Sunday, August 28, 2011

July at MRS

July started off fairly slow here. Everyone was just getting out of school and getting ready to go camping it seems. This summer, a lot of people went camping. Tourists were nowhere to be seen. I blame that on the weather as well. It just didn't seem like summer was ever going to come. I just had my regular lessons for the first week or so. It really didn't pick up until the middle to the end of the month. I met some great people from Ontario who originally grew up here on the South Shore. There were two separate families who came to do pony rides for their kids. Each of the mom's used to ride and they both got the itch to have lessons. I ended up doing some lessons with them as well. We had a lot of fun at MRS the last week of July.

I was also incredibly lucky to meet a family from Bermuda. Their girl took some lessons here throughout a week. It was interesting to learn that keeping horses in Bermuda was almost impossible- due to lack of space and of course, money. It literally costs a fortune as they have to import everything. I don't think I could imagine having to live there without horses ;)  However, I am now very keen on visiting Bermuda, it sounds like a great place. After Elsa's last lesson, she handed me a DVD. Her father had done a huge research project on Humpback Whales in Bermuda, as well as the Maritimes. After I watched the amazing piece, I felt so lucky to have had the chance to meet all these people. The best part is that they will all come back next year and I'm hoping to see them again!

I also had an opportunity this year to work with Groupon. They are a huge advertising company that anyone can subscribe to. They have a daily deal that gets e-mailed to your address and you have the option to buy it. So we had our website and a pony ride deal on for two days. I basically did it just to get the name out in the Halifax area and to raise some awareness. It went pretty well, and I sold a few. Over the course of the
summer I have had some of those already and will have the rest in the fall.

Recently, MRS was featured in the local newspaper the Advance. Kelly came out in late July and did an interview with me on the farm. I told her about my daily routines at MRS, about our services and what I do here. The article was featured on a entire page and definitely brought in some business. The link is also posted on the Medway River Stables Facebook page.

Things seemed to pick up quite quickly in the last week of July and that gave me some positive energy toward August. That was really the month to look forward to and I will document it much further in detail! Happy Reading :)


Monday, August 22, 2011

Spring at MRS

Spring is always a great season. The season where people get excited for better weather, to graduate university, start summer sports and much more. At MRS, it was all about spending money and taking risks. By April, I had three horses, one of which was out of commission. Sunny's job was just to eat for the following few months. Midnight was in training to be a great trail mount. Until Easter weekend, there was not much going on due to terrible weather. It literally rained through April and it was cold. Easter weekend, however was fabulous. At that point I had only done a handful of trail rides. One of these was my chiropractor and her kids. They had a blast. It was one of those experiences that happened at the beginning, so you always remember it.

On Easter Sunday, my friend Brittany and her husband Matthew came out for a trail ride. That was the first warm weekend we had all year and we most definitely had a great time. Mind you, I walk these trails on foot, so I was pretty beat after the hour. I was not used to the heat and at that point really didn't know if I could make it through this summer (lol).

May was a stressful month. At this point, I was feeding three-four horses and the only business I had was the lessons I was teaching. I had about 6-8 regulars at that point. It was a financially difficult month and I got extremely lucky with Cheyenne, being able to lease her. It took a fair amount of time to get insurances sorted as well as all the registration paper work. Within the first week of May, I was all ready to go. As a Grand Opening we did $5 Pony Rides. This event was advertised on Facebook for a few weeks prior. I guesstimated 20 kids or so. Holy, was I wrong. At 11am sharp, cars piled in the driveway one at a time. Midnight and I walked four hours non stop and we ended up having 50 kids. It was an amazing day! Just the kind of day one needs when they're not sure if what they're doing is even going to work. It really gave me something to work with. From there, June came around and the weather got better as well.

