So who is Abbotts View Livery?
My name is Amy Dell and Abbott's View Livery is my passion and my dream and my life.
I started AVL in 2016 when I was just 21, after completing a degree in Animal Behaviour and Welfare, saving up for many years, lots of planning, and all alongside working at a vets, a small local farm and as a freelance.
Unlike lots of my friends who used their savings to go travelling, I decided I wanted to invest it and start my own business.
My dream was to create a place where horses could be horses. That broke the mould of traditional horse keeping and went back to the basics of what horses really need: Freedom, Free Choice, Food/Forage and Friends!
It was scary to break the mould, I had no idea if I would get any interest or whether it would be feasible to build any of the things I dreamed of if there was no demand. All of these things that I now have, through alot of hard work, money spent and a huge amount of help from my amazing family and friends and of course, my clients!
Now at 26, looking back on the last 5 years and all that has developed and all I have learnt, I am immensely proud of what I have achieved.I have had my fair share of difficulties, from problems with my health (such as when I fell with my youngster he landed on and broke my leg in three places in 2017 meaning I was unable to run the yard for 3 months) to failed surfaces, storm devastation and challenging clients. As a result of all this, I have grown hugely as a person and learnt so much more about horses and track systems through so much trial and error, brainstorming, money, hard work, tears and successes!
No longer am I the geeky kid with glasses from school who gets bullied and treated like a door mat, but I am still the girl who absolutely and utterly loves horses, with a huge passion for animal welfare, behaviour and enrichment.
When I started AVL my first track was only 1 acre. I had no shelter, no barn, no horse safe fencing, no round pen, not surfaces, no hacking track, no staff and hardly any horses!Over the next couple of weeks I am going to be reflecting on all that I have achieved by going back through photos, to show you all the then and now.
I will not let other people bring me down. Especially not ex-clients who do nothing but lie and refuse to take responsibility for their own actions in order to make themselves feel better.
I have a fantastic yard and set up, that continues to grow. Our horses are able to live out all year round 24/7 without mud (unless they chose to go in it) and the choice of shelter, their own herd and plenty of forage that never runs out.
I have wonderful clients and amazing staff, and wonderful horses who thrive on my system.
Never give up on your dreams and never be afraid to break the mould.
Thank you to everyone for you likes, shares, comments and support.
I dream of the day when all horses get to live outside with free choice, forage and friends.
"Find something that you love and do it everyday. Do that for the rest of your life, and eventually the world will change"
Picture of me and my boy from Sept 2020, completing one of my life's bucket list experiences of riding bridleless on the beach
