WACO, Texas – A part of the NCEA’s inaugural Hall of Fame class, Tana McKay was inducted in the Coach category.
 
McKay, along with current Georgia head coach Meghan Boenig, formed the Texas A&M equestrian team in 1998 as a club sport, overseen by the animal science department, when McKay was just a graduate student in equine science. 
 
A year later, the athletic department picked up the team as a fully-funded varsity athletic sport with Boenig and McKay serving as co-head coaches. She continued coaching the IHSA western squad along with the newly formed Varsity Equestrian Association after becoming the solo head coach of the Aggies in 2000.
 
“It just made sense,” said McKay. “It was a really good marriage,” talking about the partnership between the athletic department and equine science department. “It was an easy add. “There was an equine emphasis that was campus-wide. When you’re talking horses, everybody thinks campus-wide of the vet school, the rodeo team and the equestrian team.”
 
With her background in the western discipline, McKay isn’t limited to that arena. She’s helped the Aggies be a well-rounded and highly successful squad since its inception, earning overall national honors at four of the five Varsity Equestrian National Championships, and earned the inaugural NCEA National Championship in the 2011-12 season.
 
One accolade stands out above the rest to McKay – A&M’s 2017 National Championship, the second overall title for the program.
 
The Aggies won all four meets in route to the trophy, outscoring their opponents by a dominant 54-8 points overall. In the Championship meet, A&M took down Georgia, 11-5, at the Extraco Events Center. On that Bulldog squad was also current Aggie assistant coach Abby O’Mara. Texas A&M left the championship with three of the four MOP titles as well, earning all but Fences. 
 
“We had to claw our way there,” said McKay. “You see what your team is made of when you’re down like that. That was a very challenging year, but I also think you need those times because if you’re always on top, you don’t appreciate when you work for something and it makes you kind of start over and really dig deep and figure it out. What do you need to do, what do you need to do differently, who is really there for their teammates, and that’s a big thing. I’m big on if winning is what drives you, you’re going to struggle, especially in a judged sport. So being there for your teammates and being the best teammate you can be needs to be what drives you. Going from that low to that high that season, that has to be the highlight.”
 
Her leadership goes beyond the show pen, championing the sport from the inside out. She’s dedicated more than 20 years to collegiate equestrian, serving numerous leadership roles with the NCEA. 
 
Out of all her contributions to collegiate equestrian on the administrative side, she’s most proud of the format change.
 
“I think everybody was ready to make that change so we could put our scholarship money toward girls who deserved it. You can’t host a meet without 40 people, it’s really hard and challenging. We all had large squads at the time and I remember some coaches being really nervous about making that change, where there was technically only 20 people getting points at a meet. At the end of the day, it was a much more level playing field for the athletes. Once we got into it and hosted a meet, and even now as we’re tightening up the meets and getting them to the three-hour mark, I think about weekends we’d do all Hunt Seat on Saturday and all Western on Sunday. The amount of work our athletes had to do on those days was a lot. It was a leap of faith, but it just made sense.”
 
Countless changes have been made from the format to the name to how the championship is competed, but McKay reflects back that it was a group effort.
 
“We were all doing it together. I love the fact that, you know, we have the ‘OGs’ of me, Meghan [Boenig] and Greg [Williams] and Boo [Major] and Larry [Sanchez]; I think we're all still kind of the originals. So it's kind of fun. We've all grown up with the sport. And too have known each other for so long. It's been fun to see that. We’re all just horse people, we don’t know what we’re doing. Nobody had worked in an athletic department. But everybody’s ultimate goal is to be an NCAA Championship Sport. It just goes to show you that there’s something special about horses and how they bring people together.”
 
She’s had multiple alumnae of her program give back by serving alongside her as coaches of the Aggies and elsewhere. 
 
“As a former team member under her guidance and now as a co-worker,” said Rachael Hake, “she is supportive, upbeat and serves as a mentor to me. Her words of confidence have helped build the woman I am today. From the pre-meet inspiring speeches to her ethics and leadership, I will always look up to ‘Coach Boss’.”
 
When asked how she feels having her student-athletes come back as coaches, McKay says she takes a lot of pride in it.
 
“I love it. It means to me that they had a great experience here,” said McKay. “They enjoyed what they got to do and they want to give back and do it themselves. It means a lot that they’re making a career choice based on their experience here. It’s a big deal.”
 
Not only has she coached athletes who now coach themselves, she has current athletes who came to watch the Aggies ride as children in the crowd.
 
“This makes me feel old but [recruits] talked about how they were little and came and watched a competition. And that's why they got into riding, because they wanted to ride in college. I call it the ‘T ball effect’. Every little girl wants the horse, but now that they can see ‘oh my gosh I can go to college, I can get some of my school paid for.’ And so it's really fun to see those littles grow up knowing from day one, that that's what they want to do. Because in the past, it was just like, ‘oh, that's something interesting. Maybe I'll try it.’ And these little ones. Now that's been their goal from day one that they that they got a horse was ‘I want to ride in college.’ So I love that part of it.”
 
One of the biggest takeaways for McKay in coaching young women in collegiate equestrian is the team aspect.
 
“It’s easy to be in a barn with just your barn mates, your trainers and horse. It’s easy to get tunnel vision, thinking it doesn’t matter what the person on the right of you is doing, you just have to do your job. When they have to learn how to be part of a team and what their job is that day and working together, I love seeing them work together and grow.”
 
“As coaches, we’re more like life coaches. Helping them personally grow and work towards graduating and becoming a productive citizen by being a productive teammate. They learn relationships, work and other skills being on a team. We just get to use a horse as a tool to teach them how to do that. Yes we’re supposed to win, but it’s a lot more about the athlete experience. I look for those girls that I feel will be good teammates and are willing to learn what it takes to be a good teammate.”
 
About the NCEA
A non-profit corporation, the NCEA is a governing body to advance the sport of equestrian. The NCEA is responsible for the development and administration of equestrian rules and guidelines. Equestrian is subject to all NCAA policies and procedures in the same manner as other sports. In 1998, Equestrian was identified and adopted by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and the Committee on Women's Athletics (CWA) as an emerging sport for women at the Division I and II levels. 
 
NCEA competitions are in a head-to-head format, and schools may choose to compete as a single or dual discipline team (Jumping Seat and Western). Each discipline has two events: in Jumping Seat, Fences and Flat, and in Western, Horsemanship and Reining. Teams can have five riders per event, with horses assigned by random draw at the start of the competition. Riders from opposing teams compete on the same horse, and whichever rider receives the higher score earns one point for her team. The level of difficulty is demonstrated by the accuracy of the pattern and how the competitor uses the horse to the best of her ability.
 
To stay up to date all year long on all things NCEA Equestrian, follow the organization on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram: @NCEA_Equestrian and @ncea_eq.