If I close my eyes will the mud disappear?

I don't know about you, but when I go out to my horses I often hope that the fairies will have come along and magically made their horse rugs as good as new again.

But no, inevitably during wet weather, such as we have all the time in the UK, you turn your horses out in the evening in clean rugs and return the next day to find them wearing mucky rugs, with tears and holes, broken straps and, they just seem to look at you as if to say, "What mum, what did we do?"

Well, a canny lady I heard of in the Vale of Glamorgan has come up with a great little cottage industry (a farm shed industry, actually) whereby they will take your horse rugs in, wash and repair them, and return them to you, almost, as good as new.

Stable Cottage Rug Wash is run by Sue Bater, and daughter Alyson, to cater to the local livery yards, racing stables and individual horse owners who all want to economise by making their horse rugs last a bit longer.

Sue rightly says that domestic washing machines often struggle with even lightweight day rugs, especially if they are on the large side, and so she invested in an industrial grade washing machine to cope with the heaviest of rug materials. The business also purchased a sewing machine sturdy enough to take on all types of horse rug repairs, meaning it can offer a truly complete service.

Luckily, the mother and daughter partnership had been awarded a £6,000 grant through Vale of Glamorgan Council's ‘Pride in our Farming Families' scheme and Sue says that this really helped them concentrate their minds on developing a business plan.

Well, I for one wish them all the best and if anyone wants to start a similar horse rug valeting service near me, they would have one very grateful horse owner banging their doors down very quickly.