Dan James is an award-winning competitor and clinician who runs Double Dan Horsemanship in Lexington, Kentucky. "We have the opportunity to work with lots of different horses across multiple disciplines from reining, jumping, dressage, and of course on the racetrack," he says. The operation includes a resident training program, a round pen for starting young horses, and a regular clinic schedule that brings large numbers of horses and attendees to the farm for multiple days at a time. Managing a facility at that breadth and scale depends on having equipment that covers ground maintenance, manure management, and arena prep across both dirt and synthetic surfaces. ABI is what James reached for when the farm came together, and it is what he recommends when he visits other facilities across the country.
A Day-to-Day Operation With Multiple Demands
The range of horses James works with creates a range of footing requirements within a single facility. "Depending on the day or the season and time at our place at home in Lexington, Kentucky, it could consist of where we have training horses in where we're working up the round pen to start young horses that are going to go on to do numerous different disciplines," James explains. Reining horses need a surface that allows controlled sliding stops. Jumping and dressage horses need firm, consistent footing with reliable traction. Young horses starting in the round pen need a safe, forgiving surface that builds confidence rather than creating anxiety from unpredictable ground.
Clinics add another dimension entirely. "A clinic involves of course a huge amount of horses and people that come along to attend," James says, "which means for manure spreaders and having the drags there to then maintain the arena throughout the days at the clinic." The equipment that handles a normal training day has to scale up for clinic days without becoming the bottleneck that affects the event's quality.
The ABI Equipment James Uses Daily
Workman XL Dump Trailer
James is direct about the Workman XL: "The Workman, the trailer, which is an incredible piece of equipment whether it's feeding out, picking up sticks, cleaning up things, and then being able to of course go and be able to dump it." For a farm managing the volume of activity that comes with training horses and hosting clinics, having a reliable utility trailer that can haul a load and dump it easily reduces the number of separate trips and tools needed to keep the property clean and organized.
PTO and Ground Drive Manure Spreaders
James runs two manure spreaders: one PTO driven and one ground drive. He explains the logic himself: "The two things that I like in particular about the different spreaders that we've got, one is a PTO driven and one is driven by just movement through the course behind the tractor. Where that really helps us out: come wintertime, if the fields have unfrozen and we need to be in an isolated spot, we can use that PTO to empty that trailer out, and of course then if the tractor's busy then we can hook up to the other spreader." Having both configurations available means the operation is not blocked by either the season's conditions or the tractor's availability.
Arena Drags for Dirt and Synthetic Surfaces
Double Dan Horsemanship has both dirt and synthetic arena surfaces, and James uses ABI drags on both. "We have multiple different surfaces at home that we're working on, both from dirt and synthetic," he says, "so having the ability to work up both of those types of footing with the different drags that we use." Synthetic surfaces in particular need careful management. Too aggressive an approach damages the material, while too light a touch fails to address compaction and surface inconsistencies that build up under heavy use.
What James Looks for When He Visits Other Facilities
When James travels for clinics, he makes a habit of assessing what other facilities are working with. "I love going to their tack room and seeing what's in their tack room and then also the equipment they use to maintain the arenas and all around their property," he says. When he sees a gap, he fills it with a recommendation. "It's an easy part for me to be able to say, when I see something that's not working really well or they are in need of it, to recommend ABI," James explains, "not only because of the quality of the products that I know work so well, but also the customer service in being able to help to maintain those products through the course of their life."
The feedback he consistently hears back covers three things. "Man, I can't believe how approachable they were in the conversations that I was able to have," James says people tell him. "How helpful they were when it came to helping me decide on the exact right piece of equipment that I needed, make sure that it complied with the tractor or the other machines that I had to be able to utilize the equipment, and then on top of that, when it came time to maintain it, how easy that transition was with just a simple phone call."
How the Partnership With ABI Started
James met ABI's Scott at Road to the Horse before he had a permanent facility. "Up until that point in time I was traveling a lot and didn't really have a permanent home and fixture," he says, "but once that came to fruition and where our home is there in Lexington, Kentucky, I instantly became very aware of the things that I was going to need to be able to help to maintain and to do our job correctly and provide the correct footing for the horses that we were going to have in training." Scott visited the farm, assessed the operation, and made his recommendations. "He's like, hey, I would recommend this, this, and this, let's get you hooked up," James recalls. "And from there, we ride off into the sunset."
Why It All Matters
James closes with the perspective that ties everything together: "There are lots of different aspects when it comes to being a professional rider or a hobby rider and taking care of your horses, whether it's manure management, having the right equipment to drag your arena to keep your horse sound. These are the incredible parts that help make the dream stay alive."
The ABI Workman XL Dump Trailer, manure spreaders, and arena drags used by Dan James are available at ABI Attachments. Speak with a Product Specialist at (877) 788-7253 about the right equipment combination for your facility, disciplines, and tractor setup.
