RIDING WITH RYLEIGH

Dressage, barrel racing, and starting young horses—it's all in a day's work for 19-year-old Ryleigh Koch!

- BY SHOSHANA RUDSKI

You might remember reading about Ryleigh Koch, 19, in our recent Hanoverian Breed Spotlight (Young Rider July/August 2025), but we decided that we needed to tell more about this young equestrian who decided to focus 100 percent on improving her riding and training skills by going into horses full-time at a young age.

Coming from a horsey family, Ryleigh was raised around horses.

“I started taking lessons when I was 4, but my parents had horses, so I’ve really been riding since essentially day one,” she says. “My grandparents had ponies in their backyard, so I literally grew up around horses.”

CLIMBING THE LEVELS

A few years later, Ryleigh got her first horse, Lily, an American Paint Horse mare. Lily was the perfect first pony for Ryleigh. She was super safe, but not necessarily the easiest to have go correctly. With Lily, Ryleigh began to learn how to train horses, and got to have her first taste of dressage.

Then, when Ryleigh was 10, she got Silver's Destiny, a Welsh cross, who she ended up competing with through Second Level in dressage.

Next came Perlita, better known as “Pia,” a couple years later. Pia was a significant step up from Destiny, being a spicy little Andalusian mare. The pair started off competing at Training Level, and eventually made their way to Third Level.

But Ryleigh realized that Pia, while fancy in the dressage ring, might shine just as bright in other sports. Now, Ryleigh takes Pia to local barrel races on weekends, spends hours trail riding, and at 18 years old, Pia spends more time in a western saddle than dressage saddle!

Next up is Ruben, an imported Hanoverian from Germany. Sourced through the Dressage4Kids program (see pg. 39), the pair has been together for a few years now, and is Ryleigh’s current show horse.