Ivanhoe Equestrian

The Lebutt family have built up Ivanhoe Equestrian from scratch, having moved to to Leicestershire from Surrey in the mid-eighties, to a property that was little more than a farmhouse in a 40 acre field. At the time, John & Elsbeth, then a Chartered Accountant, ran a large engineering firm on the Ivanhoe Industrial Estate.

The riding school was officially opened in in 1990, with only three ponies. We expanded the yard quickly, having started with three stables and quickly developing the yard with Harlows to the 36 looseboxes that we have today, and also adding the large indoor and outdoor arenas.

 
       

In 2000 the arrival of the A511 Ashby bypass meant that we could no longer offer hacking to our riders, and we also closed the DIY livery yard of 16 stables. In replacement, we developed a cross country course and private hacking route around our fields and woodland.

By 2005 we were at our biggest and busiest, running a yard of 40+ horses with a large team of permanent, live in staff and around 200 riders a week. We also provided training for professional examinations up to BHSAI as a "BHS Where to Train" centre.

In recent years, in response to current economic situations and spending fashions affecting the equestrian industry as a whole, we have cut the yard back to a core of a dozen quality horses, and we no longer have full time yard staff, instead balancing all the yard work and teaching between the two of us.