‘An Incredible Woman And Leader’
March 21, 2025 | Equestrian, The Frierson Files
By John Frierson
Staff Writer
It's one thing to help shape the future of your sport, as some coaches get to do through their coaches associations and by serving on NCAA rules committees. It's quite another thing to be there from the very beginning and be tasked with creating a collegiate sport from scratch.
Georgia equestrian coach Meghan Boenig is not just the only head coach the program has ever had, she's one of the founders of her sport at the collegiate level and also was heavily involved in its restructuring in 2011. Hired by former Georgia Director of Athletics Vince Dooley in 2001, Boenig helped develop and establish the formats and rules of collegiate equestrian after it was identified as an emerging sport by the NCAA in 1998 — and she's been a leading voice in the sport ever since.
While equestrian has to follow the policies and procedures of the NCAA, its governing body is the National Collegiate Equestrian Association (NCEA). That's why, under Boenig's leadership, Georgia has won seven NCEA national championships, including in the Bulldogs' first two years of competition, in 2003-04.
"She was there when it all began," said former star rider Carly Anthony, who was an All-American for both Fences and Flat throughout her career (2009-13) and was the first-ever NCEA rider with more than 100 career wins. "Coach M knew everything."
Next month, at the NCEA National Championships in Ocala, Fla., Anthony and Boenig will be part of the second class ever inducted into the NCEA Hall of Fame. Anthony will go in as an athlete and Boenig as a coach.
"It's a tremendous, tremendous honor. I don't know what I did to deserve it, but I will take it," Anthony said.
That modesty aside, Anthony knows exactly what Boenig did to deserve her inclusion.
"What's so crazy to me is, a lot of people don't know how involved she really was (at the start of collegiate equestrian), and it blows my mind. That's why I'm so grateful that you're doing this, because everybody needs to know that she's earned that," Anthony said with conviction. "And I'm like, It's about damn time she's put in the Hall of Fame — because without her, there would be no Hall of Fame.
"She's an incredible woman and leader. And I look up to her so, so much."
Boenig has long loved horses, but coaching was not in her plans. She was born in New Jersey, and lived for a while in New York before her family moved to Virginia, which is where she and horses became lifelong partners. In high school, the family moved south to Powder Springs, Ga., near Atlanta.
Taking advantage of the Hope Scholarship, Boenig attended Berry College in Rome and was a member of its equestrian club team, even twice serving as its president. She had grown and matured and become a more confident version of herself in college, but coaching still wasn't in her plans. After graduating from Berry in 1999, she set off for graduate school at Texas A&M.
"At A&M, I thought I was going to be a professor and a PhD," Boenig said.
She was teaching classes, taking classes for her pursuit of a master's in Equine Exercise Physiology, and doing everything that a young professor-to-be did. And then she was asked (maybe closer to told) to be a coach, along with Tara McKay, for the new equestrian team that the Aggies were creating.
At that time, the Intercollegiate Horse Show Association was equestrian's collegiate governing body; Boenig competed in IHSA events while at Berry, so she knew the ins and outs, the good and bad of that version of the sport.
"At Berry, one of the cool things they did, and many IHSA programs do, is you will have it very much supported by the teams. You have officers and people who are helping run competitions or helping with travel plans or organizing hotels and things of that nature, because they weren't staffed enough to do otherwise," Boenig said. "And that, I think, really helped instill that 'get your hands dirty' approach from the very, very beginning of the sport."
Boenig was just 24 years old when Dooley and the Georgia braintrust decided that she was the person to build the Bulldog program from the ground up. She had to get her hands very dirty building every aspect of the program, and while helping create collegiate equestrian's formats and rules. Working with the coaches at other new programs like Auburn (Greg Williams) and South Carolina (Boo Major), an outline for a new collegiate sport was created.
"Because of those efforts and everyone's willingness to jump out and do it, with all of us sitting down and making our own rule book, we came up with a new format. And then a year later, we proposed it to our counterparts," Boenig said.
