Some horses are specialists, preferring to focus their talents on one job only. And then there are horses like Lady Bird.

Imported from Germany with the original goal of competing as an amateur jumper, “Birdie” has become a true three-ring horse for trainer Paige Kirwin, moving from the 1.10m jumpers to the performance hunters and back. Most recently, the 2016 Hanoverian (Like Angel x Piña Colada) owned by Yellow Grass Farms, LLC, contested the 2025 Platinum Performance/USEF Show Jumping Talent Search Finals – West as a catch ride for Bailey Rose.

“She’s a jumper—she can be if she wants to,” said Kirwin. “But I also think that she’s gorgeous, and she’s really going to shine as an equitation and hunter horse. I think that’s her calling.”

Birdie is especially eye-catching on the flat, and even in the complex Phase I flatwork test of Talent Search Finals, her dynamic gaits and movement stood out. That’s no accident.

“That was one of the big things when I went to Europe, was to find a horse that’s pretty [for my client],” said Kirwin. “And I wanted other things, too, but I think she’s stunning. She moves ten out of ten. It’s been really cool to develop her and see her flourish in her job.”

Birdie’s early forays out of the jumper ring and into other disciplines were in the medal and equitation classes, where she quickly showed aptitude.

“I thought she could be a jumper equitation horse, and when she went into the medals she did quite well,” said Kirwin. “Then I was like, ‘She’s only going to get better in the medals if I take her in the hunters.’”

Since then, 3’6” performance hunters and international hunter derbies have been the primary stage for Birdie and Kirwin as a pair, but Birdie continues to readily take riders into the jumpers and equitation when asked to.

With multiple roles, does she require a particular warm-up to get her mind in the right space for the class she’s about to enter?

“No! She kind of just does what she’s supposed to do,” said Kirwin.

Birdie gets the job done, whatever the job may be, but that doesn’t mean she’s a robot. She has opinions. She simply chooses to express them in a controlled manner.

“She literally never puts a foot out of place,” said Kirwin. “When she’s fresh, you can tell because she’ll wring her tail, or she’ll get a little flinchy, but she would never be so undignified as to spook or buck or do anything bad.

“I really think she knows when she’s good,” Kirwin added. “We tell her how great she is, and I think she loves that. She very much gives off hot model vibes, like, ‘Look at me. Don’t touch me.’ It’s very much beneath her to not be good. If I could talk to her, and she was ever doing anything wrong and I said, ‘This is embarrassing,’ she’d be like, ‘Oh my god, no. I’ll stop right now!’”

Birdie and her Talent Search Finals rider, Bailey Rose, connected shortly before the show in what turned out to be a full circle moment for Kirwin.

“I rode with Shari Rose, who is Bailey’s grandmother, as a child, and my mom is Bailey’s godmother,” she said. “I’ve known Bailey since before she was born. But it was just kismet that it worked out that she got to do her last finals on my horse.

“Birdie doesn’t get a lot of different riders on her, and so it was a little bit of a test,” said Kirwin. “But Bailey has catch ridden quite a bit, and I think that really helped her. She has the repertoire to deal with idiosyncrasies, so it was a pretty easy match. I thought Bailey did a really good job.”

When she’s not at the shows dabbling across divisions, Birdie stays busy at home keeping tabs on the two geldings who make up the rest of her little herd. Kirwin refers to them as Birdie’s brothers, and there is a sibling-like dynamic in this family unit

“You can tell they kind of annoy her, and she’s just too cool for school,” said Kirwin. “But she’s very inquisitive. She doesn’t spook at things, but if she looks across the field and sees something, she goes and investigates. She really likes to see the world around her. She’s really cute.”