By the middle of June, I was mostly teaching and promoting the business. I had printed 2500 brochures which  were delivered to restaurants, shops and visitor centers all around the province. At this point, my friend Kirsten who is one of my regulars, was amazing. She helped me advertise around town and she is now one of my biggest fans! I adore her and her daughter. They have been fantastic supporters.
June also became a very expensive month. The vet came to do shots and teeth. It seemed like all that was happening was spending money. By then, it really hit me, what kind of business this is. Basically it requires a ton of work, a ton of responsibility and a lot of overhead costs. Those three points summarize this entire operation. Taking care of six horses is almost worse than kids(they're a 12 hr/day job), but nothing could ever make me turn back now. There are things we sacrifice as humans and to me, I wouldn't trade the sweat and tears for anything. My siblings have also been fantastic helpers around the barn and I wouldn't be able to do it without them.

April, May and June were by far difficult. With any business, it takes a long time for the word to spread and for things to get moving. I was looking forward to the summer. Sunny had his first ride on May 16th, so in the middle of June I had four horses ready to work and that's all that I could have asked for at this point :)

I was excited for July and low and behold, I met some of the best people ever!

About MRS

Medway River Stables is located in Mill Village, Nova Scotia, on a 55 acre farm. This farm belongs to our family and had been the home of a busy, great trail riding business until 2003.

Medway River Stables opened in the spring of this year. It took some time to acquire all the right horses and to decide on the main focus. Starting this business entirely on my own, left me with only a few options. As an individual, I am only capable of doing so many things in a day, so I decided to begin with lessons and trail riding. Starting small is usually the best way to go, so last winter I leased a pony named Ella. With her and another horse, I was able to start some students over the winter. In February, once I had plans set in stone, I went on a search for a new lesson horse. This one would also be my first horse to join MRS as a business. Of course we have had Harie and Karissa(two warmbloods) here for many years.

In February, I went to the valley to see a horse named Manny. He would become my number one lesson horse. Manny is a cute, brilliant Thoroughbred/Morgan, with a lot of experience. He is a character and then some, but does his job well. At the end of February I took a trailer and went to pick him up for a trial. I knew he wouldn't go home again.

Next in line was Mr Sunshine. After acquiring Manny, I kept my search going for some trail horses, so I would have enough time to train them and get them in shape for May. I had gotten in touch with a sweet lady who was looking to rehome her Standardbred. This ended up being one of the most eye opening experiences of my life. Sunshine will get his own post, so be sure to look for it. He came to me completely starved to the bone. I had nooo idea what I had just gotten myself into, or whether or not it would work out. Two months later, he had the first ride with his favourite kid, Austin. Today, six months later he is happily doing some trail rides with kids, still building his muscle. I would have to say he has a nice beer belly on him now ;) Whoops, hay belly I mean.

In April, I bought a pony named Midnight. She is a Morgan/Quarter Horse cross and is as mighty as a horse. In fact, she is borderline horse anyway, but she is the smallest I have. She came out of a field and knew nothing, but now she is a perfect trail and pony ride mount. In April, I had gotten two other horses for trials, but they unfortunately did not work out for different reasons. In this business, one has to find the most suitable and trustworthy horses out there. One of them was a total sweetheart and it broke my heart. After many tears and sleepless nights, I stumbled upon an ad. A lady was looking to lease her horse for a year due to personal reasons. I contacted her and the next day, I was able to go see the horse. Cheyenne is now my number one trail horse. This mare is fantastic and I could not be any happier with her. I will certainly say that I have had great luck with all the horses that have found me :)

These four horses have given me the opportunity to start something I did not think was feasible. With a little luck, and some great people, anything is possible. To this day( 4 months later) I have had next to no issues with any of these horses. They each have completely different personalities. Anyone who walks through our barn will tell you that. Each one has a heart of gold and I am fortunate to be able to work with them.

Now I will start this diary with some of the highlights from this spring! I will see if I can catch up to August :) Happy Reading!

