yours2share - sharing stuff & collaborative consumption » horse share

Another way of sharing the big stuff

sophie — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 09:36:37 +0000

I’ve just posted another entry “Another way of sharing the big stuff“ on the Shareable website, a follow on from a piece I wrote last month called “How to share the big stuff“

How to share the big stuff

sophie — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 14:05:33 +0000

I’ve just added a post to Shareable.net’s excellent website about every aspect of sharing. It is an introductory piece explaining the basics issues to be discussed when you are creating a new private syndicate, called How to share the big stuff.

Help Disney to join the Horse Rangers

sophie — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 10:17:56 +0000

A good friend of mine, Jackie Bryans, runs the Horse Rangers, a children’s charity based at Hampton Court in south west London. As my parents live nearby, I had heard about the Horse Rangers, but until recently didn’t know how they were run or that they are a charity. I don’t normally write about charities or ask for help or donations, but this story struck so many personal and yours2share chords, I thought I’d write about them to see if you can help.

Over 350 young people attend the Horse Rangers each week – many of whom are from disadvantaged backgrounds. In addition, they operate a Riding for the Disabled section throughout the week during term time and in the school holidays there is a ‘Horse Ranger for a Day’ experience for Young Carers to help ensure that these vulnerable young people have at least one positive day away from their commitments at home.

However, it is not just about learning to ride and look after horses, rather it is a very positive tool for personal development. The older Rangers are encouraged to mentor the younger children resulting in many of them growing up to become volunteers and leaders, thereby giving back to the charity.

During the current climate everyone’s budgets are really tight: Horse Rangers relies on volunteers to deliver most of its activities and therefore has a very small staff so the main costs are feeding and looking after their 30 horses and ponies.

Unfortunately a number of their horses are getting rather old: one (who is over 30 years old) is not expected to last the winter and several others are ready for retirement. Because of tight budgets this year the Trustees are unwilling to take in any new horses to replace those that are lost, unless they can raise the funds to feed them over the next year.

Finding the right horses and ponies is never easy, but the Horse Rangers has been offered a pony called Disney who was rescued from abuse at Spindles Farm. Disney was nursed back to health by the Horse Trust where the Horse Rangers retire their horses. Disney is only 5 years old and at 14.3hh he is the perfect size and build for the majority of children to ride. Moreover despite all the abuse he has received in the past, he continues to have a very gentle nature and the Horse Trust think he will therefore be the perfect pony for the Horse Rangers and he should be able to give a good 20 years of service before retiring (so a great long term investment!).

If you are in a position to make a donation, please go to Virgin Money Giving,
or if you know someone who may be interested in helping with fundraising, the Horse Rangers would be extremely grateful for any help.

Successful horse sharing

sophie — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 12:27:56 +0000

yours2share now has well over 300 horse share ads, from all over the UK, from Devon to Ayrshire and Cardiff to Surrey (lots and lots there!) I’ve recently spoken to several people who have successfully found sharers through yours2share.

I’ve also spoken to a few who have found a sharer, it’s worked well for a while, and then the arrangement has ended and they are back advertising again. In some cases this is because circumstances changed, but in a couple of cases, it was because the owner of the horse was unhappy with some aspect of the sharer, and in both cases one factor was that the sharer simply didn’t turn up sometimes.

If you are going to share your adored equine friend, I strongly suggest that you do two things.

Firstly make sure the person is suitable. This doesn’t just mean that their riding skills and knowledge of horses are sufficient; it also means are they reliable? Will they turn up on a grey Wednesday in November when it’s pouring with rain? If they have agreed to do some duties in lieu of payment, will they conscientiously do this every said wet Wednesday? You don’t need to take their word for it, ask for two or three references: from an employer, teacher, previous owner of a horse they have shared. And then ring them up. You can tell a great deal from a simple phone call: much can be gleaned from what isn’t said. If your prospective sharer is under 18, call (and preferably meet) their parents and make sure that they know about, and are happy with, the arrangement. Again this will help you to acquire that warm happy feeling, or not.
Secondly, spend some time discussing how the sharing arrangement will work in detail, and then write down everything you have discussed in an agreement. Here are some of the things you need to discuss. Ideally this is proper contract; you can buy a template contract from our friends NetLawman. But even if it is just a statement of all the key points you’ve agreed which is signed and dated by you both, this is better than nothing. In effect the written agreement is proof that you’ve thought it all through and agreed how you will do things. It means that you are much more likely to have flushed out any misunderstandings.

Do these two simple things and your horse sharing arrangement is much more likely to be successful.

Your Horse

sophie — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 22:18:00 +0000

Merlin - loves being shared

Last months edition of Your Horse had a great article about a yours2share horse sharing case study. Many thanks to Geogie Lynch and Charly Sheringham for helping me with this, and of course to Merlin, for being soooo photogenic!

