Destria
Where elegance meets horsepower
The Brief
Destria is a UK-based equestrian brand offering breathtaking horse riding experiences, live performances, and professional training clinics. They needed more than a pretty website — they needed a full platform. A public site that conveyed the grace and power of their shows, an admin backend to manage clinics, schedules, and attendees, and a booking system that let customers reserve spots and pay online. The old site was outdated, had no booking capability, and forced the team to manage everything via spreadsheets and email threads.
Built with
How we built it
We began with a deep-dive discovery phase, reviewing competitor sites and equestrian industry trends. The goal was clear: visual storytelling on the front end, operational power on the back end. Every public-facing section was designed to feel cinematic — sweeping hero imagery, generous whitespace, and purposeful motion.
The admin backend was built as a protected dashboard where the Destria team can create and manage clinics, set capacity limits, define pricing tiers, and track bookings in real time. Each clinic has its own detail page with date, location, instructor, available spots, and pricing — all editable through the admin panel without touching code. The system supports recurring events, waitlists when clinics fill up, and automated email confirmations.
The booking flow was designed to be frictionless: customers browse upcoming clinics, select their preferred date, choose a tier (e.g. group session vs private lesson), and pay securely via Stripe. The system handles capacity management automatically — once spots fill, the clinic shows as sold out with a waitlist option. Cancellations and refunds are managed through the admin panel with one click.
The frontend uses Next.js for blazing performance and SEO, paired with Tailwind CSS for rapid, consistent styling. Framer Motion powers smooth scroll-triggered reveals and parallax effects that give the site a premium, editorial feel. Firebase handles the data layer — Firestore for clinics, bookings, and user data, with Cloud Functions for email triggers and payment webhooks.
Key features
Impact & outcomes
The new site saw a 3× increase in enquiry submissions within the first month of launch. The booking system eliminated manual scheduling entirely — what used to take hours of back-and-forth emails now happens in under a minute. Page speed scores jumped from 42 to 97 on Lighthouse. Bounce rate dropped by 35%, and average session duration nearly doubled. The platform architecture is designed to scale — the same admin + booking system could power any experience-based business, from yoga studios to cooking classes to adventure tours.