Waterford Centaur Crowned Best Dressed At Dublin Horse Show 2025

LOCAL centaur Denis Orchid from Tramore has made history at the RDS Dublin Horse Show, becoming the first ever half-man, half-horse to win the prestigious Best Dressed title.

“For years the centaur community has been discriminated against over old-fashioned ideals, but today we can hold our heads high,” the emotional 37-year-old told the crowd, as his father John stood proudly beside him holding a photo of Denis’s late mother, three-time Horse Show champion Shady Pines, the only mare to secure a triple win in the 1980s.

“If mum could be here today, she’d be bucking with joy,” Denis added, dressed in a bespoke Louis Vuitton suit tailored for a centaur, complete with top hat. His victory speech ended with a dramatic lift of his tail and a celebratory stool drop, left steaming on the neatly manicured RDS grass.

Denis’s father recalled the scandal of his 1987 relationship with Shady Pines.

“They were different times, people were ignorant,” John told WWN. “It worked both ways. I was ridiculed in the horse community as well… mostly about, well, you know, the size of me down there. But we made it work, raised Denis like any other child, and here he is today.”

Shady Pines tragically broke her leg at the 1989 Dublin Horse Show after clearing the wall jump. John was forced to make the heartbreaking decision to put her down himself.

“One of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do, but it would have been cruel to expect her to heal and never compete again,” John said, now living and working on a stud farm in Tipperary.

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