Jill Irving
Originally from Sudbury, Ontario, Jill Irving has been a horse enthusiast and a competitive equestrian since she was a young girl. Her experience as a child was primarily based in showing ponies and hunters, but in her late teens she began to focus on dressage. In these early years, Jill spent time training with fellow Canadian Christilot Boylen, and became an accomplished rider at the Prix St. George and Intermediare I. In 1987 Jill married her husband Robert, and relocated to Moncton, New Brunswick, where her focus changed from riding, to raising a family. Since then, her three daughters (Megan, Meredith and Olivia) have grown up to be leading riders on the hunter circuit in both Canada and the United States. Jill herself spent many years showing hunters with her girls, and has been named the Canadian Hunter Grand Champion three times at the Royal Winter Fair. Now, Jill is fully dedicated to dressage, and competes for Canada at both the Prix St. George/Intermediare 1 and the Grand Prix. Jill spends the winter months in Wellington, FL where she trains with four time Olympian Ashley Holzer, and divides her time during the summer months between their family farm in Moncton, NB, training with Ashley in New York, and competing in Europe. Her recent accomplishments include helping Canada to win a gold medal at the CDIO3* Wellington Nations Cup in March 2017, and competing for Canada at the CHIO Aachen 2017 – one of the most prestigious equestrian competitions in the world. Jill is currently ranked as one of Canada’s top seven Grand Prix riders, and is ranked 90th in the FEI World Rankings. Her current competition horses are Degas 12, a 15 yr old, Hannoverian, gelding by De Niro and Arthur, a 12 yr old, KWPN Gelding by Jazz.
Jill is the founder and inspiration behind the Canadian Youth Equestrian Mentorship Program. She is passionate about equestrian sport, and is dedicated to helping young Canadian riders gain exposure and experience to some of the best competitions in the world through the engagement and support of fellow Canadian riders and international competitors.
Brittany Fraser-Beaulieu
Brittany Fraser-Beaulieu is one of Canada’s top Grand Prix riders. She has had many successes on her current horse All In. The pair recently competed in Europe finishing in the top 10 in Aachen, Germany. Brittany has represented Canada multiple times throughout her career so far including winning a team silver medal at the Pan American Games in Toronto. For the past four years Brittany has been training full time with four-time Olympian Ashely Holzer based out of New York City. Brittany has hopes to compete at the World Equestrian Games next September.
Chris Von Martels
Chris is a 35 yr old, Canadian equestrian, originally from Ridgetown, Ontario, Canada From 1998 – 2003 Chris competed internationally at the Junior and Young Rider levels. Shortly there after he moved his way into the small tour level and ultimately made his grand prix debut in 2007.
Most recently, Chris was a member of silver medal winning Canadian Dressage Team at the 2015 Pan American Games in Toronto, and won the individual bronze medal at the same competition. He was the first Canadian in twelve years to win an individual medal in dressage at the Pan Am Games.
Chris was named the 2015 Equestrian of the Year by Equine Canada, and the 2015 Dressage Rider of the Year by Dressage Canada. In 2016, Chris was named second reserve for Canadian Dressage team for Olympic Games in Rio de Janiero with Divertimento. Chris owns and operates Von Martels Dressage Inc. a highly successful horse sales business, which buys and sales horses all over the world.
Jill Taylor
Jillian is a relatively new volunteer with the program, in the role of ‘behind-the-scenes’ communications. Jillian draws her equestrian experience from being a dressage show-mom for the last 15 years and helping to operate BM Dressage. Jillian has been the Chair of Dressage Winnipeg for the last 4.5 years, and on the board of Dressage Winnipeg for almost a decade. In 2024, Jillian was the Chef d‘Equipe for Team Canada Dressage at the North American Youth Championships (NAYC). Jillian is also a Licensed Insolvency Trustee and CEO of LCTaylor in Winnipeg.
Jillian is happy to support Jill’s program as it gives the youth in equestrian sport the opportunity to see dreams (and hard work) become reality!
Jackie Tattersall
Jackie started riding at an early age and was soon competing ponies on the A circuit in Ontario. Her first core division mount was Jump Canada Hall of Fame inductee Farnley Melanie, a small pony that her family purchased as a yearling and trained for the hunter show ring. During her Junior and Amateur career, Jackie earned several Ontario Zone Championships and Champion at the prestigious Royal Winter Fair (Toronto).
After completing a Bachelor of Commerce and Finance at the University of Toronto in 2000, Jackie launched her professional career under the guidance of Wayne McLellan. Over the course of her riding career, Jackie has been lucky enough to be mentored by many other top professionals including Jay Hayes, Sue Pritchard, Gary Zook, Ken Berkley and Kim Kirton.
Jackie currently owns and operates a Hunter Jumper training and lesson facility in Beeton, Ontario. Each year, her horses and students have consistently placed in the Provincial Zone Awards (OHJA) and qualify to compete at the Royal Winter Fair. She is very excited to be part of the Jill Irving Youth Equine Mentor program.
Joan Macartney
Joan Macartney is a dressage enthusiast, having trained, competed and judged dressage for a number of years. She is a Senior Dressage Judge both with Equestrian Canada and US Equestrian where she judges throughout Canada, the United States and Central America.
A highlight of Joan’s background is travelling and judging in a variety of countries around the world – South America, South Africa, Eastern Europe are few areas where she has judged and presented clinics.
