About Me
Emma Willats (BSc)
From a young age I was always an animal person. Living in Turriff I was surrounded by pets - a Newfoundland dog called Ben, a mongrel called Doolie and a goat called Billy were my first introductions to the world of pets. Even after moving into a small flat in town we missed having animals and we rescued a black and white Lhasa Apso called Mitsy, along with a "minature" rabbit called Flopsy (it soon became clear that there was nothing minature about him when he became too big for me to lift!)
When I started school at the age of 4 I met a friend with her own pony who offered for me to come and ride him. Mum foolishly said yes. By that point there was no turning back and I fell in love with horse riding, initially attending Whitemyres Riding School until the age of 6 and then moving to Hayfield, where I sat my Stable Management 1, 2 and 3 assessments and worked for free rides throughout almost every summer until I was 12. After several bad falls I lost some confidence and we felt it was time to move on to a different school with different instructors.
I moved on to Oldfold Riding School where my amazing instructor Mo Payne gave me a world of confidence, starting me out on quieter horses and gradually pushing me farther until soon I was schooling young horses over their first jumps and bringing on dealer horses to sell. I worked in, and was in charge of the riding school at weekends for over 6 years, buying an Irish sports horse called McGinty, who sadly died at a young age. In my first year of University I bought my second horse, Tegoz Marianos (Major to his friends!) who was also from Oldfold.
After school I decided that I'd love some qualifications that would stand me in good stead for a career with animals and a natural progression for me was to take a degree that involved horses! After 4 years or hard work, a lot of fun with equally horsey friends, and working 7 days a week between B&Q and several livery yards, I graduated with a BSc in Equine Science and was the first member of my family to ever have graduated from university.
Not resting on my laurels, I almost immediately secured a job working offshore as a Mud Logging Geologist and then moved on to become an M.W.D. Field Specialist, also offshore. This was probably the hardest thing I'd ever done - the job involved going to Abu Dhabi for 2 months and although I coped with the work, leaving my horse and my family was very difficult and I constantly worried about the standard of care that Major was receiving.
It was after this that I vowed to start my own business to remove the worry that I went through for all those other people out there who don't have loads of time on their hands to spend all day with their dogs and horses. And that is the story of how Mobile Livery Services was born...
Major
Tegoz Marianos, or Major, is my 16 year old Welsh Section D. I bought him from Oldfold while I was working there as he was generally causing trouble in the riding school and it was very clear that after 3 years he'd had enough. He never enjoyed a life of being ridden by lots of different people and would run away from everyone when he was led from the field, untie himself and disappear from the stables and buck and catleap around the school. It was clear, however, in the 3 years I knew him that he had great potential and he had a very sweet personality when he wasn't trying to kill people!
I was asked to keep him busy over Christmas 2002 when all of the other riding school horses and ponies were given a break - we knew if he was allowed 2 weeks off there would be chaos when he was brought back into work - and my suspicions were confirmed. He was a brilliant horse when given one on one attention and I decided that if I passed my driving test on the 28th January 2003 then I would buy him - I passed and treated myself to a pretty special Valentine's present!
Despite being warned by everyone who had ever witnessed Major's bucking displays that he would never be safe to ride outside, I ignored them and started working towards our first outing - a hunter pace at Dinnet in summer 2003. All went amazingly well and we completed the course. Twice in fact!
He's gone from strength to strength and we have competed successfully in cross country, showjumping and in hand showing throughout Aberdeenshire and beyond:
Dunecht XC course, 2003 (2 falls in the warm up arena alone must be a record!);
Tahuna XC course, 2003;
Loanhead Showojumping League;
Denburn Summer Showjumping League - placed at several heights;
Turriff Show 2005 - M&M in hand, 4th place;
Oldfold Gymkhana 2006- First place in 2ft6 and 2ft3, qualifying for the Saltire Series Championships in Carluke, Glasgow, coming 4th in our section;
Aden Park 2006 - First place in 2ft3 and 2ft6, took home the 2ft6 trophy for 2006
We're already planning ahead and looking forward to competing next summer!