The first book is on the way to the printers!

Two years in the making the book is in print! Details coming soon regarding availability, tentative date is early March.

A wait list is on Trafalgar's site by clicking here.

Rex's helmet cam video from the YEH-5 finals

I'm not sure how I lost this one, but I've just come across Rex's helmet cam video from the 2013 YEH-5 finals at Fair Hill.

As many are aware, Rex was purchased by Virtus with the help of a new partnership between DPE and Downes Howard's Howard Equestrian. For more information about the syndicate and Rex click over to our horses page.

While Rex is not for sale, we are more than happy to help you find a perfect partner for your future. Contact Doug with any questions or inquiries.

We've arrived in Aiken, ready to get going!

The rig all cleaned up with new DPE logo and Cavalor (http://www.cavalor.com/us-en)

As I alluded to in my previous post, we've finally arrived in Aiken. Following one of the most chaotic, hectic weeks we're finally just about unpacked and organized. Moving our lives, and barn was an epic challenge which I'm very happy to say is now behind us! We've spent the last week and a half unpacking, cleaning, organizing and tying up loose ends. While stressful, it has given me time to reflect on the past successes and failures with business and life. There is an opportunity to start anew and I'm looking forward to it without a doubt!

Heading into the winter/early spring season for me is always a great time of year. Just like our move south, I've always found it a time for reflection. What went well with my horses and where I fell short. A back to the basics theme seems to pervade my winter training. Figure out what root flaws have limited my performances, and fix them without the stress of a competition looming in the near horizon.

In planning our next months, if you find yourself in the area, feel free to stop by. I'm happy to help whomever is determined to improve regardless of level. We also have limited training spots for your horse starting January 1st. Let me know if you have any questions, it's amazing how much can be accomplished in a short period of time down here in Aiken. We've got access to a number of training facilities, schooling and recognized shows and events. Green horses can be exposed, not only to all of the common questions but to varied terrain not seen in other locals. It's the perfect jump start to your season!

More information can be found at DPEquestrian.com or give Doug a call at 908.399.9112

2013 Wrap-up Stats and More

Tali at Fair Hill International CCI*** Photo thanks to Alex Thayer via EventingNation's Who Jumped it Best

Details coming soon but I'm happy to report we've arrived in Aiken following one of the most chaiotic weeks of my life. With the tremendous help of Stacey Rogers who drove my car down form NJ and helped us unload the limitless piles of horses, equipment, jumps etc... Jess, Michelle, Katie and I have uprooted from NJ on our way to Raleigh, NC via Aiken, SC through April.

In reviewing the results from 2013 I was shocked and humbled. It's very easy to take a biased look at your horses from week to week, but these statistics seem to speak for themselves! Our total starts were down from last year due to my hand surgery in April, but every other statistic has improved. This is also the very first year I've ever had 100% of my XC rounds finish without jumping faults.

Not only am I incredibly lucky to have such a great group of horses, but a fabulous support and ownership team. Our owners include, Jane Dudinsky, Fred and Wendy Luce, The Virtus Syndicate, Kristin Michaloski, Kristen Burgers, Larry and Amelia Ross. DPE's support system includes, Sue Donatosky, Greg Staller (Running 'S' Equine), Michelle Novak (DPE's Manager) and our working students Jorgan Olijslager and Katie Cantine. I'm afraid I've missed countless others have contributed as well and I greatly appreciate their efforts.

Tali finishes 4th in his first CCI*** at Fair Hill - Chronicle Blog

Tali cooling off after XC in the vet box with Katie (L) and Joan (R)

My latest blog is now up on the Chronicle of the Horse's website, read by clicking here.

The Chronicle Blog - Many new beginnings...

Photo via EventingNation & Ab3 Photography

Click here the following link for the details! 

NJ Horse Trials, Millbrook, Virtus...

DPE's summer season is in full swing. We've had a crazy few weeks. Following the cancellation of Stuart horse trials, we rerouted a bunch of them to NJ horse trials as our final prep before Millbrook. 

Most notable and best performer of the two weeks was the Ross' Crown Talisman. Tali jumped around a great, conservative round at NJ and finished off with a great 9th place effort as his first advanced. Below is a full listing of results. It's an incredible group of horses, every horse entered in at both events finished in the top 10 of their division!

The other stand out at Millbrook was Royal Tribute's 15.2. Tribute is owned by Kristen Burgers, Larry and Amelia Ross and Doug. He's still ramping up to full competitive form, but this was one excellent way to kick it off!

Tali's XC and Show Jumping from Millbrook is found below, awesome especially considering this was his first advanced!



