Sam Lyle is from NSW where he and wife Nicky run Fox Hill Farm. 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 and within few months Sam took part in his first event.

By the time Sam left school in 1992 he had two horses competing at one star level. In 1993 Sam moved to the farm permanently to ride and train as much as he could, and by the end of the year he was competing at two star level.

His breakthrough year came in 1995 when he won Gawler CCI3* and also had a 2nd and 3rd placing at the same level. Sam was the Young Rider champion in 1995 and was also long listed for the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games.

In 1997 Sam moved to Europe with two horses to further his training and experience. While overseas he represented Australia at the Open European Championships in France and competed at Badminton Horse Trials twice, before returning to Australia at the end of 1998.

In 2000 Sam was selected to be in the training squad for the Sydney Olympic Games and in 2001 he represented Australia in the Trans Tasman Competition.

Sam is also heavily involved with coaching and for many years he has been a National and New South Wales showjumping coach, including Assistant Coach on mulitple Trans Tasman teams, a World Championship team, the Australian Assistant Coach for the Eventing Team at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games (team Silver) and the Head Coach for the Australian Young Rider Team.

Sam is a level 3 Eventing specialist and was awarded 2017 Equestrian Australia Coach of the Year and Equestrian NSW High Performance Coach of the Year.

This year Sam was a member of the Australian Senior Team at the Oceania Championship

ACHIEVEMENTS