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Photo: Cealy Tetley 2024
Camille Bergeron isn’t sitting back, but she is enjoying the ride.
The Grand Prix dressage rider has a long list of early-career highlights, and over the past two years, an air of excitement has grown around Bergeron’s development as an athlete, team player and ambassador for Canada on the global stage.
Bergeron and her longtime equine partner, Sound of Silence 4, affectionately known as ‘SOS’, helped Canada bring home the team bronze at the 2023 Pan American Games, a key qualifier for Team Canada prior to the 2024 Summer Olympic Games.
Camille has also carved out her place as an individual competitor. In her second ever show with her mare Finnländerin, Camille won the 2024 Grand Prix Special at the Global Dressage Festival in Wellington, Florida. It was her first Big Tour victory.
A few months later, Camille was selected – together with Jill Irving and fellow Québec rider Naïma Moreira Laliberté – to represent Canadian dressage in Paris at the Olympics.
To round it off, Camille Bergeron was named the Equestrian Canada 2024 Dressage Athlete of the Year. At just 24 years old, Camille’s career in the Grand Prix ring is just getting started.
Unstoppable from the Beginning
With no prior connection to horses, a nine-year-old Bergeron protested when her mother first enrolled her in a horse-themed camp. “It’s not a normal camp. There will be horses. You’ll like it,” reassured her mom.
From day one, the horse-struck girl quickly proved her mother’s intuition right. She recalls longing to stay past the afternoon pick-up time and being eager to return the next day. After the first week, Camille begged to sign up for camp again. And again. That year, Camille spent her whole summer with horses.
As it turns out, she would go on to spend all her summers with horses.
Making a Champion: A Family Affair
As a young rider, Bergeron explored which equestrian discipline to pursue, and her parents eventually agreed they were most comfortable with the relative safety of dressage.
Camille laughs about it now: “When I first started riding, I was so excited! I would say to my friends, ‘I’m going to do jumper!’ And then my parents would say, ‘No, you are not doing that!'”
Bergeron had no such fear of high-impact disciplines, but was more than happy in any saddle and never looked back. Team Canada can thank her parents now.
“When I first started riding, I was so excited! I would say to my friends, 'I'm going to do jumper!' And then my parents would say, 'No, you are not doing that!'”
— Camille Bergeron, Mad Barn High Performance AthleteCamille’s parents were instrumental in her equestrian pursuits. To this day, her success is fueled by the enthusiastic support of her whole family.
As she puts it, in the beginning her father Gilles Bergeron was a ‘victim’ in all of this, “He didn’t know anything about horses. He just got into it as I started to ride. But then he went to every one of my lessons, and to every competition I entered. He just loved it!”
Today, Gilles Bergeron is an inspiration to horse dads everywhere. His support for his daughter and other Canadian youth athletes has not gone unnoticed.
Through his generous sponsorship of events and provision of world-class equine partners, Gilles was named the Equestrian Canada Horse Owner of the Year in 2018 and again in 2024.
Finding the Path to Success
Camille’s strong competitive drive started from a young age. By eleven years old, she had mastered enough preliminary dressage to show nationally at first-level pony. The following year, she was up to FEI-level pony divisions.
To compete at the higher levels, she needed to gain experience beyond what her local circuit could offer. In high school, she petitioned her parents to help her move to Florida so she could ride year-round.
They agreed — as long as she stayed in school and kept her grades up. She held up her end of the bargain, and for four months a year, Camille was studying in the mornings and riding alongside the best in North America at world-class facilities in the Sunshine State.
By this point, Camille had moved from ponies to trialing an athletic chestnut gelding that she says really started her showing career.
The horse, Lowelas, had previously qualified for the FEI North American Youth Championships (NAYC), but was a lot of horse for Camille’s abilities at the time. “At first, I was just a passenger. But I started to get better and better,” she recalls.
In a bold move, the Bergerons purchased Lowelas and started to train with German-born high-performance coach Albrecht Heidemann, who launched the careers of several Canadian team riders.
When Bergeron purchased the horse in spring of 2014, they had just three months to qualify for the NAYC. It seemed unlikely, but the new partnership between horse, rider and coach proved a winning combination.
By July, Bergeron won gold in the Junior Freestyle at the NAYC, held that year in Kentucky.
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An Explosive Debut on the National Stage
From ages 14 to 18, Camille trained under Heidemann, steadily progressing through the FEI levels — from Juniors to Prix St. Georges to Young Riders. All the while, her father was thoughtfully acquiring promising horses, providing her with the opportunity to train and compete with a diverse team of equine partners.
In 2018, Camille delivered a standout season, achieving a series of significant milestones.
