creek Stables
Stevie Wonder 2005 bay Canadian-bred Oldenburg gelding by Stoltzenberg
Owner: Mill Creek Stables
Westwind 2006 bay Holsteiner mare by Amour
Owner: Mill Creek Stables
Moraleja 2003 chestnut Argentinean mare by Chester Z
Owner: Mill Creek Stables
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