Duke Evaluation System · DES

A lifetime in show jumping, written down as a method.

Jay Duke turned what he looks for in a horse into a structured evaluation, the Duke Evaluation System (DES): five areas, 85 categories and one EQ Score, read on his own scale. EqEval is the only place where the full method runs.

85categories 5areas 3rings: Jumper, Hunter, Equitation 1EQ Score from 0 to 100
Jay Duke riding a dark horse in a show ring
Meet Jay Duke

The rider, trainer and author behind DES.

Jay grew up in Calgary in a family of horsemen. His mother coached national team riders and his father is in the Canadian Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame. He started showing on the A circuit at eight, won the Junior Jumper Championship at Spruce Meadows and went on to ride for Team Canada.

Today, based in Alberta, he coaches riders across North America, develops young horses, designs courses and runs his family farm, Blarney Stone. DES is how he reads a horse, written down so others can use it.

4×Canadian Junior Champion, hunters and jumpers TeamCanada show jumping rider AuthorThe Analytics of the Show Jumping World
A career with horses
  1. 1986Bronze with Alberta at the Continental Young Riders’ Championships
  2. 1987Junior Jumper Champion at the Spruce Meadows National
  3. Team CanadaRode for Canada’s national show jumping team
  4. TodayClinician across North America and course designer
  5. 2026Duke Evaluation System and the book
Jay Duke talking with a rider at the ring
Jay Duke at the ring
“I always know where my horses are emotionally and physically.”
Jay Duke Also the founder of EquiVault, a library of training exercises, and host of The Jay Duke Show on Horse Network. The book includes perspectives from Chance Arakelian, Michel Vaillancourt, Molly Ashe-Cawley and Martin Fuchs.
What DES looks at

The whole horse, in five areas.

Each area groups the categories that matter when evaluating a show jumping horse, from how it moves to how it thinks. Here are a few of them; the full set of 85, with a guide for each one, is inside the app.

45PhysicalHow the horse moves, jumps and carries itself: gaits, balance, form over fences, rideability and presence.Canter QualityScopeJumping StyleTotal Rideability+41 in the app
19MindTemperament, carefulness, bravery and heart, and how the horse handles pressure.HeartCarefulness at the FencesBraveryTemperament+15 in the app
8PerformanceShow record, training history and how well the horse fits its rider and program.Show RecordCompatibility with the RiderTraining History+5 in the app
4ProfileAge, size, lineage and gender, judged for the horse’s situation.AgeSizeLineage+1 in the app
9HealthSoundness and care: vet check, farrier, respiratory, gastrointestinal and more.Vet CheckFarrierRespiratory+6 in the app
Why every category is weighted

Not every quality counts the same in every ring.

A 9 in heart and a 9 in tail carriage are both a 9, but they don’t say the same thing about a horse. In DES every category carries a multiplier for each discipline, set from decades of riding, training and buying horses. That is what turns a list of scores into one EQ Score that reflects what really matters.

The multipliers change with the ring. What wins in a jumper class is not what wins in a hunter or an equitation class, so the same horse can earn a different EQ Score depending on where it competes.

JumperHeart, scope and carefulness lead.
HunterThe canter and the ride lead.
EquitationRideability and how the horse helps its rider lead.
The multipliers are part of DES and stay private. You see your scores and the EQ Score; the weighting runs inside EqEval.
From evaluation to EQ Score

Simple to score. Built on decades in the ring.

1Score what you seeEach category from 1 to 10, with its guide one tap away. Not observed is left out, never counted as a zero.
2Weighted for the ringWhat matters most in a jumper is not what matters most in a hunter. The method weighs every category for Jumper, Hunter or Equitation.
3One EQ ScoreA number from 0 to 100, read on the DES scale, with the areas behind it and the categories with the most room to grow.
The weighting is part of the system. It runs inside EqEval, so every evaluation follows the method exactly as he designed it.
The DES scale for the EQ Score
{{b.r}}{{b.t}}
The scale is a guide and can have exceptions, as the book notes.
“Having a horse with heart is having the horse of a lifetime.”
Jay DukeFrom the Heart guide in the app
The book

The Analytics of the Show Jumping World

The complete system, every category explained by its author. EqEval brings it to the ring.

Coming soon Start 5-day free trial
Use it in the app

The method, one category at a time.

Quick uses The key categories for the discipline. Method uses every category that counts in that ring. Custom lets you choose the categories and set your own weights. All three follow the same method, so every evaluation stays comparable.

Evaluate your first horse