How It All Began  

Above: My two young pony people. They inspired me to start the business and have helped me ever since.

People often ask ‘How did luvponies begin?”

Here’s the story.

In 2006, I sold an estate agency business that had kept me extremely busy for fifteen years.

When I started that business, I was single and free to work the long hours required to run a new company.

That situation changed when I married and became a mum to two daughters.

Juggling the demands of motherhood and business ownership was stressful.

Deep down, I knew I wasn’t doing either job the way I wanted, so I chose the girls and said goodbye to the business.

It’s something I’ve never regretted.

Being around for the girls was fantastic and an entirely new way of life for me.

I was able to spend all my time with them and never worry about having to return to the office or take “urgent” phone calls or explain to them why Mummy had to work most Saturdays.

But, you can’t stop your brain from ticking over (well, I can’t).

I felt the need to be in business again, but not be as fully committed as I had been before.

Or at least not tied to an office doing the inevitable long office hours.

As this feeling developed, an idea presented itself during the run-up to Christmas 2006.

Long before then (at the age of eight), I fell in love with horses and riding.

Happily for me, my young daughters did the same, and they rode regularly.

At home, the walls of their bedrooms were covered with pony pictures.

They were the epitome of pony-mad children, and as Christmas approached, I looked out for horsey-themed toys and clothing.

Surprisingly, there was not a great deal to choose from, apart from jodhpurs, riding boots, and hats, which they already had.

And that’s where the idea for a business that supplied gifts for pony-mad children originated.

Around that time, I struck up a conversation with the mum of one of my daughter’s close friends.

Her child was also pony-mad, and like me, my friend was also itching to start working in some capacity again.

We wondered if we’d spotted a gap in the market (I hasten to add, this was pre-Amazon days!).

When I mentioned this to my husband, he suggested we visit some trade fairs to see if we could find products and suppliers.

A few weeks later, we had our first products on order and launched our website, luvponies.com.

It proved very popular and the business grew quickly. So fast that we soon had to move out of my friend’s garage, and employ the services of a fulfilment company.

Our first three years were great.

However, little by little, other people started launching similar websites, and mighty Amazon hit its stride.

Suddenly, we found our slogans were being copied.

Worse still, many of our suppliers were now selling their products online against us. Something had to change.

My friend decided to pursue her university degree and went on to study law.

By this time, our children were at Uni, and she had the time to focus on her new career fully.

I decided that if Luvponies was to survive, it needed a new direction.

Once again, I took myself off to a trade fair and this time came home with everything I needed to design and print my goods. What a game changer!

Now I could offer items nobody else had. Yes, some inevitably got copied, but when that happened, I would move on to a new design and colour.

It kept me on my toes!

Jump to the present day. 10,000 + clients, worldwide! luvponies survived and thrived.

Then, of course, there was COVID…

How we survived Christmas 2020, I will never know!

Luckily, I have a fantastic network of friends who give up 6 weeks of their lives to come and help me. To this day, they are called my elves!

We worked our socks off, and by some miracle, none of us caught COVID, allowing us to fulfil all orders.

The postal strikes the following year were a whole different matter.

That was undoubtedly the worst Christmas I’ve ever had.

Not for lack of orders, we were extremely busy.

No, it was the stress of parcels being delayed by the strike. Sometimes, by weeks.

We couldn’t tell customers with any certainty when their parcel would be delivered.

It was a dreadful time, but we and they managed to get through it somehow.

On a happier note, having two pony-mad daughters (that’s Mollie above) helped launch the business, and their input throughout has been amazing.

From modelling at the stables to new ideas (one daughter is a fashion trend forecaster, the other a graphic designer), I have been fortunate and can truly call it a ‘family business’.

I still love horses and working in the business, and I’m constantly looking for new ideas and inspiration.

The website underwent a complete rebuild a couple of years ago, and the most popular and successful feature is the ‘Build your own hat cover’ section.

I have made thousands of beautiful hat covers and sent them all over the world.

I’m very grateful to all of the mums, dads and grandparents who come to luvponies to buy presents for the pony-mad children in their lives.

Thank you for doing so, and thank you for all the lovely messages you send.

Tracy

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