Playing it Straight star Dean Dibsdall gets own TV show
The winner of Channel 4’s Playing It Straight series, farrier Dean Dibsdall, is to get his own show on Horse & Country TV.
The hour-long show, Dean Dibsdall: Model Farrier, which will be broadcast in April, will follow Dean as he deals with his new found fame while working as a full-time farrier.
Dean, 28, from Leighton Buzzard, also works as a part-time model, winning the title of Mr Bedfordshire last year and representing the county in the final of the Mr England competition.
“I’m very excited to be doing this show with Horse & Country TV,” said Dean, “being a farrier and working with horses is the most important thing in my life.”
Dean has been a farrier for four years, following in a family tradition that has seen three of his cousins become farriers too.
“I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do when I left school so one day went out with one of my cousins who was already a farrier and I took to it straight away,” he said.
“It’s a physical job and you get to work with animals outdoors in the fresh air – plus you’re your own boss.”
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E4 viewers saw Dean win the reality TV series Playing It Straight, in which straight and gay guys competed to win the heart of female contestant Cara.
If one of the gay contestants had successfully deceived Cara and been picked by her he would have won the show’s £50,000 cash prize.
But as she chose Dean, one of the genuinely straight contestants, they split the prize, receiving £25,000 each.
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A self-confessed newshound, farmer’s daughter and journalist of many years' experience, Charlotte worked on regional papers before joining H&H in 2007. A regular rider, she visited Ireland in 2010 to investigate the fate of Irish horses through the recession, to much acclaim, and reported from the FEI General Assembly in Rio de Janeiro in 2011. She left Horse & Hound in March 2013.