We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Lee Reed. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Lee below.
Lee, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Are you happier as a business owner? Do you sometimes think about what it would be like to just have a regular job?
Being a business owner certainly has its challenges and hurdles to climb, but it’s something that I always wanted to do for myself. I wanted to create something of my own, to be my own boss! The thought of the typical lifestyle with a typical job does cross my mind often, and I have lived the normal day to day being an employee instead of an employer. It’s definitely a completely different feeling, but I honestly wouldn’t have it any other way of being my own boss. I’ve always lived creatively and the thought of not being able to fully express that creativity sounds a bit daunting and not worth the hard work that goes into a job. In all honesty, I find it a bit scary to go back to a normal job, as being a business owner widens my opportunity and broadens my personal reach. I’m able to have some flexibility in what I want to do with my life and have that safe flexibility in the business that I’ve created.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
My name is Lee Reed, I’m a Charleston girl born and raised here. I’ve now been in the horse industry for 21 years. I take a lot of my creativity, drive, and will to grow from my mother Grace Reed. Without her I wouldn’t be the person I am today and I certainly wouldn’t have gotten into this industry without her. I started riding horses when I was 5 years old and my mother insisted I follow in her footsteps. My father was an orthopedic surgeon, and on the daily he would see patients come in that experienced horse related accidents! He had no interest in me becoming a horse lover or a rider! Thank goodness my mother stayed strong and got me into it anyway! I grew up riding at a few local farms mostly riding dressage while building my experience with riding and even some barn handing. As it goes for most of us horse obsessed kids in the summertime, the reoccurring ritual of the passing the child to the barn by your parents was a daily pastime. By the time I was about 12, I started showing more seriously aside from the local schooling shows and barn led shows. I would bounce around from the show ring and back to the barn for some good ole tlc. I continued doing that and even some managing until the end of high school. When the time came to go to college, I knew I wanted to pursue life in the horse industry and found myself at SCAD where I majored in equine studies. This program broadened my horizons and opened up the idea of one day owning my own boarding barn. I had always thought as a kid that I wanted to be a veterinarian, but the more I thought about it, the more I really wanted to do my own thing and build something of my own. I did some barn handing, some teaching and some managing after college, but I always had my eye set on the perfect property to one day build my business on. And one day, there it was! The perfect place ready to go, waiting for me! So here I am! I bought my barn in June of 2024 and have been building it up since then. We provide full boarding services to horse lovers from all over. We take care of the hard stuff, while you get to spend time with your horse! Ivy Bridge Stables isn’t like a lot of barns in Charleston. There’s a lot of stress to be the best and be a show star in the area, and I wanted to make Ivy bridge a place of calm and relaxation where the stress of preparing to take a trip with the show team wasn’t looming over your head. We just wanted to be a place where you can just sit on your horse and enjoy them at a beautiful barn. Relaxation is always a hard thing to find at many barns weather you do show or you don’t show. Nothing wrong with either, as long as you’re having fun!
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
Any business starting from the ground is a hard job. There’s a lot of back and forth and a ton of learning curves. You often get some pretty wild ups and downs. But with all of those twists and turns there’s always something to learn from them. When I first opened my barn, I expected it to fill up a lot faster than it did! It actually took some time. Not many people knew I was over here and no body knew I was the new owner of this barn. It really began with learning how to advertise and be present on social media! I have always struggled with technology, and it could just be from my upbringing with much older parents who don’t understand anything tech! I’m a 26 year old in perhaps an 70 year olds body! I feel quite overwhelmed by this technological world! That’s something though that I have to face as this is how everything functions! On the internet! I still have work to do in this sense, but when I first started out posting things and even having open house events started to add attention to the barn. Another part of being a barn owner in the horse industry is dealing with the horses, but mostly the people. It’s as equally a people job as it is a horse job. Learning how to deal with the people and finding solutions to their problems was and still is something I’m learning. There was a time there in the beginning where between the seasons things just weren’t picking up, I had lots of comings and goings trying to settle into a groove. I remember being quite worried if that would continue and id always have a half filled barn, but all I had to do was just sit and be patient. I just had to up the gas on the socials and broaden my advertising reach on google and things started picking up. One thing that I’m working on now is adding some new additions to the barn like shelters, extra wash stalls, fixing things that like to break! When those things do go up though, I like to make little posts about the new things coming to get people excited and hopefully attract new boarders!
Where do you think you get most of your clients from?
I think the best source of new clients, funny enough is simply the changing of seasons! What I’ve noticed over the short time that I’ve been running Ivy bridge is that it always picks up in the beginning of summer and the start of winter. It’s really just all coincidence I think, but that’s when people just like to move around. I always find that my website gets a ton of activity as well during these times. I get a ton of calls and emails from people wanting to move their horses and themselves to Charleston.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.Ivybridgestablesllc.com
- Instagram: Ivybridgestables
- Facebook: Ivybridgestables
Image Credits
Lee Reed