Abigail Lyle
Equestrian
BIOGRAPHY
Abi comes from a completely non-equine background but finally persuaded her parents to buy her a horse after completing her GCSEs. She started college in Queens (English and Film), but left after 18 months and worked as a groom in a racing yard, before moving to England in 2009, to work and train in an equitation school. Former Olympian Carl Hester has coached her to international level and she now trains 10 horses in a yard in Moreton-in-Marsh in the Cotswolds, and made her international debut in 2014. She got Giraldo, whom she calls ‘Arty’, when he was four, and they made their big breakthrough in 2022, competing in the World Championships in Denmark and later at the London Excel Grand Prix when she scored 72:25% in the Freestyle for a top 10 finish, something she matched in December 2023. This year she won the CD13* Freestyle at Addington and made the Freestyle finals at two CD14* events in Le Mans and Hagen.