Lillie Keenan has represented the U.S. in international competitions including as part of Nations Cup teams at Bratislava (SLV) in 2014; Hickstead (GBR), Spruce Meadows (CAN), and the FEI Jumping Nations Cup Final in Barcelona in 2016; Ocala, Dublin (IRE), and Spruce Meadows in 2017; Wellington and Sopot (POL) in 2018; the FEI Jumping Nations Cup Final in Barcelona in 2021; and Rome (ITA), Wellington, Aachen (GER), and the ECCO FEI World Championships (DEN) in 2022.
Keenan was a standout rider from the start, making headlines for sweeping all three divisions in the 2007 USEF Hunter Pony National Championship at age 10, and then repeated the feat the following year. In 2011, at age 14, she competed against professional athletes and bested the class to take the win in the $100,000 USHJA International Hunter Derby Finals.
As an equitation rider, Keenan collected many of the sport’s top honors, including the inaugural Equitation Challenge at Old Salem Farm Spring Horse Show and the North American Junior Equitation Championship in 2012, The Excellence in Equitation Championship, the Equitation Classic, the USEF Hunter Seat Medal Finals, and the ASPCA Maclay Finals in 2013.
Keenan has been a competitive jumper from an early age. She won team gold at the North American Youth Championship in 2012 and 2013 and individual gold in 2013. In 2013, she rode Pumped Up Kicks to a win in the $125,000 Grand Prix at HITS-on-the-Hudson. Her versatility and success led her to earn the title of USEF Junior Equestrian of the Year that year.
Keenan's 2024 season started off strong by winning the $65,000 The Estates at TerraNova FEI 1.45m Grand Prix CSI2* in Myakka City, Fla. with Kick On. A few weeks later, she and Agana Van Het Gerendal Z scored two CSI4* wins in the WEF Challenge and Grand Prix during Week 11 at the Winter Equestrian Festival in Wellington, Fla. Keenan was chosen to respresent the U.S. Jumping Team for the FEI Nations Cup™ Jumping Rome CSIO5* where she and Argan De Beliard helped the team finish in fourth place after a hotly contested bid for the podium. Later in the season, aboard Kick On, Keenan took home the win in the $200,000 Kubota CSI5* Grand Prix at Major League Show Jumping in Toronto, Canada. The duo saw success again in Thermal, Calif., winning the $200,000 MLSJ FEI CSI5* Team Competition and later finished the year on a high note, taking the victory in the $1M MLSJ FEI 5* Team Final.