About Me and My Goals

Hello All :)

For the longest time, I thought I would start writing a blog about MRS and how it all began. Then I wasn't sure if I really wanted to do it or if I had time or energy for it. As the summer went on, I have met some of the best people that I could ever work with. With this type of business, you get many clients through the door on a weekly basis and in order for me to remember everything, I decided to start this blog. This journey has been difficult but very exciting, so I figured I would share it with those who enjoy reading and learning.  This blog is purely for my friends, family and clients, whom I have to thank for making this whole journey possible :)

A Little About Me


My name is Livia Mueri. I am 24 years old and recently graduated with a Bachelor of Commerce from Dalhousie University. Since I was a little girl, I have been nothing but horse obsessed and spent every minute growing up at my grandparents' small stable in Switzerland. In 1998, I found out that my family and I would be moving to Canada. The Canada part didn't really matter to me. It was the "stable" and "farm" that would forever change my life. You see, life in Switzerland is like life in a big city. There is no room to move and pressure is always on. A farm life is something I could never have imagined at age 9, until we first came to Canada in 1996. After that trip, we could not wait to come back, so in 1999 our lives changed as we moved across the big pond. From this point on, my love for horses grew bigger every day. Being able to work with them personally and through the trail riding business opened my eyes in so many ways. I knew I would want to work with horses for the rest of my life.

As a 12 year old, I entered my first competitions on our aged trail horse Brandy. He was a good soul and at the age of 20 years still learned with me every day. He and I managed to complete our first cross rail courses, as well as small 2 ft classes. Sadly, Brandy was put down last Christmas at the age of approximately 32 and I still miss him every single day. From him, I moved up to our Dutch Warmblood, Harie who at this point came to Canada with us (a year later in 2000). At 13-14, we competed at the 3 foot jumper level throughout the province. At 15, we won the first 3ft6 course we ever did together at Loyal Hill. At 16, we won the first 3'9 course we ever entered at Red Bank. Harie taught me everything I knew and he is still with us today at the age of 22. He is now our schoolmaster and is teaching my sister all the same tricks as he taught me.

In 2003 I acquired Oskar, a horse we had sold as a 4 year old. He had been a seasoned 4'6 jumper and would become my new teacher. He and I competed at 4' level and schooled up to 4'3-4'6 at home. At our first show, we won the first ever 4' class I had entered. Unfortunately, at this point in life I had graduated high school and went off to University. Every weekend, I would be home doing barn work and schooling horses, but it became difficult to show horses, however I stayed committed to my four legged friends.

Since 2003, we have only had our personal jumpers and the farm always seemed a bit empty without 13 horses. I have been determined since I started my Commerce degree, that I would want to start a business here on this farm again. It seemed unrealistic and not so feasible, for a young person to start this whole business on their own.

In 2009, a year before I graduated, I went on a student exchange to Finland. It was one of the best experiences in my life, but living without horses for 6 months became a major mental battle for me. The more I was away from them, the more determined I became to find a solution. At the time, tourism had also decreased immensely since 2003(and is still not much better), so my goals had quickly been erased by this. In Finland, my best friend was Roland, an Italian whom I could talk to about anything. He realized just how determined I was, and supported me the whole way through my ideas and plans. As I returned to finish my last year at Dal, I wrote a business plan for my Entrepreneurship class. Since I did not graduate until April and had no savings(or the belief), I decided to wait another year. This would determine if it was the right thing or the wrong thing to do. I worked at Trot In Time in Lunenburg for two consecutive summers and every day, I went home and debated if I should do this or not. My boss encouraged me every week and eventually I gained some belief.

Last winter, I had 4 months to debate with myself while recovering from a terrible lower back injury which left me crippled for months. My plans of riding all winter and working with some boarders shattered in November, before I really started. I managed to get through, and maybe those difficult times just reminded me that it would be worth it in the long run. At some point, I decided not to debate anymore and just throw my heart into it and here we are now. The paper work was all completed by May and at this point I had already acquired three of my four current horses.

I now invite you to join my journey(started in February)as I post about each of the horses and about daily life on a farm with a stable offering Lessons, Pony Rides, Trail Rides and Birthday Parties.