THE 2025 Irish Horse World Awards took place at The K Club in Co Kildare on Tuesday, December 9th, where both emerging and well-established stars of the sport were honoured. The strength and depth of Irish equestrian talent was abundantly clear with so many talented equestrians gathered in one place to be awarded for their many achievements throughout the year.
The Irish Field gave out awards in five categories – Dressage rider of the year, Senior event rider of the year, Junior event rider of the year, Senior show jumper of the year and the Junior event rider of the year.
Some 11 awards were also presented to the monthly winners of The Irish Field/Gain Equine Nutrition Star of the Month awards and the Gain Star of the Year was the inimitable Niamh McEvoy.
Welcoming guests to the event, Irish Horse World editor Judith Faherty recapped some of the highlights of the year.
“We say it almost every year but we are in a golden age for the sport horse sector, from ponies right up to senior riders, Irish athletes and horses are the envy of the world,” she said. “We sure do punch above our weight and it’s only when you visit championships or overseas events that you hear from foreign colleagues how much other nations look up to the Irish and that is something we are very proud of.
“Among the highlights of the year was the team silver medal for the senior eventing team at the Agria FEI European Championships, congratulations to Dag Albert and your team. Dag was also at the helm of the talented young rider team who won a European silver medal.
“In show jumping, it was another exceptional year across the board, crowned by two individual European champions at both Junior and pony level – and we are so delighted to have junior champion Emily Moloney and pony champion Cian McMunn – to accept awards today. Alongside your teammates, you brought great pride to the nation. It was a phenomenal first year for team management Denis Flannelly and Liz Brennan who guided the junior team to team gold and the ponies to team silver, as well as many Nations Cup and Grand Prix wins along the way.
“At the Young Rider Europeans, Michael Blake’s team won the silver medal, narrowly missing out on another gold medal on what was an exceptional week of sport. At senior level, there were as usual top-class results across the board from Irish riders. Among the most memorable was the five-star Nations Cup win in La Baule, the Longines League of Nations win in Abu Dhabi, the four-star Nations Cup wins in Vancouver, Canada and a three-star win in Vejer just last month. The Irish team missed out on a bronze medal by the narrowest of margins at the FEI European Championships, while two Irish riders finished in the top seven.
“In para dressage, new High Performance manager Simone Hession opted for a young team, blended with experience, to compete at the FEI Para Dressage European Championships in Ermelo, The Netherlands in September where they finished in an excellent eighth place. Katie Reilly was among the standout stars of the year, scoring five international wins this year at the CPEDI3* shows in Wellington, Heckfield and Hartpury in Great Britain including an international personal best score of 75.194% in the Para Grand Prix Freestyle III at Hartpury in July.
“The Irish Field’s partnership with Gain Equine Nutrition has been a long running one and we are delighted to continue to collaborate on this event with Gain, to honour the ‘Stars of the Month’ in our industry. Thanks to Joanne Hurley, Philip Gilligan, Lisa Dunphy, Katriona Kinsella and all the team who we thoroughly enjoy working closely with on these awards.”
The winners of the 2025 The Irish Field an Gain Equine Nutrition awards at The K Club on Tuesday \ Lorraine O’Sullivan
The Irish Field Dressage rider of the year: Katie Reilly
Grade III international para dressage, 17-year-old Katie Reilly and the former Olympic medal-winning mare Keystone Dawn Chorus (aka Lottie) made their international debut in Doha, Qatar in February 2025. They scored five international wins at the CPEDI3* shows in Wellington Heckfield and Hartpury in Britain, including an international personal best score of 75.194% in the Para Grand Prix Freestyle III at Hartpury in July.
Remarkably, at the age of just 17, Katie represented Ireland at her second consecutive European Championships in Ermelo, The Netherlands in September. She was a member of the Irish team that placed a fantastic eighth at the Europeans and she and Keystone Dawn Chorus scored 72.167% for an impressive sixth place in the Grade III Grand Prix championship class.