From afar, it might seem like it was really exciting to be crafting something new with her colleagues. Not so much, Boenig said. There was too much work to be done for that kind of perspective.
"In the moment, we're just freaking getting it done," she said. "I remember Boo and I sitting in a trailer and writing a rule book in a day, and then sending it to others for their input."
The bottom line when it came to creating their vision for collegiate equestrian, she said, and this captures much of what has made Boenig and her program so successful over the years, was a basic, straightforward approach to the work you have in front of you.
"Just go and do the work. Somebody's got to do it. If you have an inkling of what you want to get done, then you've got to be willing to go out there and do it," she said.
After Georgia's immediate success in 2003 and '04, the program's standard of excellence was set. While Boenig will tell you, and mean it, that winning isn't everything or the only thing, that the growth and development of her student-athletes as students and athletes and in all phases of life, is what drives her, she also loves to see her Bulldogs excel and achieve great things.
And Georgia has achieved plenty over the years. After those first two NCEA team titles in the program's first two seasons of competition, five more have followed: a three-peat from 2008-10, another title in 2014, and the most recent national championship came in 2021. Add to that nine conference championships, seven NCEA Reserve championships, as well as a very long list of individual awards and achievements.
Unlike in her early years at Georgia when she and her staff were making the most of what they had when it came to facilities, Boeing and the Bulldogs now have a big, beautiful and functional facility, the UGA Equestrian Complex, about 20 minutes from campus in Bishop.
There is still plenty of work to be done each day, of course, and Boenig, who never planned on coaching, enjoys her job as much as ever.
"In the ring is just the best and funnest place to be, interacting with our student-athletes, and seeing their progress and growth continues to be what makes it all worthwhile," she said.
Next weekend, Georgia will compete for its 10th all-time conference title at the SEC Championships, held in Mill Spring, N.C. After that, the Bulldogs will pursue the program's eighth NCEA national championship. And while they're there, their legendary coach will receive an honor she very richly deserves.
Staff Writer
It's one thing to help shape the future of your sport, as some coaches get to do through their coaches associations and by serving on NCAA rules committees. It's quite another thing to be there from the very beginning and be tasked with creating a collegiate sport from scratch.
Georgia equestrian coach Meghan Boenig is not just the only head coach the program has ever had, she's one of the founders of her sport at the collegiate level and also was heavily involved in its restructuring in 2011. Hired by former Georgia Director of Athletics Vince Dooley in 2001, Boenig helped develop and establish the formats and rules of collegiate equestrian after it was identified as an emerging sport by the NCAA in 1998 — and she's been a leading voice in the sport ever since.
While equestrian has to follow the policies and procedures of the NCAA, its governing body is the National Collegiate Equestrian Association (NCEA). That's why, under Boenig's leadership, Georgia has won seven NCEA national championships, including in the Bulldogs' first two years of competition, in 2003-04.
"She was there when it all began," said former star rider Carly Anthony, who was an All-American for both Fences and Flat throughout her career (2009-13) and was the first-ever NCEA rider with more than 100 career wins. "Coach M knew everything."
Next month, at the NCEA National Championships in Ocala, Fla., Anthony and Boenig will be part of the second class ever inducted into the NCEA Hall of Fame. Anthony will go in as an athlete and Boenig as a coach.
"It's a tremendous, tremendous honor. I don't know what I did to deserve it, but I will take it," Anthony said.
That modesty aside, Anthony knows exactly what Boenig did to deserve her inclusion.
"What's so crazy to me is, a lot of people don't know how involved she really was (at the start of collegiate equestrian), and it blows my mind. That's why I'm so grateful that you're doing this, because everybody needs to know that she's earned that," Anthony said with conviction. "And I'm like, It's about damn time she's put in the Hall of Fame — because without her, there would be no Hall of Fame.
"She's an incredible woman and leader. And I look up to her so, so much."
