Irish Olympic dressage rider Abi Lyle is facing time out of the saddle after she fractured a vertebra in a fall. Abi, who has been branching out into eventing alongside dressage, had been preparing for an arena eventing competition this weekend with Jacqui Ross and Fenella Quinn’s small tour mare Francesca II (Franziskus x Sandro Hit) when she came off.
“I was having a session with Nigel [Taylor] at Aston le Walls to prepare for the event,” Abi said. “We’d jumped the whole showjumping course, and I was halfway through the cross-country. She’d been jumping amazingly, and there’s a little hill where you go from one arena to the next. She surged up the hill, full of excitement, but when we got to the top, she threw in a massive buck and twisted to the right – and I just kept going straight!
“It was one of those ones where as soon as I landed I thought ‘Oh, I don’t feel okay…’ So, I writhed around for a bit and I thought I was going to be sick
“Nigel told me there was no way I was getting back on and took Francesca back, untacked her and put her on the lorry. I thought about driving the lorry myself, but as soon as I got in the driver’s seat, I knew it wasn’t going to happen and he said ‘I’m really uncomfortable with this, I think you’d be better getting yourself to the hospital.’
“Luckily, it’s a stable fracture so I’m still up and walking around. I’m waiting to hear from the spinal clinic about what the next steps are but the doctor said I could be back in four to six weeks – so as far as these things go it’s not bad at all, but in the meantime, I’m on box rest.”
Abi added that she hopes to be back in time to compete Francesca at regionals but is being careful not to rush her comeback.
“My physical self means a lot to me so I’ll follow orders and not be irresponsible. It’s quite disconcerting though because I think a lot of people could do this and not even know what they’ve done. Sometimes I can feel okay but then I take like a frivolous step and I can really feel it.
“So it’s one of those things that if you wanted to push through you could but everyone I know who’s done that regrets it because it can lead to problems further down the line.”
While Abi recovers, her fiancé Mark McVicar and showjumper Georgina Round – who herself made an inspiring comeback from cancer in recent years – will keep the horses in work. And the experience hasn’t deterred Abi from pursuing her dual-discipline goals.
“My aim this year had been to do a BE80 and an inter II on Francesca,” Abi said. “It’s hard to know how you feel confidence-wise when you can’t get back on straight away after a fall but I’d love to still achieve that, and for now, the plan remains the same.
“I also find reassurance in knowing it wasn’t her being bad or refusing – it was just her being fresh and having fun. So as soon as I can, I’ll be back at it.”
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