Antal Kánya was a professional soldier. In 1914 he was inaugurated as a lieutenant at the Imperial and Royal Maria Theresa Military Academy in Vienna. In World War I, he spent 43 months on the Russian, Italian, and Romanian fronts. He completed a riding course in the Army and then worked as a riding teacher. He competed in the 1928 Olympics in show jumping. In 1931 he was a member of the Hungarian team that won the Nations Prize in Salzburg. He became a commander of an equestrian camp riding school but spent the years 1945-1947 in Soviet captivity and, upon his return, Kánya was fired. He later earned his living as an employee of the Kőszeg State Forestry.