Ivy Lodge Farm Equine Rehab

16/08/2024

It’s just under 3 months since Big Charles headed up north to fill in a spot for our friends daughter Lucy to see how they got on for a tetrathlon event, it’s a massive achievement from Lucy who is only 13 to have got on so well with all 17hh of him 🐘. Love following this pair with lots of fun ahead of them💙💕

Pony club Junior international tetrathlon ✅
Pony club eventing ✅
Pony club show jumping championships ✅
Pony club tetrathlon championships ✅
Pony club eventing championships ✅

15/08/2024

ANNOUNCING THIS YEARS WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP 🇬🇧TEAM GB🇬🇧
Les Herbiers 20th - 23rd July.

(left to right)
Lynne Macleod and Hermes
Tamsin Devonport and Cereja
Holly Barber and Exparta D’Atela
Tora Fleming and Flarenta

A HUGE congratulations to all,
Let’s Go! Let’s Go!

07/08/2024

This memory just reminds everyone as to why One For Rosie is a yard favourite 💙

03/08/2024

Epic

Snoop Dogg and Martha Stewart 🤝 and .official 😎🇺🇸

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02/08/2024

Freya says she’s aiming for the 2032 Olympics for when she’s 16. That’s 8 years to sort out some questionable facial expressions 🥴

30/07/2024

A whirlwind trip to Versailles (stunning) with 3 great ladies to cheer on team GB & yard favourite favourite Don Quidam in the Olympics. Great weather, food and company thank you Becks Bannell . Hannah Hartop a great bed companion too.

25/07/2024

https://www.horseandhound.co.uk/news/hes-great-and-he-knows-it-17-year-old-gelding-takes-working-hunter-spoils-at-royal-international-864925

Great to see this son of the brilliant stallion ‘I Love You Melody’ win at the RIHS.

Our lovely grey connie Mickey is by ‘I Love You Melody’ and will be on the market soon 😉 Would love to keep him for Freya but he’s a little bit too smart to keep 😂

24/07/2024

Freya & Meg having fun after their hack today 💕

22/07/2024

What a clever boy for his owners Paul & Clare Rooney and this fantastic team 💙💛

20/07/2024

Freya and Meg coming 2nd in the 70cm today 🥰

08/07/2024

Who would have thought that just one year on he really was a true pony club pony 🙈😂💙

04/07/2024

This is a hard post to write. I thought about sharing this news in a purely positive way. But I think I’d rather be 100% honest. And I’m happy if this leads to a discussion on how our industry can change for the better?

I’ve decided to stop leasing the gorgeous farm where I’ve been for the past few years. I’m no longer going to have horses in full training (which for those who know me, you know that is my absolute love) and just be a freelance instructor teaching a couple days a week in the area.

I sat down and did the math on what my finances would be like if I just taught two days a week and had no expenses outside insurance, my car, memberships, etc. I would make MORE working that little than I do right now. And I run a pretty great program - my barn is always full with a wait list, about half super nice young horses and half FEI horses. My students and I compete a lot, very successfully. But the cost of running a program like this is so high, that even though I am “successful”, I barely make a living wage. I pay my wonderful assistant trainers more than I make (because they 100% deserve that salary and more!) And of course I could raise prices even more, but I think I charge an awful lot, and at the end of the day, I just feel awful about expecting people to pay SO much for a luxurious hobby.

Of course, people don’t go into this business with a dream of making a big profit each year. And that is a legitimate argument - you do this for the love of horses and riding. But when the costs and the stress of running a big barn start piling up, that argument gets pretty tired pretty quickly.

By far the biggest struggle I’ve had over the last few years is keeping good employees. And I know all my fellow barn owners and trainers are struggling as much as I am. I have a few AMAZING employees (endless thanks to Kate Tackett & Nicole Wilbur) and right now my best workers are 15, 16, and 22. So the argument that “kids these days are awful” is not true. But the instances of employees quitting with no notice, being offended at having to physically work hard, having incredibly low standards for the work they do, and outright lying have been more and more and more lately. It’s exhausting, and the fact that I’m paying $20/hour, run a great program, and am STILL getting these kind of workers makes me feel no optimism for the future. 😞

In the past I didn’t pay hardly anyone. I just had working students who worked off their housing, board and training. And that worked much better. But that seems to be a thing of the past? People now expect all that AND $600+ a week. And if my business made so much money that I could do that, I would love to. But the math just flat out doesn’t work.

My social media feeds are FILLED with barns begging for good help. I don’t know what the answer is. But I know I’m at the point where I would like to have the time to look at what else life has to offer. I’ve done this professionally for 20 years (and for fun since I could walk.) It’s a huge deal for me to imagine that I won’t be riding every day here on out. But it’s also incredibly exciting to imagine my life without these stresses. What if I didn’t have to get up at 5:30 and feed and muck because the weekend worker quit at 10pm the night before? Maybe I’ll start a hobby. 🤪 Or maybe I’ll just hang out with my wonderful husband and beautiful kids and have a coffee at the table instead of racing down the road in my car…