Katie is the highest ranked under 18 para dressage rider in the world; she is ranked third in the Grade III word rankings and is the highest Irish rider on the overall para dressage world ranking list. A native of Ticknevin, County Kildare, she is now based in the UK and flew in to collect her award.
Clearly thrilled, Reilly said: “I started this year just wanting to get used to Lottie and then all this happened! John Norcross, my trainer, is actually a new partner as well. We started in middle of last year, and again, we just completely blossomed together. He’d never got into Para before so it was very much like ‘what I do here?’, but we really got into it together and I’m very excited about the future.” Reilly also paid tribute to Paralympic medallist Helen Kearney who she said has inspired her to chase her Paralympic dream.
The Irish Field Senior eventer of the year: Ian Cassells
Ian Cassells had an extraordinary year to remember in 2025. His championship debut aboard Millridge Atlantis ended in a team silver medal for the Irish eventing team which marked the first European eventing team medal in 30 years, and a 14th place finish individually after three strong phases.
Just a few weeks later, Ian went to the WBFSH World Breeding Championships for young horses in Le Lion d’Angers where he set a record achievement for an Irish rider when winning a medal in both age divisions. Cassells won silver in the six-year-old championship on Rutland Flamenco and bronze in the seven-year-old class on Noa W.
Among his other top international results was third in the four-star long at Ballindenisk with Millridge Atlantis and 13th at Badminton with Master Point. He is now ranked 17th in the world rankings, second best of the Irish riders.
On the domestic circuit, he won both divisions of the EI115 at Crecora in July, the EI110 A at Ballindenisk in May with Rutland Flamenco and the EI110 in Tyrella with Noa W, among many many other places from his impressive string of horses. He is based in Newcastle, Co Dublin and has become a force to be reckoned with.
“It’s been an amazing year, the highlight being the senior eventing team European silver medal especially in that it had been 30 years since Ireland won a European medal,” Cassells said. “I was a bit later than most to the equestrian world so I’m really grateful for all the opportunities and guidance I’ve been given and now to be riding on teams with Aoife Clark and Padraig McCarthy is such an honour. My main goal for 2026 is the World Championships in Aachen which will be the first chance at qualification for the Olympics in LA - if I helped Team Ireland to get that qualification that would be a real privilege.”
The Irish Field Junior Eventer of the Year is Momo Sheehy \ Lorraine O’Sullivan
The Irish Field Junior eventer of the year: Momo Sheehy
2025 was somewhat of a breakout year for Co Cork’s Momo Sheehy who won The Irish Field Junior eventer of the year. She kicked off her year by winning two EI115s at Tyrella and went on to score at international level in the CCI3*-L at Ballindenisk International. She was selected for the Young Rider Championships in Strzegom, Poland where she helped the Irish win team silver with a vital clear show jumping round on the final day which also saw her finish best of the Irish in eighth place with HHS Noble Call.
She also showed her class and talent when finishing ninth at four-star level in Millstreet and made her senior team debut Nations Cup final in Boekelo, also riding HHS Noble Call. Her performances saw her rise to fourth place in the young rider world rankings.
Speaking about her Championships medal she said: “My eventer doesn’t actually doesn’t have the greatest record for show jumping on long formats - I think that was my second ever clear round on a long format so it was kind of a miracle that it happened, and that happened on the right day - so that makes it all the more special.”
Lesley Hunter Nolan presents the award for Senior Show Jumper of the Year to Emma McCabe on behalf of Daniel Coyle \ Lorraine O’Sullivan
The Irish Field Senior show jumper of the year: Daniel Coyle
For the third year in-a-row, The Irish Field Senior show jumper of the year is Daniel Coyle. Daniel was the most successful Irish rider in 2025 with 20 international wins, of which seven came at the five-star level. He scored a further 39 podium places across the year, 16 of them at the highest five-star level. Those five-star wins include the Queen Elizabeth II Cup Grand Prix at the prestigious Spruce Meadows, Calgary, in July with Incredible, and that pair also won the CSIO4* Grand Prix in Vancouver in May where they were on the winning Nations Cup team.
