June 5, 2025 
When Ariel Grange got a call from her mother, Sue, telling her Daniel Coyle was joining their Lothlorien Farms team in 2016, she wasn’t happy.
“My mom called me and said, ‘We got a new guy.’ And I didn’t want a new guy,” said Grange.
At the time, the family outfit had seen tremendous success with Irish rider Conor Swail, who ultimately brought Coyle to the team. Grange said she doubted Coyle was up for the job.
“We had such a great string of horses, and we were so confident with that string. I was worried that something would come in and upset the apple cart. And at the time, we didn’t know anything about Dan,” she said. “I was determined to hate him for a while there.”
Ultimately, Grange said she had a change of heart when she watched their horse Tienna tear around the arena with an unsuspecting Coyle on board.
“He held on pretty good, and if she wanted you off, she could get you off. I thought, well, he must be pretty good if you stayed on baby T for that long,” said Grange. “So that was the day I thought, maybe he can do the job. It was T’s choice. She said, eh, he’s all right. And I thought, okay, fine.”
Within months of moving to North America—Lothlorien has stables in Wellington (FL) and Cheltenham (ON)—Coyle rose an astounding 745 spots up the world rankings. He and Lothlorien Farms gelding Tennyson made their Nations Cup debut at Langley’s Thunderbird Show Park and posted one of only three double clears on the day. Coyle went on to become the Granges’ head rider and saw incredible success on horses such as Simba De La Roque, Tienna, and Fortis Fortuna.
Then, in 2017, Susan Grange died, leaving Ariel to run the farm.
“It really was an upheaval. You know, we lost the one that ran the joint, and she was very important, obviously, to me. And I think she was to Dan at the time as well,” said Grange. “I think there was a huge amount of questions of whether we could do it as a team and do it successfully at the same level.”
The pressure to fill her mom’s shoes was immense, said Grange, and she never felt it more than 2018 when Coyle rode Cita in the CSIO4* Grand Prix at Deeridge Farm in Wellington, Florida.
“It would’ve been the first major Grand Prix the season after Mom had passed,” she said. “It was kind of the biggest stage we’d stepped on.”
Coyle and Cita had a breakout victory that day, proving to Grange she could carry her mother’s torch.
“The celebration of it was just different than every other one, I guess,” said Grange. “And it maybe solidified to ourselves that we can do this, and we are still capable of managing this. And then it just got better from there.”
By better, Grange was referring to a series of significant triumphs for Lothlorien Farms and Daniel Coyle after 2018. He went on to win 1.60m Grands Prix every year since, including World Cup Qualifiers on Farrel in 2019 (tbird) and 2020 (Ocala) and a 3* Grand Prix on Legacy in 2021 (Tryon). In 2022, Coyle had a breakout season, winning 6 Grand Prix titles, including two more World Cups (Fort Worth & Toronto) and a 5* in Rotterdam. His success continued into the two years that followed with 1.60m wins in London and Wellington (2023) and at Longines FEI World Cup™ events in Leipzig, Amsterdam, and Ocala (2024) that saw them climb into the world top 15.
“You’d win, and they’d say, wow, that was actually good,” Grange said, laughing. “You’d think, well, I think we were actually good before. I swear we were.”
But Grange said she still had much to prove after being her mom’s number two for so long.
“I was the shadow of somebody else. Which was fine,” she said. “And that’s why I know as much as I do. Nobody would’ve expected it to go as well as it did at first.”
Then came the 2024 Paris Olympics. Grange will tell you she’s incredibly competitive as an owner, but her final words to Coyle as he prepared to ride Legacy onto the world’s biggest stage were to embrace the moment.
“You only get to walk into the Olympics for the first time once,” she told him. “So appreciate that more than anything.”
“Ariel is very hands-on,” said Coyle. “For me, it’s actually a huge benefit because not only does she know me and the horses personally, but if it goes well, we get to enjoy it together. If it goes wrong, we also get to enjoy it together, which is a big thing.”
In the end, the Paris Olympics went very wrong. After a spectacular start—Coyle and Legacy were flawless in the first three rounds—Legacy lost a shoe and Coyle lost a stirrup two-thirds of the way into the gruelling final round of the individual show jumping competition. Four rails in quick succession prompted Coyle to retire.
“It was the most emotionally shattering one for sure,” said Grange. “We went out that night after the fourth round there and had a good time. We tried to appreciate how well we’d done, and the atmosphere that we were in, and the stage that we were on.”
“The whole conversation with Ariel is like, alright, we have Dublin next week. Get yourself up off the floor and go again,” said Coyle.
And up off the floor they came. In an incredible comeback, Legacy jumped double clear at the Longines League of Nations Final in Barcelona two months later and was named Horse of the Year for her performances throughout the series.
Coyle credited Legacy’s owner with much of his success.
“Honestly, that’s down to Ariel,” said Coyle. “Not only does she provide me with good horses, but every time I’m going in the arena, there’s pressure—friendly pressure and good pressure.”
“A few months ago, there was a very fast round in one of the Grand Prix,” he said, “and I was going in, and I said, ‘I’m just gonna leave it all out there and try and beat it.’ The last thing she says to me is, ‘You’re only a hero if it works.’ And I go riding into the ring. She’s always pushing me to be better.”
“I don’t believe in coddling,” Grange laughed. “I don’t think it’s constructive.”
Outside the ring, Grange and Coyle have seen each other through personal milestones and created an extended family all of their own.
“I think that’s kind of where our partnership got so strong,” said Grange, “As we’ve gone through the [birth of] four kids and [addition of] two spouses and countless horses and shows, and you kind of have to grow together with that.”
When referring to how their dynamic has changed amidst growing families, Grange laughed, “We have a little less money, and we drink more.”
“It’s not just you ride the horses, and you win classes, and we go to the pub after. It’s a bit of everything,” she said. “The families are ingrained and stuff. It is really a unique part of, I think, how we run things.”
“If I wasn’t riding for her, I would still want to go to the bar or go to a restaurant because we have good fun together,” said Coyle. “So that also probably helps whilst in the sport.”
Speaking of sport, the team has their eyes set towards the future, including another crack at an Olympic podium.
“I don’t think there’s one place that would scare us anymore. It would be more us trying to do the best we can do,” said Coyle.
“It’s more remembering what we did last time and kind of building off of that,” said Grange. “We’re so successful at a lot of places we go to because there are so many options to pick from, which we’re very lucky to have such fantastic horses.”
Fantastic horses made for a sport, Grange said, she lives for.
“If you didn’t get to wake up every single day and do something that you love more than anything else, I think we would die. Like we don’t know that life, right?” said Grange. “We get to be superstars of our own lives all the time. Which is fun, and being able to have friends and grow up in the sport and have our kids in the sport and be successful is definitely a bonus.”
And as for her partnership with Coyle?
“He just kind of grows on you,” she said. “I was determined to hate him for a while there. It worked out.”
