Equestrian Magazine: U.S. Medalists Laura Kraut and Adrienne Lyle Look Ahead

By Lindsay Brock As the world prepares to showcase Olympic talent in the front of the Palace of Versailles this summer, we chose to look back at 2 U.S. Olympians. For dressage rider Adrienne Lyle and showjumper Laura Kraut, life since the 2020 Tokyo Olympics has been full. Both athletes brought home medals for Team USA and are now focused on success in the show ring, being an inspiration to the next generation and life after Olympic glory. View the full issue. For Lyle, Tokyo was her first experience with an Olympic medal draped around her neck as the U.S. Dressage Team claimed team silver. Adrienne made her Olympic debut at the 2012 games in London and returned to the pinnacle of the international stage aboard Salvino, her longtime partner and 2007 Hanoverian stallion owned by Betsy Juliano. “It’s a huge honor to represent our country and I couldn’t be prouder of the extraordinary effort we all put in to capture that medal,” Lyle said. A West Coast native, Lyle was born in Washington and got her start in the saddle as a U.S. Pony Club (USPC) kid, which helped her develop an unwavering dedication to her animals. “Since the time I could walk, I wanted to be on a horse’s back,” said Lyle, who first threw her leg over a western saddle and discovered dressage through its western counterpart, reining. “The horse that made me fall in love with dressage was a Thoroughbred mare named ‘Complete Girl,’ she recalls. “She taught me so much. We were able to get her up to the FEI junior level, and that experience showed me exactly where I wanted to go in this sport.” Today, Lyle still calls on her experience in the USPC system and the insights she received from her own mentors, including her coach, U.S. Olympian Debbie McDonald. “I want to help create horsemen,” she said. “They are in it from the ground up and always put the horse first.” U.S. Dressage Olympic Team Tokyo 2020 | Adrienne Lyle, Steffen Peters and Sabine Schut-Kery, photographed by Shannon Brinkman. Lyle currently coaches up-and-coming FEI dressage athlete Christian Simonson. Out of the tack, she is logging milestones in her personal life as well. In September, she and her husband David welcomed their first child; a baby girl named Bailey. One can only hope that she follows in her mother’s tracks and will dance down the centerline in a future Olympic games. For Laura Kraut, hailing originally from Camden, South Carolina, Tokyo was a hat trick. She made her Olympic debut in 2000 in Sydney and claimed team gold at Beijing 2008 before joining her third team in Tokyo and scoring team silver. Adrienne Lyle and Salvino, owned by Betsy Juliano, photographed by Shannon Brinkman. Less than 6 months before the opening ceremonies in Tokyo, Kraut was without a horse to take her there. It was at the Winter Equestrian Festival in early 2021 that she first jumped a fence with Baloutinue, a 2010 Hanoverian, then owned by Katie Monahan and Henri Prudent’s Plain Bay Farm and purchased by St. Bride’s Farm with Olympic goals in mind. Baloutinue joining Kraut’s string was a full-circle moment for her as she grew up idolizing Katie Monahan-Prudent alongside the likes of Leslie Howard, Beezie Madden and Anne Kursinski. “He’s probably the horse of a lifetime,” Kraut said of Baloutinue. “That’s a big statement because I’ve had some incredible horses. U.S. Jumping Olympic Team Tokyo 2020 | McLain Ward, Laura Kraut and Jessica Springsteen, photographed by Shannon Brinkman. “A rider must be passionate about that process of finding and training horses,” she continued. “The big wins [and medals] don’t come around that often, so your motivation must come from building a relationship with your horses.” Kraut was a lifelong horsewoman after inheriting a love of the sport from her mother and sister. She attended her first Olympic trials in 1992, where she was named an alternate to the U.S. team in Barcelona. In 2021, she watched as one of her own protégées, Jessica Springsteen, jumped alongside her at an Olympic games. She recalled her start in the sport, when female role models abounded in the U.S. and took time to mentor her. Today, she’s paying it forward. “I hope I can inspire young girls to keep going in this sport the way my heroes inspired me,” she said. As for other goals, Kraut takes it one day at a time. She said, “My dream at this point is to stay competitive as long as I can.”