A total of 26 competitors were welcomed onto Wesley Clover Parks’s expansive grass grand prix field to contest the $32,000 Opener CSI5*, presented by FACES Magazine. Having successfully jumped the first phase of the course set by Brazilian course designer Marina Azevedo, Coyle turned on the speed to navigate the second phase of the course in a time of 29.52 seconds riding Farrel (Cardento x Stakkato).

It would prove to be good enough for the win, with Canada’s Erynn Ballard of Tottenham, ON, settling for second in 30.41 seconds riding Her Game Ball BG, a 13-year-old Dutch Warmblood mare (Carambole x Burggraaf NV) owned by Mary Frances Looke. McLain Ward of the United States, currently ranked number eight in the world, rounded out the top three with a time of 30.49 seconds riding Snapchat van de Broekkant Z, a nine-year-old Belgian Warmblood gelding (Hunter’s Scendix x Concorde) he owns in partnership with Beechwood Stables LLC and Susan Heller.

Coyle’s winning partner was Farrel, purchased at the VDL Auction in Wellington, FL, as a seven-year-old. The horse was originally purchased by the late Susan Grange, founder of Lothlorien farm in Cheltenham, ON, and now under the sole ownership of her daughter, Ariel.

“He’s had a very peculiar career,” said Coyle of the Dutch Warmblood gelding (VDL Cardento 933 x Argelith Stakkato). “He was my top horse as a nine-year-old and then COVID hit, and he had some time off. He grew a cyst in his stifle and they said he’d never jump again, but Ariel came in with some magic and said we’ll give him another chance. He owes none of us anything but if you see him going into the arena, he’s so fired up. He’s been my top horse before and now he’s 15 years old and he’s still one of our top horses. It’s a really special story.”

Currently ranked ninth in the world, Coyle was back on Canadian soil after competing with different horses at CSIO5* Dublin the previous weekend. As a high performance athlete, traveling to the top shows in the world is part of the game.

“It’s very difficult,” he said of the international travel. “I don’t think there’s one person who could say, ‘oh, it's no problem.’ It's very difficult to go from different time zones and to riding different horses in different parts of the world. But that’s how you stay at the top of the game. You have to do it if you want to stay at the top. Is it tiring? Is it frustrating? At times, of course it is. But like any other athlete, you have to get on with it.

“I like to come back here to Ottawa, especially because Ariel really likes it here,” concluded Coyle, who first began riding for Lothlorien farm and the Grange family in 2016. “We do so much traveling around that it’s nice to come closer to home.”