Anyone know anything about Frith Manor Yard (North London) - considering a move there

[XelaM]

Hi All,

This may be a long shot, but having experienced some crazy YOs I am really scared to make the wrong decision again. We are in North London, but most of the yards we know have either no space or very poor turnout, so we are considering Frith Manor.

It's not a yard I have heard anything about and they appear to have a lot of free stables, which makes me suspicious that there is something wrong, as the yards around us are usually very popular.

On paper, they look really good. Great turnout, decent facilities and the YO and manager seem nice and reasonable. The horses and stables look well-taken care of and the livery is fairly cheap. Am I missing something? Does anyone know anything about this yard?

Also taking any recommendations of other yards in the area that I may not have considered.

Hello 👋As you might remember I used to live in North London for many years (no longer alas) so know all the yards in the area well. Frith Manor I believe has recently had a change of ownership/management and I have heard some rumblings of discontent and that some people have moved as a result, no idea of the rights and wrongs behind it mind you. Their facilities are OK but not stellar, the hacking is poor (completely understandable given it's right in suburban N London!), the turnout OK but not excellent, they've got two big-ish outdoors IIRC but no indoor. I don't think they do lessons any more for non liveries so that would probably be a bonus to not have lessons cluttering up the school. I'm guessing the good public transport access is a bonus for you or is that not a consideration?

Would you consider LEC next door? Lots of cons of course to a busy riding school atmosphere and same issues with hacking and turnout as Frith but the same family have owned and run it for donkeys years and they're reasonably uninsane IIRC (all livery yard / riding school owners being at least a bit insane in my book of course but not on the scale you've experienced I'd say). It's not very smart (or it wasn't when I was last there pre-pandemic and I can't imagine they've spent that much money on it since the way things are going) and not in any way a comp yard but at least there'd be other teens around the place for your DD and stuff going on?

Or what about Mote End, very £££ but lovely facilities there? Or Woodhurst? I know you wouldn't want to go back to TP. Have you joined the Hertfordshire Horses FB group as I see livery spaces at smaller yards advertised there plus you'd probably get a range of views on the Frith situation and whatever's going on there?

@maxelly Thank you so much. That's super helpful. Frith Manor did recently change ownership and the new owners claim they have all year turnout (24/7 in summer and in at night in winter). Not sure whether that's true and I know their fields are a clay but not much can be done about that in the area. They have a small and quite rundown indoor school, but most riding would be in their outdoor schools (one big and one small). What puts me off is how many free stables they have (they are even using stables as sheds for liveries). Surely there must be something wrong, as otherwise they look very good on paper and appear to be flexible regarding riding times and early start/late return for shows. Hacking isn't great though.

We definitely accept many degrees of craziness from YOs 🤣 and appreciate that horsey people are usually not people people. But there is crazy and then there is totally batshit 😬 Just by way of example the YO wouldn't open the gate for us yesterday on our return from a training day (even though we gave them advance notice) because we were exactly 5 minutes (not an exaggeration - this is true) later than than their usual closing time. When I asked what we were supposed to do if she didn't let us in, she said the pony would have to spend the night on the lorry. 🤦‍♀️ It's that kind of batshit craziness we want to avoid.

Woodhurst is actually top of our list to view. We have an appointment with them. We know a number of people there and everyone is very happy with the yard. Lack of indoor school was the only thing putting me off.

I have sent LEC an email to ask if they have spaces and if we could come have a look at it. A bit worried about being in a busy riding school again, as usually riding school always takes priority over liveries.

TP has the best facilities of all the yards we've ever seen in the area (except maybe Warrenwood) but (a) is ridiculously expensive and (b) you can rarely use the facilities as they are such a busy riding school.

I think Mote End have no free stables (at least that's what it says on their website).

Will definitely check out the Facebook group.

Hi, just seen your post-sorry for late reply!
We were at Frith and moved last year as did most of the diy and liveries due to issues with the new ownership. I won't put on here all the reasons only that my horses needed proper safe turnout. However I believe many issues have been sorted now and I would consider going back as we had a lovely time there and made many friends. ( although they mostly all left!)
Turnout during winter is terrible in every yard local to N London due to the clay soil and terrible drainage. Frith has half day turnout-7/8 am- 1.30/2pm during winter.
I know the LEC very well and was going to move our ponies there however turnout is also an issue.
We are now up near Barnet on a DIY yard.
Woodhurst is great but too far from us ( we know a few teens there)
Trent Park, Gillians too restrictive in riding times and their riding schools take priority. ( We have a good friend at Gillians although its just had a seriously terrible review!)
Moat end is lovely but they used to only take adults- would be lovely if they have changed.
Strangeways is great for competing teens with various indoor and outdoor schools however the issue of Sky owning the land and wanting to build has been looming over for the past few years.
Equitopia and Warrenwood have amazing facilities and a hefty price tag to match (1600 per month)
I think realistically we will be looking to move further out up the A1. Welwyn equestrian comes highly recommended.
There's also blackbirds farm and Shenley stud which are further out.
Feel free to message me and we can have a moan at the lack of options here! Xx

Hi. I’m currently a livery at Frith Manor. I have been there for just over a year, I arrived just as it was taken over by the new owners. I have been extremely happy there! The owners are wonderful and the yard manager is great as are the other staff. All the liveries there are lovely and everyone is super friendly and helpful.
You get 24/7 turnout in summer and winter turnout is 7-2pm. The fields are taken care of and monitored so turnout is available all year round.

Wow a blast from the past . I was there about 25 yrs ago . It wasn't the smartest yard at all but it was full and we had some good times . Was a DIY yard in those days . Sorry no help now though .