Here is the case study, guidance on sharing a horse and the latest horse shares – hundreds of them

Horse share case study

admin — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 16:04:50 +0000

Here’s a great new horse sharing case study: a result from yours2share. I’ve been talking to Georgie Lynch for a few months, when I first spoke to her she thought she’d found a sharer, but then this rider didn’t have enough experience. A couple of months later Georgie emailed me to tell me that she had found another sharer through yours2share called Charlotte Sheringham and a few weeks into the arrangement it is going splendidly.

Here are the horse share listings, rather a lot of them!

yours2share on YouTube

admin — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 08:22:43 +0000

I’ve finally managed to get yours2share‘s video onto YouTube!

If you want to see it in “high definition”, well much better quality, click here.

Horse for loan: the keyword game

admin — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 13:45:24 +0000

The horse sharing category has quickly grown into one of the largest categories on yours2share, with many new ads being posted every day and lots of people registering to reply to ads. The horsey template contracts are also proving popular.

The majority of people looking for horse shares find us because they have searched on Google. So I’ve been paying significant attention to the keywords used on Google, to move yours2share up Google’s organic listings rather than have to pay for sponsored links. (When you search on Google, yours2share links on the left appear if Google thinks our page is relevant. But we pay for yours2share links to appear on the right).

Analysing the keywords for horse share has highlighted a particular challenge: People use an awful lot of keyword combinations. This is true in all categories, but usually two or three keyword combinations stand out as those most commonly entered. For example in boat share, two keywords boat share and yacht share are far more commonly used. So I have to ensure that the yours2share site uses these keywords whenever reasonably possible in page titles, headers and text.

However having analysed the horse sharing keywords there are about 40 that all get heavy use: horse share, horse shares, horse sharing, sharing horses, share my horse, horse for loan, horses for loan, horse to loan etc etc etc etc. You get my drift. And then there are all the pony combinations. Aarrgghh.

So I’ve kind of given up and plumped for horse share, horse for loan and pony share. I’ll concentrate on these and just pay for the rest. Otherwise I think I’m flogging the proverbial dead horse.

yours2share at the One Life exhibition

yours2share — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 21:02:42 +0000

Today I’ve had one of those days when I start off thinking I’m doing one thing, and end up doing something completely unexpected.

I was called last night by the organisers of One Life exhibition at Olympia in three weeks time. They were selling the last few stands and as one would expect, there was a bargain to be had.

However I need an exhibition in three weeks time like a hole in the head at the moment. We are moving house in a month, although we don’t where to yet and the sale has some tricky legal details. Thankfully it is well worth our while moving. So I disregarded the One Life idea. But this morning I mentioned the idea to my partner Larry, who then convinced me this was a fantastic opportunity – which I kind of knew – but didn’t want to acknowledge.

When there is only one of you running a business, exhibitions are hard work. I don’t like to attend with less than five people on the stand. It’s exhausting, people need breaks, the stand must never be left unattended, and no-one must be left on their own. But I think I’ve found enough people, so I’m pretty pleased. Most difficult was finding someone to look after our two dogs for three days – but I’ve even managed this. I’ll admit a degree of smugness. I wish the solicitors, removal companies, buyers and tenants involved in our house move were as easily organised.

So why was I so interested in One Life? What has changing your life, by retraining, travelling, volunteering, redressing the life/work balance or whatever, got to do with sharing stuff. Well, more than you might think. I’ve realised after talking to lots of people who visit yours2share, that many people who advertise with us are looking to change their lives. They’ve identified what they want to do, and if they can’t afford to do what they want alone, then sometimes they can see a way forward if they could find a partner. They are looking for the needle in the haystack, but then that’s what the internet is for. yours2share helps them to identify the needle.

We have ads from people looking for partners to own and run a dog rescue/kennels/pet shop, own and run a centre for healing, share their farm, share their Provencal home for several months a year, share an ocean-going yacht to travel round the world, and many others. Or maybe they want to learn to fly, sharing a light aircraft is a good way forward, or perhaps they want to ride more often, so they could share a horse.

Anyway I’ll be there on stand 34 at the One Life exhibition, Olympia, London from Friday 29th February to Sunday 2nd March 2008, with four other people (fingers crossed). We would love to see you there.

Horse and pony share: template contracts

yours2share — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 11:14:18 +0000

We now have two new template contracts created in conjunction with internet document provider Net Lawman. The two templates cover two common but different horse sharing scenarios:

two horse owner-riders, riding for pleasure
financier-spectator and competition rider to work together in competing a horse.

There is also specific guidance on horse sharing as well as sharing any other valuable asset. Here are the current ads to share horses and ponies. This section also includes sharing dogs.