Megan Shea: Building Horse & Rider Confidence in the Elite Dressage Arena [Athlete Profile]

Photo: Andrew Ryback Photography 2024

Megan Shea has always been about horses. As a nine-year-old, her father took her to The Royal Agricultural Winter Fair, Canada’s premier indoor fair and equestrian event. She describes the feeling as she watched the horses on the show-lit ring with her dad that day: “I wanted to be out there so badly.”

And that’s where it began. From a young age, Megan’s life revolved around riding. By age 11, Megan was riding at Sunnybrook Stables in the heart of her hometown of Toronto. There, she realized and developed her natural connection with horses.

As Megan puts it, “That connection is so special. How lucky are we as riders? We have something we dedicate our lives to and love so much … many people never find that.”

After learning the basics of English flatwork and eventing, an early coach brought Megan to Deer Ridge Equestrian – a premier dressage facility in Loretto, Ontario.

At first, Megan didn’t feel she was particularly skilled at the highly technical demands of dressage, but she worked hard and found her way forward. Training in a discipline that challenged her appealed to her natural work ethic and continual drive for progress.

Gaining Confidence & an Equine Partner

As a young rider in Canada, Megan began to establish a strong foothold in the sport of dressage. Working her way through a series of school horses, she learned to ride and show at the lower levels. As her skills increased through practice, coaching, and competition, she found herself in need of a “fancy” horse to match her growing abilities.

With the support of her family, who sponsored Shea as a young rider, and guidance from Canadian Olympic rider Megan Lane, Shea acquired her first horse, K2, whom she developed all the way to the Grand Prix level.

The Oldenburg gelding first came to Canada as a six-year-old imported from Germany, originally trained as a hunter. K2’s time in the hunter ring was short-lived, and a 16-year-old Shea took the horse under her care and put him on a new trajectory. With only walk, trot, and canter in his repertoire, there was much work to do.

“It was trial by fire. He was learning, I was learning.” Megan laughs, “He was a sensitive horse and the margin for error was very small!”

Despite ups and downs in the early days of their relationship, K2 and Megan showed consistent progress and worked their way up from the training circuit to third-level tests and beyond.

Putting the Pieces Together

Megan isn’t intimidated by the athletic and mental challenges demanded by dressage. Rather, she sees these as opportunities to sharpen focus, self-assess, progress as a combination, and, above all, to learn. As she puts it, “Dressage is like a puzzle. You must constantly figure it out and piece it together.”

Piece by piece, Megan Shea has put it together.

With K2 in hand, Megan moved to attend the University of Guelph as an undergraduate. As Megan pursued a degree in marketing, she continued to show and develop as a rider.

Though she attended school in Guelph, Ontario, she found herself spending more time in Wellington, Florida, where opportunities to ride, show and train are more plentiful, especially in winter.

As a Canadian riding in Florida, a 20-year-old Megan worked hard to generate her own success. By this time, she was training with Nicholas Fyffe and David Marcus, and in 2015, she qualified for the North American Junior and Young Rider Championships (NAJYRC). That year, she stood out as the top rider for Team Ontario and earned a ranking of third for Team Canada, among other achievements.

In 2017, with her university degree in hand, Megan relocated to Florida. There, she immersed herself fully in the world of professional dressage, working, riding, and grooming for several top riders. No longer just a seasonal visitor to Wellington’s dressage scene, she could now ride, show, and train year-round, lifting her game to a new level.

Eventually, Megan decided to make the United States her permanent home. In 2018 she was granted a professional athlete’s visa working as a rider and groom for Susie Dutta. Megan went on to work for other leading dressage riders, including international competitors Beatrice Marineau and Belinda Trussell.

By 2019, Megan and K2 competed in the CDI medium tour and went on to make their U25 Grand Prix debut. They qualified to represent Canada once again at the Wellington CDIOU25 Nation’s Cup on Team Canada. That same year, she secured a 2nd place finish at the Global Dressage Festival.

Confidence Over Perfection

Megan Shea is a ‘get out there and ride it‘ kind of person. This mantra wasn’t something she started with — it’s a mindset she learned and earned through mentorship and experience.

Like so many of us who feel safe in training and vulnerable in the ring, the endless pursuit of perfection has a paradoxical way of holding us back. As Megan explains, “In the sport of dressage, it’s so easy to be a perfectionist and not go out to the show.”

Megan credits her former mentor, Susie Dutta, for fostering just the right amount of self-confidence needed to step out of the training arena and into the show ring.

When Megan is thinking about her next show, she starts with an inner dialogue: Am I ready? Or do I need more time? Am I being too ambitious, or too conservative? Instead of spinning her wheels in contemplation, Megan ultimately arrives at the one question to end them all: Can you ride it?

