When Abi Lyle relocated to Gloucestershire from Bangor, Co Down in 2009, aged 24, she was aiming to achieve her BHS qualifications and, possibly, one day, don a tailcoat and ride a prix st georges (PSG).
She’s now set to ride down the centre line as Ireland’s sole dressage representative at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
“To say that [the] Olympics was beyond my wildest dreams is a teeny understatement,” Abi said. “It’s hard to put into words what this means.”
We catch up with Abi to find out more about her career so far…
1. She doesn’t come from a horsey background
“If anything horses were heavily discouraged!” laughed Abi on episode 131 of The Horse & Hound Podcast. “My parents didn’t want me to do it because it was too expensive”.
Abi added that she can’t pinpoint when her “obsession” with horses started. But she remembers insisting her mother pull her around on the Hoover as a two-year-old and that driving to see horses in a nearby field was always a treat.
Abi then spent her teenage years “lingering around” a riding school. She went on to work in retail, before seeing an advert for a groom’s job when she was 23.
2. It was another Irish rider that inspired her interest in dressage
“I’m quite a visual person and my interest in dressage started as a spectator – I was blown away by the aesthetic of it, how they moved their bodies,” Abi told H&H.
She added that she’ll never forget seeing Sorrell Klatzko – who went on to be one of her teammates at the 2022 World Championships – riding at the Irish nationals in 2009. “I saw her and thought, ‘I want to ride like that’.”
Through connections made in Ireland, Abi landed a working scholarship with Pammy Hutton at Talland in Gloucestershire.
“I planned to go for six months, but the day I arrived at Talland in 2009 I knew I’d never move back – I’d never seen anything like it,” Abi said. “And once I arrived I knew I’d never go back home. I arrived not knowing what tempi changes or what a piaffe was, but I was obsessively keen.”
3. Abi Lyle on Giraldo: “He’s the love of my life”
It was at Talland that Abi met the defining horse of her career so far – Giraldo.
“A client had bought him at auction and was interested in getting involved in the dressage world,” Abi explained. “She’d seen me ride a tricky young horse and liked how I handled it and asked if I would be interested in riding Giraldo – who’d just been backed.
“I was still very new to the gig so I bit her arm off. It’s cool because people think you must have been successful in getting good rides whereas she’d seen me getting squashed against a wall and took a chance on me.”
When Giraldo was six years old, his owner decided to sell him. “But I couldn’t give him up so with a little help from Barclay’s bank, I bought him,” Abi said.
“I didn’t even give it that much thought as to whether he was going to get to grand prix – to me he was perfect and even if he hadn’t made it I probably wouldn’t have cared.
“But now here we are, preparing to compete in Paris – even if sometimes I still feel like a wee happy hacker.”
4. Abi Lyle on her team debut: “It makes me emotional thinking about”
“It wasn’t something I ever thought possible,” said Abi, reflecting on the 2022 World Championships in Herning, Denmark. “I makes me emotional thinking about riding on that team.”
Abi and Giraldo finished on 65.71% in the grand prix. Giraldo had only been competing at grand prix for less than a year at that point.
“I’m really happy with him. I can’t ask for any more,” said Abi, holding back tears in her interview after the test.
“Yes, it would have been nice to come and get more like a score like we’ve been getting the rest of the season. But he’s never been anywhere like that, I’ve never been anywhere like this.
“And I love him more than anything in the world. I just adore him, he’s the love of my life. So to be able to do that….” she added, emotion overwhelming her voice. “He’s taken such good care of me.”
5. Abi Lyle on her coach, Carl Hester: “He’s the best thing that ever happened to me”
Abi has been training with Carl Hester for almost 13 years. She credits him as being a “massive influence” on her career.
“He’s the best thing that ever happened to me,” said Abi. “It’s hard to describe what it is that’s so great about him. He has that rare balance of being reassuring and encouraging, but also honest in a way that doesn’t leave you feeling terrible.”
In 2022, Abi relocated over 300 miles from her base in Morpeth, Northumberland, to Chippenham, Wiltshire, to be closer to Carl for training.
“I’m moving for a man, if you want to put it like that,” she joked at the time.
6. Abi Lyle: “If I’m going to ask them to give me those few extra steps of passage, I can do those extra squats”
Abi loves yoga, circuit training and especially running. It helps clear her mind and provides another outlet for her competitive streak she told H&H in 2022.
She added that she also feels a benefit in her concentration levels if she can squeeze in a run before riding at a competition.
But her commitment to fitness serves a wider purpose, too. “The fitter I can keep myself, the longer I can do dressage for, and because I came to it at quite a late age, I want to keep going as long as possible,” she said.
“I also think that applying yourself to your own fitness makes you a more empathetic rider.
“It’s easier for me to feel when the horses are tired to understand what I’m asking of them.
“If I’m going to ask them to give me those few extra steps of passage, I can do those extra squats, that’s the way I see it.”
7. On the importance of being authentic on social media
“I’m a bit of a compulsive over-sharer, but that’s just me – I struggle to be anything else,” Abi revealed.
“I honestly cringe at myself so much. I’ll post something then go home and think, ‘Why did I say that’. But people have already messaged me thanking me for sharing it.”
Abi explained that she feels it’s important to be authentic and to share the highs and the lows of competing.
“Where the positives of social media come in is from people sharing not only their good times, but also the bad.
“When a top rider tells me something has gone wrong, or they’ve had a hard ride, I think, ‘Oh thank god I’m not alone’.”
You might also be interested in:
‘It helps to know that others struggle, too’: Abi Lyle on the power of social media in dressage
The Horse & Hound Podcast 131: International dressage rider Abi Lyle | Teaching horses to stand still | News round-up
‘He’s the love of my life’: Ireland’s Abi Lyle sheds tears of pride for defining horse of her career on World Championship debut
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