CateMMH
Active Member
Hi everyone,
My names Cate and I am the founder/managing director of manage my horse website
I have been hearing from friends and a lot of you registered on here about the interest and comments regarding my new site, by email. I thank everyone for being so positive and lovely about mmlh.
I have been emailing back practically the same thing each time and wanted to let you all know. I put this on 'saddle up' *whispers* as so many members from there were emailing with queries and so many people have emailed me to thank me for doing this, so as a lot of you have registered too I wanted to do the same here.
I own 3 horses (who i love, adore and practically worship
)and am lucky enough to have them at home but 3 years ago they were at a friends livery yard and she got in serious financial trouble and asked me in my professional capacity to look at where she was going wrong. Basically she loved the horses, could train them all day long but had no idea on the business side of things which, she readily admitted. She wanted to spend more time with the horses not the books but in doing so basically nearly destroyed the business. I took her business apart and in doing so built her a 'mini' manage my horse. Job done, except I was getting more and more requests for copies of the software I built. It became so apparent that it could help so many people from
your equine enthusiast wanting to profile their favourite horse and log their lessons and landmarks to the biggest equine business and everything in between. You simply use as much or as little as you like. Don't want to see the expenses? Don't log them
. Log your competitions, scores, places, comments etc.
I decided really early on this was going to be a free website, i could afford to build it and sponsorship would pay its yearly charges. I wanted to make a difference. To you all, its free and it will remain free and this I decided really early on before it even began to resemble the site today.
I didnt go the software route for many reasons, most of which it would need continually upgrading and would be very expensive, not to mention the web being the way of the world.
It's been a really hard slog and there were days I wanted to pull my hair out but it's done, it's switched on and officially launches this month but it's there for everyone now. Don't be put of by niggling cynicism. It's isn't too good to be true, it's totally true and if I only make a difference to one horse I will be very very happy. I'm a really softy at heart.
Redwings are our charity and believe totally in the site too and the need to keep accurate records and have a decent history to pass on where needs be.
There will be a news manager coming in January will news, articles and loads of fantastic competitons. Then the opportunity to transfer a profile to another user in the event of a sale or loan will be coming so that the history can continue and there's a lot more planned .
So to answer some of the things I am asked frequently
1. Manage my horse is free and will always be free.
2. The site is held on one at one of the securest datacentres in london along side some of the biggest and most influencial organisations. So very safe and totally backed up! So if the site is down you won't lose a thing.
3. There is no paddlock on the site as there are no banking details requested at any point.
4. Limited sponsorship and advertising will pay for the site.
5. Your personal data will 'never' be divulged to a third party. Unlike many of the sites you will visit on the web who will sell you data and hence is where most of your junk mail comes from.
6. Statistical analysis will be shared (at cost) to carefully selected third parties for research into the equine industry, information that hasn't been available before and will enhance our industry. hence why this is a free site.
7. Your address is asked for simply because some of the features of the site use it ... create a shopping list you can print or fax (your address is used here). Also demographically I can see where people are joining and more for the county and country information really this is for my research for expansion more than anything else. If it means you won't join simply use a false address.
This started out as a hobby and developed into a full time job .... it's for you the horse owner and there are no catches so please email me personally if you would like any further information at all as I'd hate you not to join because you have any doubts whatsoever. cate.ashton@manage-my-horse.com. I like to think that if you dont join its simply because you dont want to.
Thank you all sincerely if you got to this part of my message!!
Kindest regards,
And happy new year.
Cate
ps. Starbucks is because I love them and is also where I spent most of my time planning and creating manage my horse . Mines a skinny caramel macchiato or double mocha macchiate (only at christmas
).
My names Cate and I am the founder/managing director of manage my horse website
I have been hearing from friends and a lot of you registered on here about the interest and comments regarding my new site, by email. I thank everyone for being so positive and lovely about mmlh.
I have been emailing back practically the same thing each time and wanted to let you all know. I put this on 'saddle up' *whispers* as so many members from there were emailing with queries and so many people have emailed me to thank me for doing this, so as a lot of you have registered too I wanted to do the same here.
I own 3 horses (who i love, adore and practically worship
I decided really early on this was going to be a free website, i could afford to build it and sponsorship would pay its yearly charges. I wanted to make a difference. To you all, its free and it will remain free and this I decided really early on before it even began to resemble the site today.
I didnt go the software route for many reasons, most of which it would need continually upgrading and would be very expensive, not to mention the web being the way of the world.
It's been a really hard slog and there were days I wanted to pull my hair out but it's done, it's switched on and officially launches this month but it's there for everyone now. Don't be put of by niggling cynicism. It's isn't too good to be true, it's totally true and if I only make a difference to one horse I will be very very happy. I'm a really softy at heart.
Redwings are our charity and believe totally in the site too and the need to keep accurate records and have a decent history to pass on where needs be.
There will be a news manager coming in January will news, articles and loads of fantastic competitons. Then the opportunity to transfer a profile to another user in the event of a sale or loan will be coming so that the history can continue and there's a lot more planned .
So to answer some of the things I am asked frequently
1. Manage my horse is free and will always be free.
2. The site is held on one at one of the securest datacentres in london along side some of the biggest and most influencial organisations. So very safe and totally backed up! So if the site is down you won't lose a thing.
3. There is no paddlock on the site as there are no banking details requested at any point.
4. Limited sponsorship and advertising will pay for the site.
5. Your personal data will 'never' be divulged to a third party. Unlike many of the sites you will visit on the web who will sell you data and hence is where most of your junk mail comes from.
6. Statistical analysis will be shared (at cost) to carefully selected third parties for research into the equine industry, information that hasn't been available before and will enhance our industry. hence why this is a free site.
7. Your address is asked for simply because some of the features of the site use it ... create a shopping list you can print or fax (your address is used here). Also demographically I can see where people are joining and more for the county and country information really this is for my research for expansion more than anything else. If it means you won't join simply use a false address.
This started out as a hobby and developed into a full time job .... it's for you the horse owner and there are no catches so please email me personally if you would like any further information at all as I'd hate you not to join because you have any doubts whatsoever. cate.ashton@manage-my-horse.com. I like to think that if you dont join its simply because you dont want to.
Thank you all sincerely if you got to this part of my message!!
Kindest regards,
And happy new year.
Cate
ps. Starbucks is because I love them and is also where I spent most of my time planning and creating manage my horse . Mines a skinny caramel macchiato or double mocha macchiate (only at christmas