If the answer is yes, Megan’s confidence and pragmatism take over — she’d rather learn and improve than dwell on perfection. Fostering this level of confidence in a rider so they can answer this question for themselves is central to Megan’s own philosophy as a coach.

To this day, the longest Megan has ever gone without riding is about a month — and that has happened only once due to injury.

Showing & the Big Picture

Megan is an all-in professional dressage rider, coach, and trainer. From her home away from home in Wellington, Florida, she runs Megan Shea Dressage, a private training facility where she offers comprehensive training at all levels, including Grand Prix.

Located at Bell Tower Farm, Megan works closely with owner and Danish-born international Grand Prix Dressage rider Mikala Münter. Though their businesses are separate, the two rider-trainers enjoy an informal partnership that sees them caring for and coaching each other throughout the season.

At Megan Shea Dressage, preparing and presenting horses for show is a big part of her operation. As Megan sees it, shows function to get horse and rider off-site and out of the training ring. A well-planned show can be rewarding, boost confidence, and expose horse and rider alike to new situations and environments.

Megan loves to show. But for her, success does not depend on it. Even if she never entered another competition, Megan would not stop riding or running her business. She loves the day-to-day training and problem solving that comes with it. The simple act of going to shows helps with mental preparedness, organization, and self-assessment.

As she says, “Showing gives you more time to foster a deep connection with your horse.”

From the earliest morning feed to the last nightly check, day after day at the showground, you are with your horse enjoying that connection.

“When I decide I’m going to compete, I am very focused on it. I try to win. But even if I never showed again, I wouldn’t change what I’m doing.”

Equine Confidence Translates into Rider Success

As a trainer, Megan’s benchmark for success is not the ribbons but finding solutions that make the horse happier. When she succeeds at finding this unlock for the horse, the rider gets more enjoyment and success out of their partnership.

Megan’s overarching approach to training and performance is to use her intuition as a horse person, her feel as a rider, and her observation and analysis from the ground to identify what her horse and rider need.

“I say to my riders, if you’re on a full five-days-a-week training program with me, my goal is to get you down to three days a week, or less. As a coach, I feel most successful if the rider can improve their confidence and performance to the point where they can train and enjoy their horse without needing me there all the time.”

The most rewarding part of her job is taking difficult horses and finding ways to make their work enjoyable while maximizing their physical comfort.

Whether it’s a specific test that requires a pointed solution, a return to fundamentals, or simply adjusting a mental game, Megan’s goal is to release her human and equine students from the ties that bind their progress.

Megan’s approach to generating confidence is to think positively. For example, if a new horse arrives at her facility that is nervous under saddle, she asks: Why is it scared and how can we give this horse more confidence so he is relaxed, stretched-out, and happy?

Leading by Example

To stay confident herself, Megan complements her riding with other activities that keep her mentally and physically fit. Weight training, yoga and regular physiotherapy help keep Megan’s muscles, stamina and whole-body awareness in order.

By adopting a holistic approach to her athletics, Megan stays balanced and relaxed as a person and rider. Disciplined cross training helps Megan avoid weakness or stiffness that might otherwise creep into her rides.

Taking care of her own fitness is a proven strategy. Megan focuses on avoiding compensation, which can result in favoring one side, heavy handedness on the reins, or disproportionate use of aids in the ring. As she puts it, “Compensation patterns can happen if you’re weak or injured. Yoga helps achieve strength and length and flexibility. You need a strong leg but also a loooong leg.”

When everything is working, it’s a great feeling: “One good ride lasts you months – that feeling! That’s what drives everything, the connection to the horses.”

Dressage is Megan’s game, but her training and natural horse-sense benefit a wide range of horses and riders, including those that never enter the dressage ring. Hunters and jumpers regularly seek out Megan’s advice on how to improve their rides in the space between the jumps.

The Horses of Megan Shea

A few years ago, Megan’s first Grand Prix horse, K2, retired from competition. After a year in the Florida heat, K2 returned to Canada for cooler days and greener pastures. Megan recalls with fondness the help of her parents, coaches and mentors who helped her find and buy K2 as a handsome six-year-old bay gelding. Their lives were interconnected every day for 10 years.

This year, Megan began a new partnership with Sir Schiwago, a Bavarian Warmblood gelding imported from Switzerland. Though Sir Schiwago has gained experience as a Grand Prix horse for the past nine years, his partnership with Megan has only just begun.

Megan and Sir Schiwago
Photo: Andrew Ryback Photography 2024

The pair have most recently been showing at the Regional Championships in Ocala. On Sir Schiwago, Megan placed 5th in the Grand Prix and qualified as a Wild Card for the US National Finals, held in Kentucky.

Megan’s other ride is named Blueberry Hill, a 2011 Westphalian mare she has trained over the past three years, taking her from the small tour to the Grand Prix.

