Since their partnership began in 2015, Adrienne Lyle and the Hanoverian stallion Salvino have become one of the most dominant American pairs in the sport of dressage. They were part of the silver-medal winning U.S. teams at both the 2018 World Equestrian Games in Tryon, North Carolina, as well as at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics. Most recently, Salvino and Lyle were the top ranked U.S. pair at the 2022 FEI Dressage World Championships in Herning, Denmark, and at press time, they remain the only Americans in the entire top 20 of the FEI World Dressage Rankings.
At home, Salvino goes by many names - Vincenzo, and Vincent are a few favorites - and he loves mid-morning naps and sweet treats. He can be guarded at first with new people, but is closely bonded to "his" family, including his owner, Betsy Juliano. When Salvino was voted the 2022 US Equestrian Federation International Horse of the Year by his legions of fans, Juliano had this to say:
"None of you would know about Salvino without his best friend, trusted confidant, and rider, Adrienne Lyle, the USEF International Equestrian of the Year. She has made this horse who he is. In my opinion, a horse can have talent to the moon, but without a rider who he or she can learn from they will never reach their full potential."
(excerpted from an interview on Dressage-News.com).
Juliano goes on to credit Lyle's longtime mentor and trainer, U.S. Olympian Debbie McDonald, and Lyle's head groom, Morgan Klingensmith, for also helping Vinny along the way.
Without a doubt, 2022 saw Salvino and Lyle achieving new heights of excellence in their performances together. After an undefeated season stateside in 2021, the Wellington, Florida based partnership started the new year off with a pair of wins at the Adequan Global Dressage Festival CDI5* in February. They followed this success with a record-breaking freestyle performance at the end of March; their score of 85.58% is the highest mark ever earned at the venue. Salvino's freestyle performance, which highlights his piaffe/passage, as well as his effortless transitions between powerful extended and collected gaits, is set to a specially-recorded soundtrack of Bruce Springsteen's music-- and yes, "The Boss" himself gave special permission for his tunes to be used!
"It was hands down the best feeling I've ever had in my life," Lyle said of her record-breaking ride in an
interview with The Plaid Horse. "Salvino just feels unbelievable. This is such a fun place to show. The crowd's amazing and enthusiastic. The competition was super tonight; it was a magical evening."
At the 2022 FEI Dressage World Championship in August, Salvino was the only American horse to compete in the Grand Prix, Grand Prix Special, and Freestyle championship classes. In the Freestyle, Salvino posted the second-highest score of his career with an 83.704%, placing 6th in the extremely competitive Blue Hors FEI World Dressage Grand Prix Freestyle Championship.
Over the past seven years, Lyle and Salvino have formed an incredibly close partnership, and she continues to cherish every day she gets to spend with her friend Vinny.
