New Year's Eve...Aiken and More...

It's hard to believe that it's nearly 2012, there's a very good chance it is by the time your reading this entry. The last few weeks have been hectic. I've been detailing the truck saga on the podcast, and it continues. I should be here in the next week or two.

We departed cold NJ for Aiken, SC 2 days ago (68 degrees today). It's always a bit of a cluster getting the entire barn packed and ready to pick up and move. We had my trailer with 5 horses and loaded to the ceiling with equipment as well as a 10 horse 18 wheeler.

Jess offering the horses water at the gas station - yes there are 5 horses in there too!

The trip is roughly 14 hrs and it seemed to take every bit of it just getting out of the driveway! You'll have to check Tuesday's podcast for details, but it involved removing the tailgate and extending the neck of the trailer in the middle of the road and this was within the first mile...

We finally arrived in Aiken on Thursday evening. We're at a new facility this year, it's owned by Taryn Hartnett and it's a beautiful 29 stall facility with ring and the best galloping hill I've seen in Aiken.

The Front of the Barn

Running Order is tentitivly headed for Rolex this spring. Being that we're down here through early April, I was a concerned about getting him fit enough on the flat terrain surrounding Aiken. No worries now, it's 1.1 miles long with a steady grade and good footing, couldn't ask for much more!

RO - Tribute - Trevor (Jess' horse High Society) on the Gallop

View from the Ring back to the Barn

I have to thank Jess, Michelle, Jenny (our fellow Canadian) and Melanie for all of their hard work. It's a monumental effort transporting the 16 horses down here. Taryn and Avery, the barn's owners showed up on day one to sign the lease etc and promptly asked us if we were hosting a tack sale. I should have grabbed a picture. Use your imagination and I assure you that's about half of the actual mess we had the morning after we arrived. Only a few days in, they've established order and it all seems completely under control.

I'll try to get some more pics up online, we do have some more on the facebook page here of the trip down and around the barn.

Coming up this week we have a jumper show at High Fields and with my fingers crossed I might be heading back to NJ to get my new truck.

Podcast #3 is up, like anything else it's a work in progress.

I think this podcast will be a great thing in the future, but like anything there is a steep learning curve. I had a call with Chris from Eventing Radio earlier in the week. She had a lot of great tips. This week we have an interview with our newest working student Jenny from our friends up north.

If you haven't yet downloaded Instacast yet, you should get right to it. Instacast will allow you do automatically download your podcasts directly onto your iPhone or Droid.

Again the podcast web address is http://www.dpequestrian.com/podcast/podcast.xml

Merry Christmas and Stay Warm!!

-D

The Podcast Live!

This has been in the works for a short while now. The podcast should be a very exciting broadcast which will introduce everyone to the horses, owners, sponsors, vets and farriers as well as current happenings.

Every tuesday by 9pm. Today's broadcast is live, we cover the happenings of the week and our first horse profile. This week we have Larry and Amelia Ross' Crown Talisman.

The direct link is http://www.dpequestrian.com/podcast/podcast.xml or search DPEquestrian in iTunes.

Stay warm!
-D

Winter is here and soon will be 2012!

'Tis the season...football is in full swing! At least that's my plan from now through February. We've had a great year, so not that I'm looking forward to it's departure, but I can't wait for 2012!

I would like to thank everyone who has helped make this year a possibility.

From our Owners:

Kristin Michaloski
Patti Springsteen
Jane Dudinsky
Kristen Burgers
Larry and Amelia Ross
Wendy Luce
SNS Syndicate
Melanie Nasser
Cindy Strate

To Sponsors:

Five Star Tack
Cavalor
SpectraVet
Georgetown Stable Outfitters
Arenus
HayGain
Hit Air
Parlanti
Ecogold
Horseware Ireland
Leather Therapy
Devoucoux
Equithrive
EquineLite

To the best Farrier in the world:
Sue Donatsky

To our Vet:
Greg Staller at Running S Equine



The winter months are usually filled with a number of tasks that have fallen through the cracks during the competition season. I'm in the process of getting a new truck, which will be very exciting. The poor Chevy has just shy off 200k and has seen better days. I was up at the Freightliner dealership today signing the sales order, so hopefully within the next two weeks we'll be fully equipped and ready for our journey to Aiken at the end of the month.

As for showing, most of the event horses are just coming back to work. The jumpers on the other hand are in full swing. We made a trip over to Duncraven yesterday and came back with a bunch of ribbons! Vesko W aka Llama, owned by Rosie DiMola, finished 3rd, 2nd and 1st.

This is his winning Level 3 Speed Class


Melanie Nasser's Urlando aka Larry won both of his classes.


Last but not least was Kristin who came along with us and rode her horse Hughie. He has done a few trainings and will be looking to move up in the spring.


In addition to the jumper show, now USDF Hall of Fame Inductee, Linda Zang was up for a dressage clinic this weekend. I took Tali aka Crown Talisman owned by Larry and Amelia Ross over to her both Saturday and Sunday. Linda was very helpful, I can't say enough about her. Tali was equally impressive, I can't wait to see what happens this year with him!

We have a quiet next few weeks from showing, but of course the packing has just begun for our migration. Stay warm and see you soon!

Doug

PS Without Cam I really don't know what war their fighting, all I can say their losing. Regardless, Jess remains in the background... 'War EAGLE'