Abi Lyle
“A DREAM come true” is how many riders describe their first senior team call-up, but for Abi Lyle, when it comes to being selected for the Irish team at this summer’s dressage World Championships in Herning, Denmark, that expression doesn’t quite cut it.
“It wasn’t even a dream; it wasn’t something I ever thought possible,” says the 37-year-old, her voice catching with emotion. “I could honestly cry just thinking about riding on that team.”
When Abi relocated to Gloucestershire from Bangor, Co Down, aged 24, she was aiming to achieve her British Horse Society qualifications and, just possibly, one day don a tailcoat and ride a prix st georges (PSG).
“That was my dream – everything else has been a bonus. The thing is, the closer I got, the more I started to want it so badly,” Abi says.
It’s not for lack of ambition that riding on a championship team for Ireland was so far from Abi’s sights – far from it. It’s that the world of top-level dressage was at such odds from her
