August 10, 2026 
The Rolex Grand Prix of Ireland rarely lacks for drama, and last weekend’s class was no exception.
Alongside Jordan Coyle’s (IRL) mad dash to the last, and winner Steve Guerdat’s (SUI) trademark, icy-cool jump-off under pressure, one performance is likely to linger in the minds of show jumping fans near and far.
Before this summer, 29-year-old Lt. Michaeli Byrne wasn’t widely known in show jumping circles outside of her native Ireland. Even on the Emerald Isle, Byrne was perhaps best recognized for winning the Four-Year-Old Championship at the Dublin Horse Show in 2019 with Boleybawn Bella.
But after the Irish Army Equitation School lieutenant became one of four double-clears in Sunday’s Rolex Grand Prix of Ireland aboard the plucky and very scopey Irish-bred mare, MSH Claregalway, all that is about to change.
Horses are in Byrne’s blood, and the Dublin Horse Show couldn’t have marked a more fitting rite of passage for the third-generation equestrian. Her parents met at a horse show in Ireland, where her paternal grandmother competed at the Dublin Horse Show in show jumping, and her paternal grandfather was a Grand National-winning steeple chase jockey.
“My parents have an equestrian center [in County Wexford] called Butterfly Farm, so I’ve been around ponies and horses for as long as I can remember,” Byrne said in a 2025 interview for the Dublin Horse Show, adding that she was on a horse even before she could walk. “My mom actually started a riding school in her backyard when she was 16.”
As child, every Saturday, Byrne would challenge herself to ride as many ponies as she could—and at least one or two more than she had the previous weekend. At age 13, Captain Brian Cournane, himself an Army Equitation School graduate, came to give a clinic at Butterfly Farm, and it was he who first planted the seeds of a potential military career in Byrne’s head.
After earning her high school Leaving Certificate at 16, Byrne dipped her toe in the water, completing a short work experience at the Army Equitation School before moving on to Shane Breen’s stable in Hickstead, U.K. Over the following year and a half, Byrne also worked short stints in Austria and in Wellington, Florida, before landing a position at Ronan Rothwell’s Boleybawn Horses in County Wicklow, where she stayed for three years, learning the ropes of young horse development.
In 2019, during the same week she won the Four-Year-Old Championships with Boleybawn Bella in Dublin, Byrne learned that she’d been accepted into the Army Equitation School. But she quickly discovered she would need to call on all the grit and determination of her pony-kid years to succeed in the early days of her cadetship.
“The initial training was unlike anything I’d ever done before,” she told The Irish Field in 2022.
Byrne, who didn’t ride for more than six months while she was commissioned, said it took her a while to feel like herself on a horse again. During basic training, she was drilled right alongside the men in her class, in exactly the same way.
“I was strong in all the wrong places,” she’s said of her difficulty getting back in the saddle after boot camp. “[I’d] been carrying weight, hiking up hills.”
Even after she was cleared to ride at the Army Equitation School, Byrne was required to take a six-week grooming course, while grooms in the program needed to pass a basic riding exam as a part of their curriculum, so that both can gain a full appreciation for every aspect of horsemanship.
Promotion of the national breeding program is also a key tenant of the school, where the 30+ horses in training are all bred in Ireland. Having been initially assigned a handful of mounts on her ride list, Byrne said she was gradually given better and better horses as she was able to prove her abilities to her instructors.
One of these was the now-11-year-old grey Irish Sport Horse, MSH Claregalway by Cornet Obolensky—known as “Bella” in the barn—who Byrne has produced since the mare’s 7-year-old year. Having so far jumped only a handful of classes above 1.50m, the pair have an impressive striking record: clear at 50% in four rounds 1.55m (Jumpr), among them a 6th place in the CSI3* 1.55m Grand Prix in Deauville, France, in June.
In May, Byrne and Bella were also clear in their CSIO3* Senior Nations Cup debut in Mannheim, Germany, helping Ireland to third place on the podium. That performance was followed up by a 5* Nations Cup appearance at Hickstead, being appointed to both teams by Irish Chef d’Équipe Jessica Kürten—a clear fan of Byrne who could be seen cheering enthusiastically for the Irish rider on the kiss-and-cry on Sunday.
And Kürten’s not the only one.
On August 9th, Byrne’s parents’ Butterfly Farm posted a photo of Michael and Alma Byrne with their daughter after the Rolex Grand Prix on Facebook, captioning it simply, “We couldn’t be more proud.”
As good weeks in sport go, it’s hard to imagine that Byrne’s performance in the Rolex Grand Prix of Ireland could feel like anything but a full-circle moment—especially for a rider who has said that going to the Dublin Horse Show has always been a the highlight of her family’s year.
“My parents used to bring me up [and] we always used to be really excited to watch, particularly the ponies, and the puissance, and the Aga Khan [Nations Cup], and all the international riders,” she told the Dublin Horse Show last year.
And now, after a double-clear effort in one of the sport’s most challenging classes, Byrne, herself, is as much a member of that rarified, 5* club as any of them.
