Dressage-News

With her first Oympics behind her and assured of keeping the ride on Wizard, Adrienne Lyle is planning to compete on both coasts of the United States and Europe next year and stocking up on young horses to develop for the future.

The 27-year-old is partnering with her trainer and mentor, Debbie McDonald, in following the same course that produced the mare Brentina, the first American winner of the World Cup as well as Olympic, world championship and Pan American Games medalist, by developing their own prospects.

In addition to the soon to be 14-year-old Oldenburg gelding (Weltmeyer x Pica x Classiker) that she competed as an individual at the London Games, Adrienne is also showing Dax, a big (17.2-hand/175cm) black Hanoverian gelding at national levels that, like Wizard, is owned by Peggy and Parry Thomas. Dax, aged nine, lost two years of development due to hoof problems, but is being prepared for small tour in the spring.

After the Olympics that was the finale of a nine-month road trip that began in Florida for the 2012 winter circuit, New Jersey for the selection trials and then Britain, the pair headed back to Hailey, Idaho for a break and then back to work.

And the Thomas family agreed to let Adrienne continue competing Wizard after the Olympics that she described as an experience that “made me even more hungry to pursue the top level of international dressage competition. The quality of the horses there was unbelievable and the top performances really gave you something to aspire to!”

They moved to Epona Farm in Thousand Oaks, California, for the winter that, Adrienne told dressage-news.com, will include three weeks in Florida for two CDIs, including the World Dressage Masters at the end of January. The California spring circuit will follow and, “after that, we are working on a plan to take Wizard back to Europe to compete this summer.”

On their return from Florida three new young horses will be in the barn.

One is a four-year-old Dutch gelding owned by a client.

Another is a three-year-old Hanoverian gelding that Adrienne and Debbie, and her husband, Bob, partnered in buying from Klaus Balkenhol, the German Olympic gold medalist and former U.S. team coach.

The third horse is a four-year-old Don Schufro/Rohdiamant gelding in a partnership with Performance Sales International of Germany.

“We don’t have the funds to go out and buy the expensive top young horses in the world right now,” she said, “so Debbie and I are trying to find them young and early and bring some up ourselves!

“We are trying to think of the future, and both Debbie and myself have always brought along our horses from youngsters.”

It has been a few years since “our barn has been this full and I love it,” she said.