Young entrepreneur beats the odds with equine start-up

YOUNG entrepreneur Sarah Gill is someone used to overcoming obstacles albeit on the back of a horse.

But when the keen horsewoman and farmer’s daughter decided to launch her own animal physiotherapy business she was presented with a series of challenges that would have put a less determined entrepreneur off.

A “miscommunication” at her bank over funding to study McTimoney-Corley Animal Physical Therapy at the Oxford College of Equine Physical Therapy meant that she was forced to rely wages earned during work experience at Minster Equine Clinic in York.

“I couldn’t get a career development loan to pay my course fees, so had to pay my course fees monthly out of my wage from the vets, which left me nothing to live on for the entire year of training,” she recalls.

With no savings for launching her start-up, Gill was then told she wasn’t eligible for a business grant due to her Tockwith postcode.

“Apparently it’s too affluent around me,” she says.

“So I went with a business plan to natwest’s business manager who agreed to give me an overdraft facility to start up with. That gave me the funding for stationary equipment, insurance and a designer to do my logo and stationary and so on.”

The 23-year-old’s determination has paid off and despite only being launched a month ago, Gill has already attracted clients from across North Yorkshire including a racehorse trainer and top dressage rider.

The service offers bare hands physical therapy for horses and dogs with musculoskeletal injuries to help restore nerve function, relieve muscle tension and improve movement and performance.

She explains: “Animals – especially horses – in training are like athletes. Although they are performing at high levels of physical exertion, they often get no physical therapy afterwards”.

“Stiff joints and muscles, as in humans, can lead to pain and sometimes loss of performance. Although I knew there was more need for this service across Yorkshire and the North East, I’ve been amazed at how many customers are asking for the service – from individual dog owners to top racing yards.”

Gill already has ambitious plans for the business and hopes to specialise in performance horse rehabilitation.

“In the future I hope to be able to run my own rehabilitation yard for performance horses and employ other therapists and staff to help with increasing the level of service.”