Aside from compeition we also have some very exciting news that Virtus-DPE has, with the tremendous help of the USEF Event Owner's Taskforce, has purchased a fabulous 5 yr old gelding. Below is a video of Lisnahall Imperier known around the barn as Rex. The following video was shot yesterday at the Ridge's schooling show. We're in the process of syndicate formation and will be up and running within the next few weeks. I can't thank the task force enough for their assistance, he wouldn't be here without them.

Rex is slated to compete this coming weekend at Waredaca in the YEH-5 qualifier, so check back for more details and results. He's certainly going to grab some attention!

EN Blog Post

Check my most recent blog on Eventing Nation

The long walk home with Tom after galloping, what a perfect day!

Almost there!

New Jumps!

I've been very lucky over my career to date not to miss more than a day or two to injury so this month+ has been an experience to say the least. I've always said you have to make the most of the opportunities presented to you. I don't think my inbox has been empty for years, our jumps are now painted (with the tremendous help of Jess and Michelle) and my book which has been in the works for a bit over a year is nearing completion. Physically, I've been on the stationary bike and working out my core, in hopes of being more fit than ever for the return. I've not been this productive outside of horses in such a short period of time ever!

It's seemed like an eternity since I've last ridden, but alas it's only been 5 weeks. Lucky, in so many ways my collateral ligament which I tore out of my index finger is healing very well. It should be ready to go this coming week! I'm planning to start with the more experienced and predictable horses, then slowly reintroduce the slightly more feral ones. The risk will be there for some time, I'm doing my best not to rip an anchor out which was used to tie the ligament back in place. Fortunately, I have a brace/cast which will allow me to ride without much trouble.

Our horses have been enjoying the lighter schedule save a few who have been kept in full work by my savior Jess :). Without her, I'm not sure what I would have done! In some ways the timing couldn't have been better. Our guys have been running since Jan and were just about due for their spring break before the summer action. I'm in a very unique position, where they are all qualified for anything in the near future, and have had tremendous success this spring. (details can be found here) I couldn't be happier with their progress.

I'm taking it day by day, but tentatively it looks like the full string should return to action at Stuart in July.

Check back soon for updates...

-D

Fair Hill - Rolex, podcast and more...

Rio schooling in Aiken

We have finally arrived and settled in NJ. We just returned from a very successful weekend at Fair Hill where the Doug & the Luce's Cossino Rio finished in 3rd in training. In preliminary, Jane Dudinsky's Cellar Door finished 3rd, Nicole Carolan's Topgun finished a very close 2nd to Big Leo aka Lysander owned by Kristin Michaloski & Doug who won!

We've also got a brand new podcast online at the following link.

For all who are planning to attend Rolex, I will be leading a course walk tentatively at 4 pm on Friday.

Aiken Update #2: HITS, Training Sessions and more

Tali at the USEF Training Sessions - Photo via Kate Samuels (facebook)

Our last few weeks have been hectic...but the horses are all going great with loads coming soon. Since our last update we've had a number of competitions including Paradise Farm horse trials, High Fields jumper show, HITS Ocala and the USEA ICP Symposium. Below are a few videos from the past weeks:

(I've been having trouble today with the video embed. If they don't work, click on the description below each for the direct link.)


Wishfull-V owned by Amy Hentinaar @ HITS Ocala in the 1.40m


Cellar Door aka Little Leo owned by Jane Dudinsky at Pine Top for the first event of the year!

Aside from the showing and the ICP symposium Tali aka Crown Talisman owned by myself and Larry and Amelia Ross have been named to the USEF National Training list. This has allowed us to participate in the USEF training sessions. David O'Connor the new US coach has been incredibly helpful. I feel like in the past month we've made great strides forward, but unfortunately with the recent EHV-1 outbreak we're going to have to wait to test the improvements in the ring.

Speaking of the EHV-1 Outbreak we again were very lucky. Originally we had intended on stabling at the HITS show grounds last week, but luckily at the last minute we decided to stay at Longwood and ship in to HITS. We have been very closely motioning and segregating our horses since our departure from Florida, and the best estimations for incubation we've received from the vets treating the first case in Florida was 2-10 days. I'm thankful to say we've reached the 10th day with no signs of any trouble.

On the same theme we had planned to attend the Red Hills horse trials this coming weekend, but in light of the current state of things I've decided it's not worth the risk to our horses competing or those left at home to attend this year. Hopefully things will quiet down in the next few weeks and the remainder of our spring season will be unaffected.

I've got a bit more info on our newest podcast. Click here to listen!