Who could forget the first day at the Longines FEI European Championships in A Coruña in July when he stormed to win the speed class with Legacy before going on to win the 3* Grand Prix at the venue. Multiple other top results with Farrell and Legacy, sees him finish out the year ranked number 10 in the world and this week he will compete in the Rolex Top 10 final in Geneva for the very first time.
“It’s been a roller coaster the last few years - just one show to another,” Coyle said on receipt of his award. “I haven’t really had a chance to sit back at all but to listen to you go through some of the wins I’ve had, some that I forgot about like the Europeans, it shows that I don’t really get a chance to enjoy them at the time but something like this award means a lot and really makes me reflect on how lucky I’ve been.”
The Irish Field Junior show jumper: Emily Moloney
17-year-old Kilkenny show jumper Emily Moloney produced a stunning performance over four days at the FEI Junior European championships in Riesenbeck, Germany to win both team and individual gold riding Temple Alice, owned by her father Eddie and TSI Equestrian. The pair were one of just two combinations to keep a clean sheet over the course of the championship to be crowned the European champions.
Just last month, Emily won the 1.40m Junior Grand Prix at Sentower Park aboard Tick A Lu, as well as a 1.30m and a 1.25m class on Cruising on the Ridge, the same horse who won two international classes at Lier in September. Other international wins include at CSI2* Mullingar and at Sentower Park in April. Hailing from Warrington in Co Kilkenny, Emily comes from a dynasty of show jumpers.
“My dad (Eddie) bought Temple Alice as a six-year-old and produced him up the levels, then we shared him for a while and then I took over because he was going better for me!” Emily quipped when accepting her award.
Emily talso thanked her parents and her trainer Denis Flannelly for their support.
Gain Equine Nutrition Star of the Year: Niamh McEvoy
After an exceptional year of 2025, the overall The Irish Field/Gain Equine Nutrition Star of the Year being named as Niamh McEvoy came as no surprise. The winner of all but one of the seven Premier Series Grands Prix in 2025, she was crowned the National Champion for the first time at Barnadown. She won her first five-star class when taking the Mini Grand Prix on Saturday at the Dublin Horse Show with Flora du Mesnil, before going on to win the national four-year-old championship with Rich and Royal and the six-year-old championship with BP Othello. At the World Breeding championships in Lanaken, she won the silver medal with BP Othello.
She was part of the young rider team who won silver at the Europeans and culminated her year as part of the winning Irish team in Vejer de la Frontera before going on to place second in the four-star 1.55m Grand Prix in Vejer with Olympic GL FVD. Based at Greg Broderick’s Ballypatrick Stables in Co Tipperary, she is an exceptional talent and wonderful ambassador for the sport.
Speaking at the awards, McEvoy said: “I’ve been so lucky. I’ve had such incredible opportunities and really amazing horses this year and thankfully we had a really great year. It is good for the females (to be recognised) and there’s loads of great young female riders coming up which is exciting. Winning the small Grand Prix in Dublin was probably the most special for me. Dublin’s our favourite show and that was my first time to win a five-star class so that was very memorable.”
Joanne Hurley, Irish Country Manager at Gain Equine Nutrition, presents Cian McMunn with his award \ Lorraine O’Sullivan
The Irish Field Awards:
Senior show jumper: Daniel Coyle
Junior show jumper: Emily Moloney
Dressage rider: Katie Reilly
Senior Eventer: Ian Cassells
Junior Eventer: Momo Sheehy
Gain Equine Nutrition Star Of The Month Winners
JANUARY: Courtney Akkari
FEBRUARY: Emily Moloney
MARCH: Tim Brennan
APRIL: Irish pony team - Lily Tunney, Sam Widger, Cian McMunn, Charlie Flynn and Juliette McIntosh
MAY: Nancy Lyons Teehan
JUNE: Niamh McEvoy
JULY: Emily Moloney
AUGUST: Cian McMunn
SEPTEMBER: Sarah Ennis
OCTOBER: Donal Callery
NOVEMBER: Irish show jumping team – Niamh McEvoy, Susan Fitzpatrick, Ethen Ahearne and Max Wachman
OVERALL: Niamh McEvoy