By Helen Townes
Portraits by Melissa Fuller
Fueled by focus, hours of hard work and relentless drive, show jumper Tanner Korotkin has rocketed to the Grand Prix stage, even while his formula for winning remains refreshingly straightforward. “Before a big competition, I go over my plan with winning in mind, but first focus on the opening round. I clear my mind and canter down to the first jump like I would any other day, and then I let experience and instinct take over,” Tanner said.
Tanner grew up in the middle of horse country in Wellington, Florida. His parents, Alan and Kirsty, are longstanding riders and trainers in the area at Castlewood Farm, where they’ve turned out innumerable Grand Prix riders and horses over the years. One would think that any child growing up in that atmosphere would naturally be drawn to a life with horses—but Tanner was an exception at first.
“My parents really wanted my brother Jared and me to get into it, but we were leading normal lives, going to school and playing sports,” Tanner laughed. “I just kept getting on ponies and I would fall off, over and over. I was like, ‘Yeah, this isn’t fun.’”
Kirsty remembered that time. “Tanner didn’t take to riding right away. He was very into baseball, and the pony ring didn’t really appeal to him,” she said. “Then one year we took him to the World Cup Finals in Las Vegas, and that was a turning point.”
“I had seen my dad riding in some big Grand Prix competitions and thought it was cool. Then I remember very well watching McLain Ward and Steve Guerdat competing in Vegas,” Tanner said. “It was incredible how smooth and effortless they made it look. I remember there was one combination that was causing a lot of trouble, and a lot of riders were galloping up to it and crashing and burning. Then McLain and Steve went in there and did it without any issues. It was really exciting to watch, and that’s what propelled me into it.”
Once he committed to horse life, Tanner was all in. “I would come home from school and go straight from my house to our barn, and ride whatever horses were available—from greener, more difficult horses to more experienced ones,” he recalled. “I was exposed to countless different types of horses, and when my dad began taking a step back a bit as a competitor, I had even more opportunities to ride. He is also a dealer with lots of horses coming in, so I’ve ridden all types of horses. It was a great way to learn how to be steady with whatever comes your way.” Tanner also benefitted from training for several years with Missy Clark and John Brennan at North Run and an invaluable three-year stint with Irish show jumper and mentor Shane Sweetnam.
Near-Meteoric Success
Soon Tanner began excelling in the show ring. “Tanner had a very rapid ascent up the competitive ladder from the start and it looked like it might be meteoric for a while,” Alan remembered. Tanner had stand-out Junior performances in the jumpers and equitation competitions along the East Coast. He had strong showings in both the 2018 USEF Talent Search Competition in the Jumpers and the 2019 ASPCA Maclay National Championship, and he won the 2019 Junior Jumper Championship at the Devon Horse Show. Tanner made his FEI debut when he was just 15 and placed in the top 10 in his first three-star Grand Prix in 2019.
By his early 20s, Tanner was consistently riding in CSI4* and CSI5* competitions, and had been named to his first CSIO4* Nations Cup team and to the CSIO 5* Nations Cup Team in Mexico. Tanner was wearing the coveted pinque coat in Wellington with his horse Volos Diamond when he faced a setback. “Volo and I jumped clear in the first round, but the second round didn’t quite go to plan.”
Like any elite athlete who faces a challenge, Tanner persevered. Determined to improve his riding strength and mental confidence, he doubled down on his training and adhered to one simple training rule: dropping his irons. “Over the next two and a half years, I decided to ride every single day without stirrups on at least one or multiple horses a day. I just focused on improving and making myself as strong as possible, mentally and physically, no matter what horse I was riding,” Tanner explained. “Since then, if I compare my rounds from then to now, I am 500 times the rider I was then. I look back at that setback and see that it helped me a lot.”
His hard work paid off. During 2022, Tanner and a talented 13-year-old Holsteiner gelding, Quinn 33, won the CCI5* Major League Show Jumping (MLSJ) qualifier in Ottawa, Canada. A few months later, the pair began to win big at Winter Equestrian Festival in 2023. “Quinn and I won four ranking classes, two of them five-star, and others three- and four-star—I think we won a total of eight ranking classes,” Tanner said.
By August 2024, Tanner was riding a new horse, 11-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding Kinmar Quality Hero, formerly ridden by show jumper Jessica Mendoza. Tanner clinched the CCI3* Grand Prix at the Great Lakes Equestrian Festival in Traverse City, a pivotal moment in his career. “That was one of my biggest wins, and I hadn’t jumped a big Grand Prix in a long time,” he said. “So going out there and winning it was big for me.”
Photo courtesy of the Korotkin family
Castlewood Family
The Korotkin family is extremely close, and sister Carsyn, now 14, has joined Tanner in the competition world—she was the winner at the Marshall & Sterling/USEF Pony Medal Final at the 2024 USEF Pony Finals, and continues to excel in the ring. Brother Jared, 26, never got serious about riding and is now a filmmaker. “He puts up with the horse conversation at the dinner table,” Tanner laughed.