Boenig has long loved horses, but coaching was not in her plans. She was born in New Jersey, and lived for a while in New York before her family moved to Virginia, which is where she and horses became lifelong partners. In high school, the family moved south to Powder Springs, Ga., near Atlanta.
Taking advantage of the Hope Scholarship, Boenig attended Berry College in Rome and was a member of its equestrian club team, even twice serving as its president. She had grown and matured and become a more confident version of herself in college, but coaching still wasn't in her plans. After graduating from Berry in 1999, she set off for graduate school at Texas A&M.
"At A&M, I thought I was going to be a professor and a PhD," Boenig said.
She was teaching classes, taking classes for her pursuit of a master's in Equine Exercise Physiology, and doing everything that a young professor-to-be did. And then she was asked (maybe closer to told) to be a coach, along with Tara McKay, for the new equestrian team that the Aggies were creating.
At that time, the Intercollegiate Horse Show Association was equestrian's collegiate governing body; Boenig competed in IHSA events while at Berry, so she knew the ins and outs, the good and bad of that version of the sport.
"At Berry, one of the cool things they did, and many IHSA programs do, is you will have it very much supported by the teams. You have officers and people who are helping run competitions or helping with travel plans or organizing hotels and things of that nature, because they weren't staffed enough to do otherwise," Boenig said. "And that, I think, really helped instill that 'get your hands dirty' approach from the very, very beginning of the sport."
Boenig was just 24 years old when Dooley and the Georgia braintrust decided that she was the person to build the Bulldog program from the ground up. She had to get her hands very dirty building every aspect of the program, and while helping create collegiate equestrian's formats and rules. Working with the coaches at other new programs like Auburn (Greg Williams) and South Carolina (Boo Major), an outline for a new collegiate sport was created.
"Because of those efforts and everyone's willingness to jump out and do it, with all of us sitting down and making our own rule book, we came up with a new format. And then a year later, we proposed it to our counterparts," Boenig said.
From afar, it might seem like it was really exciting to be crafting something new with her colleagues. Not so much, Boenig said. There was too much work to be done for that kind of perspective.
"In the moment, we're just freaking getting it done," she said. "I remember Boo and I sitting in a trailer and writing a rule book in a day, and then sending it to others for their input."
The bottom line when it came to creating their vision for collegiate equestrian, she said, and this captures much of what has made Boenig and her program so successful over the years, was a basic, straightforward approach to the work you have in front of you.
"Just go and do the work. Somebody's got to do it. If you have an inkling of what you want to get done, then you've got to be willing to go out there and do it," she said.
After Georgia's immediate success in 2003 and '04, the program's standard of excellence was set. While Boenig will tell you, and mean it, that winning isn't everything or the only thing, that the growth and development of her student-athletes as students and athletes and in all phases of life, is what drives her, she also loves to see her Bulldogs excel and achieve great things.
And Georgia has achieved plenty over the years. After those first two NCEA team titles in the program's first two seasons of competition, five more have followed: a three-peat from 2008-10, another title in 2014, and the most recent national championship came in 2021. Add to that nine conference championships, seven NCEA Reserve championships, as well as a very long list of individual awards and achievements.
Unlike in her early years at Georgia when she and her staff were making the most of what they had when it came to facilities, Boeing and the Bulldogs now have a big, beautiful and functional facility, the UGA Equestrian Complex, about 20 minutes from campus in Bishop.
There is still plenty of work to be done each day, of course, and Boenig, who never planned on coaching, enjoys her job as much as ever.
"In the ring is just the best and funnest place to be, interacting with our student-athletes, and seeing their progress and growth continues to be what makes it all worthwhile," she said.
Next weekend, Georgia will compete for its 10th all-time conference title at the SEC Championships, held in Mill Spring, N.C. After that, the Bulldogs will pursue the program's eighth NCEA national championship. And while they're there, their legendary coach will receive an honor she very richly deserves.
Assistant Sports Communications Director John Frierson is the staff writer for the UGA Athletic Association and curator of the ITA Men's Tennis Hall of Fame. You can find his work at: Frierson Files.
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