Equestrian Canada’s Manager of High Performance Anna Johnson On Growing The Sport In Canada

1Tell us about your role as Manager of High Performance for Equestrian Canada. What does a typical day look like for you?

Over the past 5 years, the organization has been going through many changes to enhance its governance and operational structure, and my role has been continuously evolving and adapting to support new direction and approaches. For the most part, I provide strategic guidance to leadership and support the delivery of projects to improve our business processes and high-performance programs.

In the lead up to the Rio 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games, I was responsible for developing the Major Games and high-performance framework to prepare, deliver and support the Canadian Equestrian Team members achieve their performance goals at Games. Utilizing individual strengths and unique qualities to build the right environment for people to perform at their best is, no matter their role, something I am very passionate about as it is a vital element for team success.

But, to continuously achieve success at the highest level of any sport, we also need an effective system supporting athlete development from grassroots to the podium. I am currently the project lead on a multi-phase project reviewing the national competition structure to identify areas of alignment with the Long Term Equestrian Development Framework.

Phase one was a massive data-gathering exercise, uncovering information that is significantly helping us identify gaps, analyse business models, and build a suite of performance measurement tools for us to better identify talent and support progression:

Last year I supported the show jumping team at the North American Youth Championships, where Canadian athletes achieved multiple podium finishes and provided me with a first-hand opportunity to see the amazing talent emerging within our system, and to talk to parents and coaches about how they are navigating our system and how we can support them better.

We need to have an effective structure in place to support their progression further, to grow as a sport, and so this is where the focus of my role is right now.

2Previously in your career, you spent eight years working within the British sport system. How was your transition moving into the Canadian sports system? Were there any differences you encountered between the two?

Before I moved to Canada, I was the Games Operations Manager for the British Paralympic Association and when I moved here in 2013, I was contracted by the Canadian Paralympic Committee to support the teams with their final stages of planning and delivery for the Sochi 2014 Paralympic Games.

Although I already knew a lot about the Canadian team, this was a great opportunity for me to learn about the key high-performance partners and stakeholders here.

But while the Major Games operational blueprint is pretty similar between Great Britain and Canada (when it comes to delivering teams at Games), the system is quite different.

I think, like most Europeans who come to work here, I underestimated the size of the country and how different the National and Provincial systems are, which makes it quite difficult to navigate and challenging when trying to find alignment.

I had not worked at the national sport organization level before I joined EC and it is an ongoing process of learning the nuances of the Canadian equestrian industry and sport system, I’m enjoying the journey!

3Equestrian is sometimes considered a niche sport. How much do you focus on growing the sport on a wider scale as Manager of High Performance?

There are two “traditional” methods of growing sport.

1. You can have success at the highest level (Olympics, Paralympics, World Championships) and hope that motivates people to become involved in the sport, although this is less sustainable.
2. You can also look to grow participation numbers and the strength at the “base of the pyramid” and build a strong system to support those athletes, coaches, practitioners, etc. as they progress.

These have been two key areas of focus.

The added challenge in Equestrian is that you need the right horse, at the right stage of development to have that success.

No athlete will have success at the highest levels without a great horse and partnership. 

4What is Equestrian Canada doing to bring awareness to and grow equestrian?

The organization works very closely with our Provincial and Territorial Sport Organizations to develop programs at the community level to attract non-equestrians to the sport. A good example of this is the Rookie Riders program, which has been designed to promote physical literacy and fundamental movement skills in children aged 6-12 years of age.

Specially designed barrels are used instead of horses and the program teaches how to safely mount and dismount a horse, plus other key skills before being introduced to a horse for the first time. Ontario Equestrian has been implementing this program very successfully, connecting with schools to introduce it as part of their physical education activities. This link provides more information.