Canada's Top 50 Influencers in Equestrian 2020: Tracey McCague-McElrea

With previous experience at Skate Ontario, Skate Canada, and Golf Ontario, Tracey McCague-McElrea’s background in sport administration has been a huge asset in her current role. These experiences have given her an extensive list of provincial and national sport contacts that she can call on to get program ideas and to find out how other sports are evolving. Being in touch with the community of sport administrators also gives her an inside line on which grants are obsolete and any new ones that are being offered – surely a key part of why she’s authored more than $50,000,000 in successful grant applications in her career.

All this puts Ontario Equestrian in a stronger position to be noticed by the Ministry of Heritage, Sport, Tourism and Cultural Industries. This was particularly useful in 2017
when the Ministry announced a rare review of all provincial sports requiring each sport to re-apply for provincial accreditation and funding. This is a highly detailed process that involves ensuring that all aspects of OE were in compliance with provincial requirements including having a strong strategic plan, audited financial statements, proper governance, grassroots and sports programing and much more. There are 66 sports in the province, but Ontario Equestrian was one of only a few that were re-accepted in the round thanks to Tracey’s leadership.

Tracey’s been working at a furious pace with all of the other provinces and Equestrian Canada and has been the driving force behind major innovations to the sport including Rookie Riders, Coach Development, and GRIT. She’s passionate about developing a strong pathway for the success of the sport and has lots more planned.

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Foreseeable Future

“The organization is in a really good place with new programs, partners and stronger industry relationships, so 2020 is going to be exciting. The Rookie Riders program has gained incredible traction since being adopted in 2019 by the York Region District School Board’s (YRDSB) “PE-2-GO” program, with 500 students every two weeks being introduced to equestrian sport. We are looking forward to introducing Rookie Riders throughout other school districts across Ontario. Our highly anticipated GRIT (Great
Rider Intensive Training) program launched in November 2019, with 20 of Ontario’s up-and-coming riders named to the team. We are looking forward to working with this talented group of riders and their coaches to help them achieve their goals.

“The changes we are currently implementing as part of the professionalism of coaching in equestrian sport are very exciting. We will continue to educate the community about why Coach Licensing and Coach Certification are important and I know that it is going
to have an incredibly positive impact on the future of the sport.

“Our industry partnerships are also growing stronger with organizations such as TSC Stores, Tipperary Equestrian, Purina Equine, Ride Every Stride and CapriCMW Insurance Services offering our organization and members great savings and opportunities.“

Memorable Moments

“It is rare in any sport to have the Provincial/Territorial Sport Organizations and the National Sport Organization working together to achieve major goals. Equestrian has spent the last two years doing just that and it has proved very positive. A highlight for me was the development of the Canadian Equestrian Development plan that has EC and the P/TSO’s working collaboratively on many important athlete development and coaching initiatives.

“Personally, the launch of the Rookie Riders program in York Region District School Board gave me the most hope, seeing so many young kids experiencing equestrian sport for the first time. It was this moment that confirmed that our efforts to develop this fundamental program in conjunction with Equestrian Canada will grow participation in our sport to levels never achieved before.”