Dual Canadian/US citizen Danielle Lambert was born in Vancouver, BC, and grew up loving horses. Her parents moved to California when she was two years old and she began riding at age nine with trainer and former rodeo star Joe Lifto. “I spent my junior years competing primarily on the West Coast, but spent summers when I was young in rural BC and would have fun training ranch horses ‒ until show life took over!” she explained. “It was important to my parents that we knew Canada and our roots, and I’m very happy they made it a priority.”
Her successful junior career also took her around Europe, Mexico and Canada, including competing at Spruce Meadows. “My first horse was named Surprise. He was a giant bay gelding and very kind,” she said. “My key horse growing up was a wonderful little Thoroughbred named Sprint who I rode as a junior. He was tiny, but had a massive heart.”
Later married to Tony Fadell, creator of the iPod and Nest, Danielle switched gears in 1998, putting riding on hold to work in the upper echelons of the tech world, eventually becoming vice-president of Human Resources at Apple until 2009. The couple had three children and busy lives, and moved to Paris in the summer of 2016, enjoying an 18-month stint in Bali from mid-2018 to early 2020. But when the Covid-19 pandemic hit, Danielle decided in the spring of that unprecedented year that it was time to take up the sport once again.