Ivy Rock Farms in New Windsor is reorganizing under a seldom-used chapter of bankruptcy law.
The Orange County horse farm filed a Chapter 12 petition in U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Poughkeepsie, on April 26.
It is the first Chapter 12 case filed this year in the 10 counties served by the Southern District of New York. Two cases were filed last year, both in Poughkeepsie, out of 8,023 bankruptcies.
Ivy Rock Farms LLC is owned by Shelley Gray and operates two equestrian facilities within a mile of each other: Schunnemunk Shadow Stables and Hollybush Classical Dressage Center. The horse farms offer boarding, summer camps and shows. Training ranges from pony riding for beginners to show prep clinics for Classical Dressage and Western Pleasure.
Ivy Rock estimates assets of $500,000 to $1 million and liabilities of $1 million to $10 million. Creditors include the Internal Revenue Service, Sterling National Bank and the U.S. Small Business Administration.
More detailed schedules are due next week, and the reorganization plan is due in July.
Nationwide, only 501 out of 789,020 bankruptcies filed in 2017 were Chapter 12, according to caseload statistics compiled by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts. The national rate was about one of every 1,575 petitions, compared to one of every 4,000 cases in the Southern District of New York.
Chapter 12 is tailored for family farmers and fishermen. It is less complicated and less expensive than Chapter 11 cases, which are better suited for large corporations. It is more advantageous than Chapter 13 cases that tend to involve smaller debts.
Farmers who use the chapter must be family corporations, husbands and wives or individuals whose debts do not exceed $4,153,150. They must have stable, regular annual income that ensures they can make payments to creditors for three to five years.
The case will be administered by Assistant U.S. Trustee Lisa M. Penpraze.
