When the children got a pony of their own, they already knew how to tack up, put her headcollar on and tie her up, even groom her through playing with their toys. A year later the children had three ponies, a dapple grey, a brown and a chesnut with flaxen mane and tail, just like the original ponies I made for them.

I believe it is good for children to learn to make things, so I make short instructional videos for children to make things for their Crafty Ponies. Their cotton manes can be plaited and the tail is sewn properly onto the dock so that it can be plaited too.

My passion for horses was inspired from the age of 10yo to 14yo when I rode for Gordon Squires at his yard near Chorley, Lancashire. He found the super pony Hey Diddle Diddle ll whom we bought from a riding school. I jumped him at JA and then he jumped well into his 30's. Mr Squires also found Wilwin, whom I rode until he was bought by Geoff Billington and went on to win most promising newcomer at the Royal International in 1977.

My husband and I moved to Hebden Bridge 18 years ago and people kept asking if I was running a riding school as we then had six children and lots of horses and ponies.

We actually started one and ran it until a couple of years ago - it was the experience gained from teaching so many children and adults which helped me with the content for the instructional booklets that come with all the Crafty Ponies products.

The business really took off in 2015 when we took Crafty Ponies to Equifest, where ther children loved them. So we went on to the British Show Pony Society Championships, then Horse of the Year Show, Your Horse Live and Olympia, and that year Crafty Ponies won at the Creative Play Awards. The support from show organisers and judges has been so encouraging.

The ponies gained a loyal following and children kept asking me for more colours of ponies and more products, we now have over 80 products in the range. They are sold all over the world and in 2020 Crafty Ponies was chosen as the "Best Horse Product" in the Netherlands.

Irish Olympic show jumper Cian O'Connor's children saw our products at Dublin Horse Show. Cian relised the educational potential of the set and approached me about making a show set of his top horse PSG Final (Charlie).

Charlie's show set includes ear bonnet, half-pad and tendon boots, and we want to work closley with Cian to bring out more products under the Karlswood (Cian's stables) banner, the aim being to help children learn more about the workings of a top class showjumping yard.

We produce a rug set for British showjumper Joe Stockdale which is sold through his online shop and Joe may soon have a white Crafy Pony made to look like his popular international showjumper Gunner, known as Romeo.