Squarespace website for an equine coach

Before we could start building anything, Geneviève shared some raw materials – a description of her services and booking process, photos of the ponies and the location, and other practical bits like pricing, terms, contact details, etc.

We also asked her to collect websites she liked and disliked – not just from other equine coaches, but anything she came across that made her think “I'd like my website to feel/act like this” or “why on earth would someone want this on their website”. And everything in between.

She added them to a shared spreadsheet with a short note for each, so we'd get a sense of her taste and preferences.

Olga took the lead on visuals. She went through all of Geneviève’s input and came back with a few visual branding options – the colours would need to work well with the earth tones of the ponies and the surrounding natural landscape.

Once I’d gone through everything Geneviève had shared, we got on a call to fill in the blanks, talk through the structure of the site, and review the visual options together. She picked our favourite colour palette (brown with light pink) and approved the fonts right away, so we were ready to move forward.

That’s when I started working on the messaging. This meant writing up the foundational copy – a brand narrative, services overview, and a few key phrases we could reuse across pages and platforms. No polished marketing language, just simple, clear text that helped parents understand what Geneviève offers and how it could help their kids.

Next, I set to work on a content wireframe, which I built directly in Squarespace. This wireframe acts as both a draft and a conversation starter: it shows the site navigation, the different pages on the website, and the structure and flow for each page, with draft copy and placeholders for visual elements.

We walked through the website together on a call. I shared how I’d laid things out and why, and we reviewed each page in context. This allowed Geneviève to share her first impressions, fill in some more gaps, and give feedback – and also made it clear which images we were still missing, so she could find or take photos to fit the copy.

By the end of that call, we had a clear plan for the full site – and the last pieces I needed to move ahead with the design and final copy.

Geneviève had sent some great photos of the ponies and the location early on, which gave us a good visual base. But for a few key spots on the site, we were still missing certain types of images – and with grey skies and muddy paddocks, Belgian winter just wasn’t the right time for a photoshoot.

So we improvised. I sourced stock images to cover what was missing – mainly close-ups of ponies and children that matched the tone and age group of her sessions. The goal was to find images that didn’t look like stock photos, and that blended well with the real ones Geneviève had shared.

In the end, we used a mix: real photos wherever possible, and a handful of carefully chosen stock images to complete the picture. The result felt consistent and natural, and not overly polished.

With the structure approved and images ready, we finalised the site content. The copy was kept short and practical – focused on clarity, with gentle and reassuring language where it mattered. The goal was to make it easy for parents to understand what Geneviève offers and feel comfortable taking the next step.

The visual design followed the branding choices we’d already made. We applied the colours, fonts, and imagery to bring the pages to life – nothing over-designed, just a clean and welcoming layout that worked well across all screen sizes.

To manage bookings for the day camps, we created a simple sign-up form using Airtable. Submissions were stored in a tidy, easy-to-access base that Geneviève could log into and manage herself, including updating the form as needed.

We also set up payments through Mollie, so parents could pay online when signing up. The form and payment process were both embedded on the website, so the whole experience felt seamless – no need to chase people for info or follow up with separate invoices.

As part of the setup, we created new social media accounts for Horse Vibes and made sure they were linked from the website. We added a full set of posts to fill out the grid – a mix of pony photos and simple, informative content that explained what equine therapy actually is, how Geneviève approaches it, and why it can be helpful for young children. We also included a few posts to address common questions or concerns parents might have.

Everything matched the new branding, and the bio text came straight from the messaging we’d already written – clear, short, and consistent with the rest of the site.

Now that the content wireframe was approved, so was the branding, and we had all the images we needed, it was time to bring everything together. That meant polishing the copy, dropping in the final visual elements, and making sure each page felt consistent, clear, and easy to follow.

Once that was done, we sent the full site over for review. Geneviève had access to a simple feedback tool where she could click through the pages and leave comments directly. We also had a follow-up call to go over her questions, review a few suggested changes, and talk through anything that still felt unclear or unfinished.

With the desktop version approved, we moved on to the rest of the optimisation work: making sure the site was responsive across all screen sizes (not just mobile), adding image alt text and meta descriptions, and checking that page titles, headings, and URLs were structured properly for SEO.

We also ran accessibility checks where needed – things like page hierarchy and image descriptions – to make sure the essentials were covered for screen readers and other assistive tools.

Once all the content and functionality were in place, we did a full review across the site. That included checking all internal and external links (especially where URLs had changed), making sure the social media accounts were correctly linked, and testing every form to make sure submissions and notifications were working as expected.

After that, the website was ready to go live.