Tana McKay

The only head coach in program history, Tana McKay is in her 20th season at the helm of the 12-time and defending Reining national champion Texas A&M equestrian team. During her time in Aggieland, she has taken the team from club sport status — overseen by the animal science department — to arguably the most decorated athletic-department-sponsored equestrian program in the country. The Aggies have won nine western riding team national championships in addition to capturing the overall NCEA National Championship title in 2012 and 2017 and the first-ever overall Varsity Equestrian National Championship in 2002. Under the current format which began in the 2017-18 season, the Aggies won the first ever NCEA Reining National Championship. McKay guided A&M to four consecutive western national titles from 2009-12, and her squads won four of the five western crowns awarded in the history of the Varsity Equestrian National Championships. Under her watch, Aggie riders also took home four individual national titles in the three seasons they were contested (2008-10).

Her leadership is not limited to the western discipline, as the well-rounded and highly-successful Texas A&M program earned reserve overall national champion honors at four of the five VENC competitions and the team grabbed the overall title in its first year in the NCEA. McKay arrived in College Station in the fall of 1998 to begin work on a master’s degree in agriculture with an emphasis in equine behavior. She guided the Aggies as a graduate assistant during that season. A year later, the Texas A&M athletic department picked up the team as a fully-funded varsity athletic sport and McKay was named co-head coach. A vocal advocate for the advancement of collegiate equestrian, McKay has been very active in its development as a varsity sport. She was the chair of the competition committee from 2005-2007 and has had an active role in organizing the rules and format for NCAA competition. In 2010, McKay served as the chairwoman of the Varsity Equestrian Executive Committee. She married Grant McKay of Wolfe City on June 7, 2008. The two are proud parents of twin boys, Tanner and Tayden.