Nutrition & Performance

Thanks to ongoing support from Mad Barn and their team of nutrition experts and veterinarians, Shea has peace of mind when it comes to her horse’s nutritional needs.

Even highly experienced equestrians might not know what questions to ask about their horse’s diet. As Megan puts it: “How do you know horses are getting what they need?”

One tool Shea relies on is the nutritional analysis from Mad Barn’s Equine Nutrition Calculator. By providing online access to advice and analysis, Mad Barn helps owners and trainers like Megan identify nutritional deficiencies in their horse’s diet and to formulate a feeding program to better meet their needs. As she puts it, “I see what’s missing, and I adjust their feed to correct.”

Whether she knows the horse well, or it’s day-one of their acquaintance, Megan considers nutrition an important factor in promoting overall well being. For more than ten years, Megan has consulted Mad Barn to help deliver the best nutrition to her horses and provide information she trusts to the other horses under her care.

It helps that the process is so easy. As Megan explains, “I send all my horse’s feed information into Mad Barn and I let them tell me what’s missing or what’s in excess, and I adjust according to what they tell me.”

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Dietary Support for Optimal Gut Health & Performance

So much of a horse’s health, energy, and behavior is affected by diet. Imbalances may keep a horse off its A-game or, in the long term, lead to chronic under-performance or lasting health issues.

With input from Mad Barn’s qualified equine nutritionists, Megan can customize her supplementation on a horse-by-horse basis or, when appropriate, make an ‘across the board’ decision that serves all her horses.

Megan is grateful knowing her horses are in expert hands. “I definitely lean on Mad Barn to ensure all of the horses at my facility are getting everything they need through diet analysis and the supplements that they provide,” she reflects.

Megan recalls a sale horse that was spooky,  ‘generally difficult,’ and unprepared to show. Megan speculated that the horse might have stomach issues and suggested: “Why don’t we try him on the Visceral+ ?” Within a couple of weeks, there was a noticeable change in the horse’s disposition: “It was like night and day.”

The horse’s transformation was significant. Eventually, Megan took the horse to a show and qualified him at the Global Dressage Festival for the Future Challenge Finals at the Developing Prix St. George level. Of course Megan’s influence on the horse can’t be dismissed, but she considers the Mad Barn supplement an important factor in his turnaround.

Shea believes if horses are well fed, they naturally radiate health from the inside out. In addition to Visceral+ to support gut health, Megan regularly uses Mad Barn’s Omneity® as a vitamin and mineral supplement and w-3 Oil as an energy and fatty acid supplement to support her horse’s weight, coat and joint health.

After ten years of consistent results with Mad Barn, Megan sees the positive impact optimal nutrition has had for numerous horses in her care. “I always have people commenting on how shiny my horses’ coats look,” she smiles.

Dressage of the Future

Megan has a vision for the future of dressage.

While dressage highlights the harmony, athleticism and elegance of horse and rider, it can appear inaccessible to some and is sometimes depicted negatively in media. It’s an uphill battle, but Megan sees these occasions as an opportunity to learn and improve. As she puts it: “There’s always room for positive change.”

She notes that some criticism of high-level dressage stems from the perception that performing horses do not always appear happy or confident.

This perception is influenced by the type of tests featured at the highest levels of the sport. At the Grand Prix, there is an emphasis on collected work where horses are highly engaged in their hind end as in signature movements like the piaffe and passage. After all, it’s the collected work that makes the Grand Prix an athletic challenge in the first place.

To address this, Megan believes the sport could introduce subtle changes that demonstrate to audiences that high-level performance demands are not made at the expense of horse welfare.

Megan suggests that dressage could incorporate more relaxed work, such as a stretching circle at the trot, into the high level tests alongside the collected standards we all know so well. As she puts it, “Relaxed work is present in the lower levels, but when you get to the more collected work of Grand Prix riding, it’s much less evident.”

Megan can imagine a future dressage where relaxation and extension movements are more prominently featured at the Grand Prix level without diminishing the challenge to horse and rider.

As Megan explains: “It would be hard! The horses should be able to do it, but it’s hard to achieve because you get them so collected and active on the hind legs, and then say, ‘OK, now relax and put your head down’.”

No matter what happens, Megan Shea is sure of one thing: the evolution of dressage as a sport should be conscious of the horse as an athlete. As she wisely points out, “Not every horse is meant to be a Grand Prix horse, but every horse can be happy in their work.” Matching each horse with a suitable rider and a supportive environment is key for its long-term happiness and health.

The equestrian world is a better place with riders and coaches like Megan Shea in it. By centering horse welfare in everything she does, she is helping to develop the most confident equines in the history of her sport.

Her leadership marks a paradigm shift towards a more egalitarian sport of dressage. This approach not only elevates the welfare of her equine counterparts but also helps secure the social license to operate for the future of equestrian sport.