Sisters in the saddle

Madeline and Lucy Reich were practically raised in a barn. Their mother loved riding horses and passed that on to her daughters, so it seems almost inevitable that one daughter now has her own stable and the other seems likely to follow in her footsteps.

“I don’t really know what I’d do otherwise,” 16-year-old Lucy Reich said of a potential future career working with horses.

The sisters grew up in Mountain Brook, and Madeline, 24, graduated from Mountain Brook High School, while Lucy still lives in the city but attends John Carroll Catholic High School. 

The pair’s love of animals isn’t confined to just horses — Madeline Reich’s stable, Reichland Farms, is home to a pack of Australian shepherds — but it is the common thread in their family.

“When I was little, I was always around it because she [my mom] always had a horse. Then we started showing, and I loved showing,” Madeline Reich said. 

She and Lucy Reich share a love for competing in hunter jumper shows, though Madeline Reich also competes in barrel racing. They travel to shows around the region a couple times a month. During her years studying horse sciences at Middle Tennessee State University, Madeline Reich placed in the national top 10 twice at the Intercollegiate Horse Shows Association finals. Lucy Reich recently competed in the College Preparatory Invitational Horse Show and plans to continue riding competitively in college.

Madeline Reich opened Reichland Farms in Sterrett about a year ago. She typically has between nine and 12 horses in the stable for boarding, training and lessons. Operating a riding stable requires long hours – she said her day typically begins at 7:30 a.m. in order to clean, care for the horses, ride, give lessons and do everything else needed to keep up the business.

It’s not that Madeline Reich takes her work home with her. More accurately, her work is her home. She lives in a small apartment above the main level of the stables.

“It’s a lot of work. There’s no off button to the horses,” Madeline Reich said.

Lucy Reich is almost as much a fixture at the barn as her sister. She’s there nearly every day to help with chores and work on her own skills, and has even arranged with her high school to leave early some days in order to spend more time preparing to compete.

“It makes it a lot easier than it used to be,” Lucy Reich said of her unique school schedule.

Despite their mother’s shared love of horses, Lucy Reich said she knows grades still come first.

“It was the same for me,” Madeline Reich recalled.

Madeline Reich serves as her younger sister’s trainer, which means sometimes sibling competition comes into play or she’ll push her sister harder than other riders at the barn. 

“There’s ups and downs,” Madeline Reich said. “Some days we love each other, some days we don’t.”

But for the most part, Lucy Reich said it’s more fun to ride at her sister’s barn. And they always have someone to turn to for advice or a second opinion.

“We fill in the holes for each other,” Madeline Reich said.

Lisa Reich is also a regular visitor at her daughter’s stable.

“She loves coming out here,” Lucy Reich said. 

“Sometimes too much,” Madeline Reich added.

Some of Madeline Reich’s favorite memories are the horses she and her sister have worked on together. She wants to keep growing Reichland Farms and have more of those opportunities in the future.

 “I love being out here,” she said. “It’s turned into something pretty nice. I think it’s something that can keep, honestly, growing.”