The Horse Diva’s Mission and Your Guarantee of Quality
The Horse Diva is a division of Garden Divas Ltd, a UK online retailer based in rural Hertfordshire dedicated to bringing you a wide range of horse gifts, equestrian clothing and pony party supplies.
Garden Divas Ltd was created in 2009 with the launch of our first website Garden Divas before the launch of The Horse Diva in 2010. We are a family owned and run business headed by mother and daughter team, Gilly Brown and Katie Nicholl.
As the Director of The Horse Diva I strive to source innovative new equestrian products that make interesting and unusual gifts for horse lovers. I love putting together new hampers and gift sets that aim to surprise and delight the lucky recipients. My aim has always been to create a fun and vibrant website that is easy for everyone to use and understand, even if you are not an equestrian yourself.
When I first launched The Horse Diva back in 2010 I was working another near full time job, finishing off my Open University Degree and had a young horse to keep fit. For some mad reason I thought I would be able to run a small business in my spare time…well just look at us now! The practicalities of life meant that for many years I ran The Horse Diva on a part time basis. I worked my other job then dashed to my mums house (where the business was initially based) and quickly packed up orders to take to the local post office. I worked into the evenings to get any admin etc done. It was a steep learning curve and a long way from the various theories I was learning about in my Business Studies Degree!
Over time the business slowly grew and we reached a bit of a turning point. It was evident that managing two jobs was becoming impossible so I made the decision to take the leap of faith to run The Horse Diva full time. A scary decision but I remember thinking if I don’t try I will never know. With more hours to put into the business, the two websites continued to grow and then we faced our next challenge, working from home. I remember one Christmas we were standing at the counter at The Post Office and we knew we were one parcel short. We looked everywhere, every mail sack was emptied (yes by now fellow customers were raging at us!) but we couldn’t find it. When we got home we found it in a completely random room having been abandoned when we had dashed to take a customer’s phone call. In reality the business had grown so much it had taken over the house with stock not only in a garden outbuilding, it had completely swamped my Dad’s Workshop and then the office was at the other end of the house. Every time the phone went we were frequently dashing from one place to another. Not very professional you might say but this was the reality of growing a small family business.
Of course this point in time happily prompted a move to a local commercial property and it felt like we had made it! As expected with business growth comes increased pressure as we had more overheads to pay. Obviously we were determined to make it work and we have since moved again to move into a bigger premises. We now have a dedicated office, stock room and order packing room all next to one another. How novel! We also have a small dedicated team of myself, Gilly, Jess and Gill who are all absolute superstars.
Over the years as the business has grown I have always tried to keep my aim of bringing a personal touch to online shopping at the forefront of the website and everything we do. This feels even more achievable now with the use of videos and social media. Throughout the website you might notice my ideas about how to finish off a present – add some biscuits to a mug and coaster set, the easiest items gift wrap if it’s not your forte or a nice coordinating “padder present” (little extra) as we call them here! From the start I wanted the website to appeal to both keen equestrians and family members of horse lovers who perhaps themselves are not into horses at all. The world of horses can be a scary place some times and I want to continue to break down that boundary bringing vibrancy and fun into shopping for horsey gifts and riding wear.
Since our launch in 2010 I have been thrilled that the business has been featured in many publications such as Horse and Hound, Horse Magazine. Pony Magazine, Hertfordshire Life and Horse and Rider. Of course you can keep up to date with all our news and sneaky previews on our social media on either our Facebook Page or Instagram.
Please also see the FAQ page which may answer any other questions you have about us. Our full Terms & Conditions about The Horse Diva’s service are also available.
Katie and The Horse Diva Team