Once upon a time.... The story of Utterly Horses is certainly an inspiring one! Utterly Horses is owned, masterminded and run by Becky Benfield (above) who at the age of only 16 started the company. Since the age of 12, Becky had been an avid collector of Breyer model horses after her parents presented her with her first Breyer model horse after returning from a business trip in America. After making enquiries, Rebecca discovered that there was a UK stockist of Breyer Horses, called the Wentworth Collection and before long, she had built up her own significant collection of Breyer models. Before long, Becky had contacted the owners of The Wentworth Collection and volunteered her services as a sales representative. In late 2000, during her school holidays, she travelled to local County Shows selling Breyer horses. Her enthusiasm for the product was reflected in her sales results. These were so impressive that the proprietor of The Wentworth Collection – having already decided that he wanted to give up the post of Breyer UK retailer – considered Becky to be the obvious ‘heir apparent’ for the position. In the middle of her ‘GCSE’ level exams, The Wentworth Collection and Utterly Horses amalgamated and Becky became the main retailer of the Breyer product range within the UK. That is where the story of Utterly Horses began.
The Future?
Utterly Horses has come on leaps and bounds since their fairytale beginning- and they are not planning to stop there! The future holds alot of exciting developments including expansion of the Utterly Horses branded range of items, Utterly Horses podcasts and even more features added to their ever growing website. Who knows, a range of Utterly Horses model horses may be on the horizon shortly...! Don't forget to read Beckys Blog to keep up to date with whats happening at UH.
Weird and Wonderful Facts about Utterly Horses:
- Utterly Horses is recongised as the UKs leading Model horse specialist and is known as "The Home of the Model Horse"
- Utterly Horses have been featured in countless National Newspapers, on TV and on the Radio. Becky keeps a book with all the newspaper clippings in!
- UH have worked with companies on many major events including film premieres, race nights, window displays and product launches. We are multi-talented and turn our hoof to most things! Should we mention Seabiscuit, Shell, Habitat and Blantons Whiskey?
- Our HQ office can be described as a childrens playroom x stable x warehouse and every piece of wall is covered in posters.
- Everyone who works at UH is model horse mad and the teams favourite tea time treat is Triple Chocolate cake. Mmmm.
Fun Facts about Becky:
- Becky won the Essex Entrepeneur of the Year Award at age 17. The youngest winner in the awards history.
- In her spare time (!), she does lots of active things like climb mountains and run in marathons to raise money for charity. She also does lots of volunteering work with her local community and is studying towards an Degree in the Arts.
- Becky designs and writes all of the Utterly Horses literature. So, any advert or catalogue you read or see is designed by her.
- Becky is planning to one day write a book about Utterly Horses and its adventures. It might even be a trilogy.
- Becky would like to one day receive a MBE for services to the model horse industry!
Behind the Scenes Pictures:
Meet the Team:
Our team at Utterly Horses are a weird and wonderful bunch. Instead of posting pictures of the team, which could scare some people, we though this might be more friendly to post our signatures. Anyway, meet the team!
 Utterly Horses Highlights for 2008:
- Winning TWO National awards: Winner of the Mail Order/Internet Retailer of the Year Aaward in the British Equine Trade Association Business Awards 2008 AND winning the national Everywoman award, right.
- Assisting a production company with a upcoming animated movie (that launches in cinemas October 2009)
- Launching of our new wishlist function on our website.
Utterly Horses Highlights for 2009:
- Reaching our 50,000th order.
- Relaunching our Utterly Horses Club- Join Our Club!
- Keeping up with technology by putting UH on Twitter and Facebook. We're Hip!
- Getting Engaged (okay, okay, thats not techincally an UH highlight but i'm UH so that kind of counts!))
- Discovering Utterly Horses was on YouTube.
- Launching sister company Utterlysaurus
- Becky becoming a Member (or fellow) of the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA)
Utterly Horses Highlights for 2010:
- Producting two models for our 10th Birthday- Utterly Tom Truffle and Utterly Mr Honeybug.
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