As a Young Rider, Camille rode a Dutch Warmblood gelding, Baldacci, to help capture the 2018 NAYC Team Medal for Quebec/Alberta. That year, Camille also earned four first-place finishes in the CDI-Y division and won a series of Individual and Team tests at the Global Dressage Festival in Wellington, among other titles.
By the end of 2017, coach Heidemann had returned to Germany and soon after Camille began training with Calgary-based Olympian Pia Fortmüller. Feeling homesick, Camille eventually settled back in Québec and began training with Tokyo Olympian Brittany Fraser-Beaulieu, who remains her coach today.
With Fraser-Beaulieu’s guidance, Camille continued working her way up the dressage levels, from Young Riders to Under 25 (U25) to Grand Prix. Her 2008 Westphalian gelding SOS, moved up with her.
“SOS is my heart horse. I've had him for so long. In some respects, I've built him, so he has my qualities, but he also has my weaknesses. We know each other so well.”
— Camille Bergeron, Mad Barn High Performance AthleteWith continued hard work and determination, Camille found herself performing on an even bigger stage. Bergeron competed for Canada in every Nations Cup from 2019 through 2021 in Wellington Florida, winning nine medals total.
By spring of 2021, she was ranked first on the FEI U25 world rankings, an outstanding feat for a Canadian rider in a field of powerhouse European nations.
Camille capped off her season-long success at U25 and transitioned to Grand Prix when she was awarded the prestigious Orion Cup, named after her mentor and one-time coach Pia Fortmüller’s Olympic team horse, Orion.
Riding for Canada
With the Paris Olympics on the horizon in 2023, Bergeron was poised to compete for Canada internationally at the Pan American Games in Chile. As Camille explains, even qualifying as a rider for keystone international events is a major undertaking.
“I didn’t really have any expectations. It was our first year showing Senior Grand Prix. At first, we were super green. SOS would be great, then I’d make a mistake. I’d fix that, then he’d make a mistake. So, until we were both on the same page, it took a bit of time,” she reflects.
Qualifying for the Pan Am Games is one thing, but the stakes were even higher for Canadian equestrians.
For Team Canada to earn a place at the Olympics, Bergeron and her teammates – Beatrice Boucher, Mathilde Blais-Tetreault and Naïma Moreira Laliberté – needed to make the podium.
As Camille explains, the team put in a lot of work and capitalized on their opportunities:
“The way it was set up was just great for Canada. With a drop-score allowed, we knew we could have at least one strong performance in every test. Thankfully, my strongest ride was in the Special, and my teammates scored well in the Grand Prix.”
By distributing their strengths strategically across tests, the team pulled it off. SOS, Bergeron and their teammates clinched the bronze medal for Team Canada. Separately, Bergeron placed 7th in the individual freestyle competition.
The strong finish in the Pan Ams secured Team Canada’s place at the Olympics, but for Camille there was more work to be done. She and her Oldenburg mare, Finnländerin, needed to qualify as a combination before they could go to the Games.
“She is my little Queen. She is very strong minded, but in a good way. She has a big heart and is always working super hard.”
— Camille Bergeron, Mad Barn High Performance Athlete“It was a bit of a challenge, because we had only a short period to rest. We needed to be smart about it; to slowly get back at it and peak at the right moment. We were feeling very confident, but at the same time we didn’t want to show again too early,” she explains.
The window to qualify for the Olympics is brief, but Camille chose her qualifying shows strategically and was ultimately successful.
Photo: Cealy Tetley 2024
Camille has developed a special bond with her Olympic partner Finnländerin. Originally purchased as a back-up for SOS, Finn has become her number one ride: “She is my little Queen. She is very strong minded, but in a good way. She has a big heart and is always working super hard. She never says ‘No’ and loves her job, loves the attention,” Camille smiles.
Evidence-Based Nutrition for Elite Equines
Whether at home or on the road, Bergeron relies on Mad Barn for expert nutritional advice and support. The first Mad Barn supplement she introduced to her program was Spirulina. That was six years ago and she hasn’t looked back since.
“Our horses travel so much and they change stable, change hay and so on. So, I feel spirulina gives them health and keeps their immune system going. It helps them feel great and keeps their energy level good. It’s just something I give to all my horses. Once I start riding them, that’s what they get.”
For Bergeron, adding a new supplement to her horses’ diets is not something she does lightly. She works closely with her equine nutritionist and has a process of testing each horse that comes into her care for vitamin and mineral deficiencies. Currently, she feeds multiple supplements across her entire barn and trusts Mad Barn’s science-backed approach to supporting her horses’ health and performance.
“So many products don’t have research associated with them. It’s one thing to say it works but if you have independent research, you can be much more confident.”
