Louise Lyons represented Ireland in the individual and team eventing at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games – with the competition held at the Hong Kong Sports Institute – finishing 8th as part of the Irish team alongside Patricia Ryan, Niall Griffin, Geoff Curran and Austin O’Connor.

She rode Watership Down, a thoroughbred by Andretti whose stamina and scope she credited with carrying her around the sport’s most demanding five-star courses.

From Cloughjordan, Co. Tipperary, Lyons qualifies for Ireland through her father, who is from Co. Tyrone – she was introduced to riding on small ponies by her mother and progressed through pony club, Tetrathlon and junior international competition before establishing herself as one of Ireland’s leading event riders. A regular competitor at Badminton and Burghley – the sport’s two most prestigious five-star events – she also represented Ireland at the 2007 European Eventing Championships. She was subsequently awarded an FEI Bronze Medal of Honour in recognition of her contribution to the sport. She later moved to Kilmanagh, Co. Kilkenny, where she took up showing horses with considerable success at the Royal International Horse Show, the Dublin Horse Show and Balmoral, winning champion working hunter titles and reserve supreme honours.

She became widely known in racing circles for her patient retraining of champion Gold Cup winner Don Cossack, and subsequently took out a racehorse training licence.