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‘Arty is my heart horse – I sat watching him for hours in Paris’: Abi Lyle shares her special Olympic memories

Since Paris 2024, we’ve been catching up with the Olympic riders whose stories most captured fans’ imaginations, to bring their full experience exclusively to H&H subscribers. First up, Ireland’s sole dressage representative Abi Lyle shares every detail of her Games debut

  • Abi Lyle solidified her position at the top of Irish dressage when she was named as the country’s sole Olympic rider at the Paris Games this summer, with 13-year-old gelding Giraldo (Arty), whom she has produced since a four-year-old.

    The Games weren’t Abi’s first taste of championship experience, having competed at the World Championships with Arty in 2022, and the 2023 European Championships with her own and Fenella Quinn’s Farrell, but now she can add Olympic rider to her credentials.

    “You think Worlds, Europeans, they’re both great – but you know the Olympics are different,” says Abi.

    Abi Lyle and Farrell at the 2023 European Dressage Championships in Riesenbeck.

    Abi Lyle riding Farrell at the 2023 European Dressage Championships in Riesenbeck. Credit: Benjamin Clark

    Ireland missed out on a team spot at Paris, but in late February it was confirmed they had secured one of 15 individual places. It was then all to play for with Abi, Anna Vervedlt, and Judy Reynolds in contention.

    “At London International in December there were two countries ahead of us in our group for the individual place so we didn’t think it was going to happen,” explains Abi.

    “When we found out that Ireland had a place, I said: ‘If you pick me you pick me, and if you don’t you don’t’. I felt if I started grabbing the bull by the horns thinking ‘I’ve got to get this’, it would just be a disaster.”

    That magical selection phone call

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