“I’ve loved having my children involved in the sport I chose,” Alan said. “I’ve gotten to use all my experience as a rider and trainer to help them navigate the difficult path that leads to success in this horse world. I’m able to steer them around the many pitfalls and traps this sport can offer. I also have great friends and connections in the field, which gives my kids access to some of the most brilliant trainers around.”
Tanner and Carsyn have a particularly strong bond, and the family hopes they will carry on the family business, Castlewood Farm, in the future. “Something that motivates me to be as good as possible at training and riding is making the path a little bit easier for Carsyn, so when she’s old enough she’ll be able to work alongside me,” Tanner said. “I love Castlewood, and that’s my goal. I hope in the long run it will be Carsyn and I doing it.”
Alan and Kirsty are pleased that Tanner and Carsyn are following in their footsteps and are hopeful about their legacy with Castlewood. “I think they’d be an amazing team,” Alan said. “Carsyn is very organized and detail-oriented, and she loves to teach and explain. I think she’d rule the roost. Tanner is brave, tough and motivated, and loves coaching people.”
Carsyn echoed the siblings’ bond. “Having a big brother in the sport has its perks! When I was doing the ponies, he would come around and watch and clap, and now that I’m riding horses, he’s really into it!” she said. “He’s a little bit older so we never had sibling rivalry—he wants me to win as much as I do.”
Born and raised in Wellington, Tanner is grateful for the advantages of being in the center of all things equestrian, and happy to come home after rigorous show travel around the country—and sometimes outside the U.S. “It’s always good being home,” Tanner said. “And during the Winter Equestrian Festival, we have the highest level of competition, right in my backyard. It’s so great to have my friends and family come watch me compete.”
As parents, Alan and Kirsty are also realistic about the challenges their children will face when following in their footsteps. “This is a tough business—you must love it. It’s very expensive to stay on top and it’s very hard work. Horses are a 24-hour, 7-days-a-week grind. It’s very different from having a ‘normal’ job: vacations are different, weekends are different. You give up a lot of things that ‘normal’ people get to do,” Alan said.
Tanner acknowledged this, but said that he has good memories of seeing things outside of the horse world on family vacations. “Someday I’d love to see the Colosseum in Rome—that’s something that really interests me.”
Carrying On Kindness
Tanner has had great encouragement along the way from his parents, and Alan has been his north star. “He’s always been my role model. He’s very well known in Wellington as being one of the most honorable and trusted trainers and dealers, and that stems from my grandpa, who’s also an extremely honorable person,” Tanner said. “I’ve learned so much from them, and from seeing how my dad does business and how he trains—he’s very passionate about it. I also appreciate that my dad is always joking around and keeping it lighthearted. I can be very serious sometimes, so it definitely helps during major competitions!”
Top show jumper McLain Ward and his barn manager, Lee McKeever, have also been inspirations. “McLain is someone I’ve always looked up to since I saw him riding at the World Cup years and years ago. We came from similar backgrounds, as he grew up in a riding family as well, so that’s something that always encouraged me,” Tanner said. “He and Lee are some of the most methodical, smart people, and McLain is an unbelievable rider.”
Tanner pointed out that the common denominator among his mentors, including McLain, is kindness and respect. “I think being kind and respectful in this industry isn’t very difficult, to be honest. We’re all working hard, trying to achieve the same thing. What’s the point in not being nice and respectful to everybody?”
Reaching New Heights
Kinmar Quality Hero has been a special partner for Tanner over the past year. The pair has competed in several five-star competitions and notably won the $65,000 IDA Development Grand Prix CSI2* at the World Equestrian Center in Ocala this past summer.
Tanner was named to another Nations Cup team this year, this time to compete with Kinmar Quality Hero in the Jumping Nations Cup Caledon CSIO3* held at Caledon Equestrian Park, Ontario, in July. Tanner and Kinmar placed fifth in the CSIO3* Grand Prix after one unlucky rail down, but if felt like a hopeful result. “I think before I started riding him, a lot of people thought he was a slower type who didn’t care very much, but I had a lot of belief in him. And then, within two months of my riding him we won our first three-star Grand Prix and my belief in him skyrocketed. He’s the best.”
Another promising mount has been Cardozo 4, a 12-year-old Westphalian gelding owned by Tenerife Stables. Cardozo has placed in countless ranking classes and most recently Tanner rode him to win the $24,999 ESP September Grand Prix in Wellington against 24 horse-and-rider combinations. Tanner is looking forward to competing with both Kinmar and Cardozo at the Winter Equestrian Festival in 2026.
When he’s not in the saddle, Tanner enjoys hanging out with friends, but admits that outside of that he mostly rides horses or thinks about horses. “That’s basically all I do,” he laughed. “Even through the ups and downs, you know, I’m outside every day, not at a desk in an office building. It’s what I love to do, and I’m so grateful to be doing this sport!”
Follow Tanner on Instagram @tannerkorotkin and Castlewood Farm @castlewoodfarminc, or on Facebook.
Photos by Melissa Fuller, melissafullerphotography33.mypixieset.com, unless noted otherwise
