“It doesn’t sound good when you say a decade. It makes me realise how old I’m getting.” But whatever way Daniel Coyle looks at it, he’s spent the last 10 years in Canada, working hard to make a life for himself in showjumping.
From Ardmore in Derry, the decision to venture away as a 21-year-old wasn’t easily made, but a move was necessary if he wanted to give his dream a go.
“I couldn’t do it here, I just couldn’t,” he says of trying to be a professional showjumper in Ireland. “If you have another job, sure it’s possible, but it wasn’t possible for me. So I had to leave if I wanted to survive.
“I think when I was younger, you maybe didn’t need to have as much money as you do now, but it wasn’t possible even for me then to do it without financial backing.”
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“I had a taste for what I wanted, and I guess that’s what drove me,” he says. “It was either North America or Europe. I just was going somewhere to see was it actually possible to do this, to make enough money to live and do what I love doing.”
And so, in 2016 he left Ireland to test those possibilities, finding an ally in fellow Ulsterman Conor Swail, who at that point had spent five years riding for Lothlorien Farm in Ontario.
Twenty-three years Coyle’s senior, Swail has long been one of the country’s top riders, currently the fourth-highest ranked Irish jumper in the world at 38th, Coyle second in the Irish pecking order in 18th.
“It was a big help having Conor there,” Coyle says of his arrival at Lothlorien. “He knew what was what.
“I always looked up to Conor when I was younger and when I watched him ride, I tried to learn as much as I could. Then to get a job with him was something I never even dreamed of.”
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Swail left Lothlorien later that year, but their bond remained intact and the pair subsequently got to join forces on Nations Cup-winning Irish sides.
“Still to this day, me and Conor are friends and help each other along the way,” Coyle says. “That’s also something really nice that came from it.”
Twelve months on from Swail’s departure, Lothlorien’s owner Sue Grange died in October 2017. With her daughter Ariel taking over operations, Coyle thought he’d soon be out of a job. “But Ariel says, ‘no, I’m going to continue’, which was a shock to me and everybody,” he says.
Grabbing the task with both hands, the first horse she bought was the aptly named Legacy, a purchase that would pay dividends.
Coyle achieved remarkable success with Legacy, turning out at European and World Championships and five-star Nations Cup and World Cup events. In 2024, he made his Olympic debut in Paris on board the mare, competing in the individual and team events.
With Legacy now retired, Coyle will partner Farrell at next week’s Dublin Horse Show, taking place at the refurbished Laya Arena at the RDS from August 5th to 9th. Aiming to end a four-year wait for Aga Khan success in what will be the competition’s 100th year, Coyle reunites with Olympic team-mates Cian O’Connor and Shane Sweetnam. His brother Jordan and Trevor Breen complete the Irish team.
A home crowd in an arena he knows well, Coyle says it all adds to the occasion.
“People that I haven’t seen since I jumped 12.2 ponies here come to Dublin, and they’re shouting your name the same way they did when you were 12 years old. It really makes you feel young again, takes you back in time.
“These are all the things that you don’t get at other horse shows, so I try and enjoy that the most, because I only get it once a year.”
With the benefit of hindsight, Coyle can see that such opportunities to compete at the highest level and represent his country may have passed him by if he had stayed put a decade ago.
“I’m sort of happy that it didn’t work [in Ireland] and it drove me away, because that’s why I’m in the position I’m in today. It’s part of me, and that’s just how it is. It made me leave and made me become the person I am.”