Our podcast for those who haven't listened in the past offers a broad description of recent happenings along with some stories from the road. We also reintroducing a Q and A portion of the program. If you have any questions about training, compeitions, care or more feel free to respond to this blog or shoot me an email at doug@dpequestrian.com

I also want to congratulate Wendy and Fred Luce with the purchase of Cassino Rio, he is an exceptionally talented 8 yr old Westphallian gelding who I'm very excited add to our team of horses. Stay tuned for some pictures and videos.

Until next time stay warm!

-D
 

Busy week...Aiken is in full swing!

We had quite the busy week here in Aiken. I'd say we're officially in full swing. It's a great problem to have, but we had two competitions running simultaneously this week in which horses were competing.

The first of which, PSJ's High Fields jumper show, was supposed to start up for us on Thursday with the welcome stakes for Wishfull. Due to the tremendous rain the class was delayed to Friday. Unfortunately, Wishfull had to be put on hold being that Friday we were out at Pine Top in Tompson, Ga for Tali's (Crown Talisman owned by Doug and Larry and Amelia Ross) first event of the year.

With all of the horses the first outing is always a little bit touch and go at times. Tali in the intermediate and very good, actually better than he's ever been early in the year. I did have the unfortunate draw placing us in the far ring, nearest to the cross country warm up. Every time we'd head in that direction, he wanted desperately to take a peek. Regardless, he finished up very well. We were sitting in 3rd following dressage on a 32. Not a bad start to the year. He jumped great in both SJ and XC. I took my time on XC being his first run of the year. No need to risk injury!

Tali on XC - Photo via Facebook - Cynthia Lawler/horsejunkiesunited.com

Saturday brought the JV team to Pine Top all of which were at training level. TopGun aka Gunnar (owned by Nicole Carolan), Cellar Door aka Little Leo (owned by Jane Dudinsky) and Lysander aka Big Leo (owned by Kristen Michaloski and Doug). All three were a little up, as to be expect but all put in very respectable tests.


The day finished well with show jumping. I had one rail with Big Leo...completely my fault! Like I said before, have to knock the rust off some how. The rest of them jumped classy clear rounds.

 

Topgun photo by Samantha Clark/eventingnation.com

Sunday brought with it the most chaos! We had the three JV's XC rounds' start times shifted around a bit, by the one and only Gwen Urbanik, in order to finish up by just after 1pm. All the horses jumped great clears. The finished up as follows: Tali 7th, Little Leo 11th, Big Leo 5th and Gunnar 4th. Little Leo last to go got a quick cool down in order to get back to Aiken for at 2:30 start to the $10k 1.30m mini prix. For those unaware, Pine Top is just over an hour west of Aiken.

So we were running tight! Thanks to Michelle who runs our operation and Sally who was able to give Wishfull a ride to the show we made it just in time. I was not able to walk, but was able to see the first horse in to see how the course would ride. Wishfull jumped better than he's jumped to date. He is one exceptional horse. Whoever ends up purchasing him will be one lucky rider!

Wishfull-V in the $10k 1.30m Mini Prix

Tomorrow starts the USEF training sessions. Tali is scheduled for dressage 3:15 tomorrow and 11:45 Wed, jumping 9:00 am Thursday. Reports soon to follow!

We also had another huge milestone passed this week. Amazingly Running Order's video from Rolex last year has just passed 100,000 views! Incredible, I can't wait to watch he and William Fox-Pitt in action this spring. William has him aimed at a spring 3*.

 

First Podcast for '13 is up...

We've been on a show jumping tear so far here in Aiken. The full results are listed on the bio page: www.dpequestrian.com/bio but the highlights from the past few week are as follows. Little Leo, Big Leo and Gunnar finished 1,2,3 at Highfields and Wishfull and Tali finished 2,3 in the final unrated mini prix at PSJ here in town.

Ryder and Wishfull

This past week started with a trip down to Ocala for some jumping. Wishfull again was excellent in the 1.30m classes. Jess and Trevor also came along and jumped great.



I finished up the week judging an event at Sporting Days farm here in Aiken. Joanna always puts on a great show, and with 4 rings running all day it was very well attended.

This coming week we're headed back to PSJ as well as Pine Top for our first event of the year.

Podcast #23 is now posted here...or subscribe on your podcast app www.dpequestrian.com/podcast/podcast.xml

Quick update... DPEquestrian has been nominated for the ESMA '13!!

I've just received an email from the Equestrian Social Media Awards indicating that our YouTube channel has been nominated as one of the top 10 on the web! Click Here to vote! 

I have to say I think my favorite for the year is below.

 

Check back in a bit for more details. Our season is finally under way here in Aiken.