Douglas Duffin is one of Scotland's most succesful showjumpers, having won most of the Scottish branch showjumping titles.

With a strong team of 13 horses to ride from his yard near Dollar, Douglas is looking forward to this year as he has plans to competes in Europe more often.

He has been based with Ron Brady at East Muirhead Stables for 10 years. They each have their own separate yard of horses but facilities were recently complemented with the addition of a large indoor arena, measuring 25m x 60m that was built four months ago.

"The outside arena has been very good but with the weather this winter it has been very useful. It's much kinder for the horses and they can be worked all the time," said Douglas, pointing out that on the day of our visit the outdoor arena couldn't be ridden on as it was frozen solid.

Complete with a waxed fibre equestrian surface, the indoor arena is large enough to have a course of fences as well as plenty of space for schooling sessions.

Douglas has been in the top 20 GB rider ranking list and represented Great Britain in 2009 at a Nations Cup in Prague. The team was placed third and Douglas, riding Volcano, jumped clear in the first round and had four faults in the second to give him his first senior British cap.

His best horse is Volcano, who was bred in Scotland by the Gillespie brothers and is by Tornado and out of a jumping mare. Douglas took over the ride on Volcanao six years ago after originally being produced by Fiona Burgoyne for owner Julie McClelland.

They have forged an enviable partnership, jumping five times round the Hickstead Derby. They've been placed every year and their best result was in 2010 when they were third.

"He's very brave and trusting," explained Douglas who believes the horse has shown more than enough capability to win the Derby.

"He's probably the most consistent horse jumping Derby classes just now. He's kept mainly for Derby and puissance classes. They're not typical showjumping fences; they are natural looking but most showjumpers won't have seen fences like that before.

"He's never been trained for the Derby, but I've always had a feeling he'd go round – he just got on with it and did it. He always tries and he'd jump through fire for me if I asked him to – he's a unique horse."

At the 2011 Horse of the Year Show they jumped clear in the five rounds of the puissance. It finished up at 2.2m (7'3") and they tied for first place with Joe Clayton riding Leonardo.

"I've got a wall to practice over at home, but had never jumped him as big as I did then," said Douglas. "He never says no and bust a gut to make sure he cleared the final round.

"He doesn't need a lot of shows and always rises to the occasion. He'll start jumping at the end of the month at 1.3m classes. He rarely jumps at home and does a mixture of schooling and hacking to keep him ticking over. He loves attention and thumps the door for attention. He doesn't bother about the atmosphere at big shows."

This year, Douglas has a strong team of horses, further bolstered by two new horses which arrived just before Christmas from Belgium – Quidam B Z owned by Douglas, and Puccini, owned by long term sponsor Steven McLeod from the Aurora Hotel Collection. Douglas found them while he was out in Belgium competing and at the same time looking to update his string of horses.

"I've had some owners for 10 years and they've been very loyal and backed me throughout," added Douglas.

Next month, he is off to Vilamorua in Portugal to the Sunshine Tour where he'll take five horses for the popular six-week show series. He'll be sharing the travelling with Richard Jenkinson, an amateur showjumper whose business AW Jenkinson is one of Douglas's sponsors. The show has young horse classes on mid week, so Douglas will compete his own and keep Richard's horses going while he flies back home to work during the week returning in time for the weekend classes.

While Douglas enjoys the sun of Portugal, the horses left behind at home in Scotland will be kept ticking over by stable jockey Jordan Thompson and Phoebe Rainy-Brown. Jordan jumps in classes up to 1.30m and in the young horse classes.

Outwith riding, Douglas also spends a lot of time teaching. He has a UKCC level 2 certificate. Most days are spent teaching and training and is a firm believer that the training is done at home. His favourite show is Hickstead where he finds the organisers really professional, organised and helpful. As he has been competing at Hickstead, he's missed the Royal Highland Show for the past five years, but won the young rider masters class there in 2007.

As well as showjumping, Douglas enjoys flatwork schooling, as "you can feel the benefit of it; the horse's jumping improves and it's rewarding.

"Showjumping is not an easy sport and you're always learning constantly, developing your skills and training the horse. Minor details can make all the difference. It's hard to get bored there's always something to challenge you."