Adrienne Lyle

Born and raised on Whidbey Island, Washington, on a small cattle farm. My love from horses goes back as far as I can remember. They were always a part of my life- they were always my only passion in life. From the time I was young, we always had several ponies and farm horses around, so I spent my days riding around the trails and on the beaches. I remember heading out early every morning, with a sack lunch packed and a group of friends, and riding our horses all day long and well into the night. Often times, even that wasn`t enough, and we would routinely sneak out of the house in the middle of the night and go for bareback moonlight rides up into the big hay field or down to the beach.

I originally started out riding western. I enjoyed trail riding and western gaming. Then I switched to English when I joined our local chapter of the United States Pony Club at age 7. I remember showing up for my first dressage lesson with a western saddle on my fat little pony. J I competed in Eventing for several years, as well as Pony Club Mounted Games, but I soon became fascinated with dressage. I would often get “problem horses” given to me to train and I found that, no matter what discipline the horses competed in, they all improved dramatically through dressage work. I began competing at lower level dressage shows around age 13.

My first real “dressage horse`s was a thoroughbred mare who was slightly psychotic and very high strung. I bought her sight-unseen from a lady in California, and it was only after I had owned her for a while that I discovered she used to be owned by a rodeo outfit called “Wild Rides Inc.” who used her as a rodeo bucking horse. But, despite her history, she taught me a lot about riding with tactful feel, and taking everything in stride- whether it was wining, losing, or bolting out of the dressage ring mid-test. When I was 16, I got the chance to compete that mare in the North American Junior Dressage Championships at Paxton Farms, as a member of the United States Pony Club dressage team. I then was able to sell my Thorougbred mare, and I bought a Swedish Warmblood gelding named “Miguel”. With Miguel, we were members of the silver medal team at the 2002 “Cosequin” Junior Dressage Championships, and a member of the bronze medal Region 6 team at the 2004 North American Young Rider’s Championships.

Growing up, my only instruction was occasional group lessons through our Pony Club chapter. Then I took lessons from Trenna Atkins and Carol McArdle, in Washington. I came to Debbie McDonald in the summer of 2005. At the time I was attending Washington State University, studying Animal Science and Business. After being a working student for the summer, I was offered a full time job at Parry and Peggy Thomas’s River Grove Farm. That fall I traveled with them to the Elite Hanoverian Auction in Germany, to purchase a horse for me to train and show. I have gone back with them every fall since then, and we have found many nice young horses there

I truly believe I have the best job in the world, and I am eternally grateful for the support of Bob and Debbie McDonald, and Parry and Peggy Thomas. All I have ever wanted in life was to be able to make a living doing what I love- training horses. I feel very fortunate to have had the success I’ve had at a fairly young age. But, although the success is a fantastic result of the daily hard work, at the end of the day it is the training process that really fascinates me. I will always be happy as long as I continue to do what I love- work with these magnificent animals.