Working with youth and assisting in their development is always a priority – this past summer she travelled to Australia to judge their National Youth Dressage Championships.
Joan has worked with the Canadian Youth Mentorship Program in the past and looks forward to meeting the 2018 group of young “up and comers” and providing insights into the “magical world of dressage judging”.
Tiffany Foster
Since the age of one, when her parents bought her a rocking horse for Christmas, Tiffany Foster’s life has included horses. She began taking lessons when she was eight years old at the North Shore Equestrian Centre in her hometown of North Vancouver, BC.
Tiffany eventually moved to Thunderbird Show Stables in Langley, BC, to train with Brent and Laura Balisky. She transitioned to working for them, riding, teaching and managing their Thunderbird Stables until she was 21. Under their guidance, Tiffany had the distinction of winning both the Running Fox CET Medal and the Jump Canada Medal at the 2001 Royal Winter Fair in Toronto.
In 2006, Tiffany began working for Eric Lamaze, who would go on to become Olympic Champion in 2008. A true turning point in her career came when she met Andy, Carlene and Caitlin Ziegler. Eric coached Caitlin and Tiffany coached Andy to great international success. The Ziegler's Artisan Farms began purchasing high quality sport horses for Tiffany to train, compete and keep for her career. Her first major victory came at the 2011 Spruce Meadows ‘North American’ tournament in Calgary, AB, when she won the $80,000 TD Cup riding Victor. The same year, she made her Canadian Show Jumping Team debut with Southwind VDL in the $350,000 BMO Nations’ Cup at the Spruce Meadows ‘Masters’ tournament, helping Canada earn a second place finish. Over ten years later, she has now made more than 40 Nations’ Cup appearances for her country and has piloted multiple mounts for Team Canada and numerous Grand Prix victories.
A true veteran of major games competition, Tiffany represented Canada at the 2012 London Olympic Games riding Victor and at the 2016 Rio Olympics riding Tripple X III where Canada placed fourth following a jump-off against Germany for the bronze medal. She was a member of the Canadian team at the 2014 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games in Normandy, France, riding Verdi III and, in her Pan American Games debut, helped Canada claim the team gold medal riding Tripple X III at the 2015 edition held in Toronto, ON. In 2022, she piloted Figor to a 12th place finish, the best individual finish for a Canadian at the World Championships since 2010. In 2023, she and Figor helped Team Canada win a silver medal and an Olympic berth at the Pan American Games in Santiago, Chile.
All of these horses were owned by the Ziegler family's Artisan Farms. Tiffany operates Little Creek Equestrian with bases in Wellington, FL, Langley, BC and Vrasene, BEL. In addition to coaching and training students, she continues to successfully campaign several grand prix mounts and exciting young prospects.
Lisa Schultz
Lisa Schultz is an “A” level Pony Club graduate. Currently a Competition Coach/trainer in BC Lower Mainland, working with the Langley School District Equestrian Academy and continues as a Coach to her students in the area at various levels, and types of riding. Lisa has always pursued Dressage with multiple horses but has successfully competed in other disciplines as well and has competed at the FEI/International level in Eventing.
Mike Lawrence
Mike Lawrence is a Nova Scotia native who lives in Milton, Ontario with his wife Emily and daughter Alice. Mike currently sits on the Jump Canada Committee and Jumping High Performance/Selection Committee.
A former competitor, Mike now manages the Ottawa International CSI 3* Showjumping Tournament and was a co-owner of the Pepiniere and Saint Lazare Horse Shows from 2004-2014.
Mike has a large equine dentistry practice based in Milton and Wellington, Florida and his clientele includes several top Canadian and International horses. He is a certified member of the International Association of Equine Dentistry, of which he is currently Vice President.
Palm Beach Equine
Ian Miller
Show jumping legend Ian Millar, fondly known as "Captain Canada," is the most decorated equestrian in Canadian history. Ian's illustrious career includes a record-breaking ten Olympic appearances, the most by any athlete in any sport, which he achieved with Team Canada at the London 2012 Olympics. He is also a twelve-time winner of the Canadian Show Jumping Championship.
Ian's success extends to the Pan American Games, where he earned an impressive nine medals, more than any other show jumper. He claimed Individual Gold medals at the Pan American Games twice, first in 1987 with Big Ben and again in 1999 with Ivar.
In February 2023, Equestrian Canada appointed Millar as the new Chef d'Équipe for the Canadian Show Jumping Team. In the press release, he stated, "It has been my great honour to ride for Canada for the better part of 50 years. This is my opportunity to give back, and it is with further honour that I do so."
Tiffany Dalton
Tiffany has been involved in the Equine Youth Mentorship Program since the beginning. She has assisted with the development of the program, communications, and acted as chaperone. Tiffany lives in Saint John, New Brunswick with her husband and daughter, where she actively competes in Dressage with her Hanoverian gelding Ducati at the Prix St. Georges and Intermediate level. Tiffany is a past board of director for the local dressage organization in New Brunswick that focuses on the development of dressage in the province through overseeing and coordinating dressage activities and competitions throughout NB. Tiffany holds a Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) Degree from the University of New Brunswick and a Certified Professional in Human Resources (CPHR) designation. Tiffany works full time in the field of Human Resources.