— Camille Bergeron, Mad Barn High Performance AthleteBergeron’s meteoric rise wouldn’t be possible if her horses weren’t up to the task. The individualized support offered by Mad Barn allows her to focus on training with confidence her equine partners are fueled for success.
In addition to Spirulina, she is diligent about feeding her horses Performance XL Electrolytes to ensure their hydration and recovery are optimized for competition.
Learn more about how Mad Barn has helped Camille here.
Away from the Spotlight
Back in her home province of Québec, Camille runs Les Écuries Élégance, the family’s bustling stable in the heart of Laval.
Alongside her parents, Camille has built a flourishing coaching, training and international stud and broodmare business. As Bergeron explains the motto at Les Écuries Élégance: “We sell, we breed, we train, we coach.”
It’s a lot of work, but the high-energy Bergeron wouldn’t have it any other way. “I love being in the barn. Like this morning, I did all the chores, and I just love it, being with the horses,” she smiles.
At the gym before sunrise, you can expect to see Bergeron in the barn and with her first client by 7:30 AM. Between her own and her clients’ horses, she rides about ten a day, coaching her student riders well into the evening most days.
“I feed Performance XL and Spirulina across the board. All the levels, all my horses. I have seen really huge improvement from my horses on Mad Barn.”
— Camille Bergeron, Mad Barn High Performance AthleteWith her students, Camille fosters a learning environment with an emphasis on excellence and continuous improvement. As she puts it, “I get a lot of talented horses and riders that want to move up a level. I get all different kinds of riders. Whether they do shows or not, it doesn’t matter. What matters to me is that they want to get better and improve. For me, that’s what’s important.”
Sometimes people come to Bergeron with young horses when they are having specific training challenges. Her approach to problem solving is not ‘one size fits all’. She explains, “I don’t have one system for every horse; rather, I adapt to the horse’s needs. What’s important for me is always being positive and trying to earn the horse’s trust.”
In other words, Camille uses her expertise and fundamental horse-sense to build confidence in her equine students – the same confidence she brings to the arena on show day, the confidence that comes from harmony, communication, and practice.
Rest, Recover, Repeat
The Pan American Games and Olympics put a lot of pressure on Camille. After a busy few years preparing, qualifying and competing, Camille’s plans for the immediate future are decidedly more relaxed. “No pressure on me or my horses this year. I just want to have fun, do some Freestyles and enjoy being in the ring with my horses without thinking about my scores,” she muses.
With that being said, Bergeron might keep her competitive momentum going in spite of herself. Despite needing to catch a breath, Camille spontaneously entered a FEI World Cup Dressage qualifier in Devon PA after returning home from the Olympics. She did well, earning second place with Finnländerin. She has since competed in another CDI-W event, in Ocala, FL.
Without really planning for it, Camille seems to have put herself on a path for the next World Cup, scheduled for Switzerland in April 2025.
“So, now maybe I must change my plan for 2025!” she laughs. “If it works, that would be fantastic. I would love to qualify for the World Cup, but mostly I’ll just have fun and enjoy my horses.”
Leading & Learning in the Great White North
As a rider who excelled on the global stage at a young age, Bergeron is part of a passionate Canadian dressage community who are inspiring a new generation of elite riders north of the border.
Canadian equestrians must contend first and foremost with the harsh realities of winter limiting their training opportunities. As Camille’s athletic accomplishments suggest, she is unafraid of a challenge, and uses her professional experience to help her students keep improving all year long.
As Camille puts it, “One of the hardest things about riding in Canada is that the winters can seem long. It can be six or seven months between shows, so it’s easy to lose focus. Setting goals is probably the biggest thing. In winter, have a clear goal each month, so when spring comes, you are ready.”
Bergeron says that winter is also a great time to take advantage of clinics, and there are more opportunities than ever to view international shows and audit clinics on-line. Aspiring riders can easily follow top riders in Europe and other parts of the world to stay motivated when riding isn’t an option.
“Learning from the best riders, learning from the best horses, visualizing and setting goals is all part of the learning experience.”
— Camille Bergeron, Mad Barn High Performance AthleteCamille encourages a learning mindset in riders of all stripes, “Learning from the best riders, learning from the best horses, visualizing and setting goals is all part of the learning experience.”
From humble beginnings at summer camp to representing Canada at the Olympics, there is a lot to learn from Bergeron’s journey. As she progresses into the next stage of her career, Bergeron hasn’t lost sight of the responsibility her influence brings. “We all want to give back. We have to make it work,” she reminds herself.
Her commitment to continuous improvement, adaptability, and positive training is a living example of the core values Canadian equestrians represent on the world stage, and the reputation she will carry with our flag for years to come.
