PrintShe’s moved up from talented young rider and assistant trainer to chief competitor for one of the most famous dressage stables in North America.
For the past four years Adrienne Lyle’s made her name in the show ring alongside Debbie McDonald. Working as the assistant trainer at River Grove Farm, Lyle learned the ropes from one of the legends of U.S. dressage.
Now Lyle has a whole new set of responsibilities. With the retirement of McDonald’s famous mount Brentina, McDonald herself has decided to step out of the limelight and let her 24-year-old assistant take over competing Peggy and Parry Thomas’ horses.
Undaunted by her new role, Lyle proved she’s got what it takes with a strong showing in the Del Mar CDI at the Del Mar National Horse Show, April 23-26 in Del Mar, Calif.
Lyle won the Grand Prix Special aboard Felix (68.25%), a horse McDonald campaigned through last year. She also placed second in the Grand Prix with Wizard (67.06%), the horse she won the Brentina Cup on in 2008.
“It’s an incredible honor that Debbie has that much trust in me to let me take the reins. She’s still there every day helping me,” said Lyle. “She’ll still ride them if I need her to. She decided to focus on coaching, which she’s amazing at.
There’s pressure in a good way because I want to strive to fill Debbie’s shoes and take advantage of this opportunity. But the Thomases and Bob and Debbie never make me feel pressured.”
Lyle started her job with the Thomases in 2005 in Hailey, Idaho, after a working student stint for McDonald. In 2006, McDonald handed over the ride on Wizard, a 10-year-old Oldenburg gelding (Weltmeyer—Pica).
McDonald took Felix to the 2008 Olympic Selection Trials, so Lyle only started riding the 12-year-old Hanoverian (Fabriano—Alexa) in October.
“I hadn’t ridden him much,” said Lyle. “He’s different from Wizard, which is fun for me. He’s a totally different personality type. He’s a goofball. You have to keep his brain working with you. He can get distracted, and he likes to play rather than work. He’s such a quirky, funny horse in the barn. He’s like a monkey. He’s got his nose and feet in everything.
“He’s a lighter, more sensitive horse, especially with having had Debbie school him,” she continued. “It’s been fun for me to learn how to ride him—where I can put pressure on him, where I have to back off.”
This is Lyle’s third CDI with Felix, but it’s the first time she’d ridden him in the Special. “He did really well and stayed right with me,” she said.
Lyle was also happy with Wizard’s Grand Prix test, and she said it was his best all year. However, the freestyle ride didn’t go as she’d hoped.
“In the freestyle he was really nervous. He’d never done a freestyle at night,” she explained. “He came back to me at the end and tried to work with me.”
Both horses did get some exposure to big atmosphere just a few weeks prior at the Rolex FEI World Cup Finals in Las Vegas, Nev., where McDonald and Lyle performed a pas de deux as an exhibition.
“We had to play around with the choreography, because they don’t particularly care for each other, so we knew it would be difficult to do things close to each other,” admitted Lyle. “They have sibling rivalry. They’re super-competitive with each other.”
The two will have the chance to go head-to-head at this year’s Collecting Gaits Farm/USEF National Grand Prix Championship in Gladstone, N.J. Lyle said both horses are qualified, and she hopes to ride them there.
