Horse breeder takes bull by the horns to launch new website

Date Published: 14-Jul-2010

FED up with the lack of a dedicated equine advertising stream, an enterprising horse breeder has taken the bull by the horns and set up the first horse website in Ireland.

Laurence Raftery from Ballinahattina, Castleblakeney in north-east Galway launched surehorsesales.com a fortnight ago and is hoping the website will take off ahead of the horse and pony fairs this summer.

A horse breeder with his brother Martin and father Larry, the family have a stallion, eight breeding mares and a few three and four year-old horses for breaking in on the family farm.

When he wanted to buy or sell stock he used to log onto one or two websites but became frustrated at the lack of horses.

But as he had no experience with websites, he engaged the services of a professional to help design the site where the key factor was simplicity. He is currently spending around 20 hours a week manning it.

See full feature in this week’s Connacht Tribune.