Sam Lyle

Sam began riding in 1989 when his family bought a five acre holiday farm that came complete with a horse. By chance this happened to be opposite a professional eventing rider and coach so a few months later he took part in his first event. Over the next couple of years he started to do more and more events and by the time he left school in 1992 he had two horses he was competing at one star level on. In 1993 he moved to the farm to ride and train as much as he could and by the end of the year was competing at Two star level.

His breakthrough year came in 1995 when he won Gawler CCI 3 star and also had a 2nd and 3rd placing at the same level.
This meant that he was the World Young Rider champion for 1995 and was long listed for the Atlanta Olympics.
Unfortunately he did not get to ride there and at the start of 1997 he moved to Europe with two horses to further his training and experience. Whilst in England he represented Australia at the Open European Championships and got to experience riding many different horses. He returned to Australia at the end of 1998 and has being living there ever since.

In 2000 he was in the training squad for Sydney Olympics and in 2001 represented Australia in the Trans Tasman team.

For the last ten years he has continued to produce horses to Three Star level and has had many successes. Whilst he has been riding at this level he has also become more heavily involved in coaching. For the last five years he has been the New South Wales Institute of Sport showjumping coach for the Elite Eventing squad and for the last three years he has been the Assistant National Eventing Coach. This has included being the Assistant Coach on two Trans Tasman teams, a World Championship team and the head Coach for the Australian Young Rider Team.

In 2008 he was the Assistant Australian Coach for the Eventing team at the Beijing Olympics.

In 2008 he also completed a Masters of Education Studies (Sports Coaching) from Sydney University.

Sam believes in training the horse to be as successful as possible but this must be done in a way that is fair on the horse and keeps the horse`s welfare and confidence always as the priority. With the coaching of riders he believes it is important to develop a plan to get each rider to the level they hope to achieve whether that is international or simply to get a place at the local preliminary event. With the selling of horses the most important thing is to match the right horse to the right rider, not just simply to get the horse sold.

Sam is very grateful to his sponsors Zilco, NutriRice, How High, NSWIS and Equestrian Australia. Sam Lyle Riding Career Highlights

• Aus representative Trans Tasman 1996,2001
• Aus representative Open European Championships 1997
• 1st Gawler Three Star
• 1st Australian Championships
• 2nd Lochinvar Three Star
• 2nd Melbourne Three Star
• 3rd Melbourne Three Star
• 9th Saumur Three Star
• 3rd Adelaide Four Star
• 2nd Camperdown Three Star Sam Lyle Coaching Career Highlights
• NSW Elite Squad SJ coach
• Assistant Australian Coach Trans Tasman 2005, 2006
• Assistant Australian Coach World Equestrian Games 2006.
• Coach Australian Young Rider Trans Tasman Team 2006.
• Assistant Australian Coach Beijing Olympics 2008. Sam