Susan Benson
Ocala, FL and everywhere my work takes me.
Susan Benson is a life long horsewoman whose career path has taken her "literally" all over the map. She began riding at the age of seven while living in England. She continued her riding career becoming a serious junior competitor in the jumpers while on the North Shore of Long Island where she attended The School of the Holy Child Old Westbury.After high School she worked as a rider and trainer in the horse world for several years before returning to college. She graduated Magna Cum Laude from Fairleigh Dickinson University in Madison, New Jersey. She immediately took a position with Beval Saddlery.
Beval Saddlery one of the leading suppliers of equestrian products in North American recruited Susan to head the newly formed Mail Order division of Beval's Saddlery, creating the first of many Beval catalogs. While with Beval she also worked to grow the wholesale division. In 1986 she met a talented editorial photographer, Gary J. Benson.
In 1986, Beval Saddlery became Susan’s first client in the newly formed company Somerset SportArt, an ad agency specializing in equestrian business and corporate entities seeking to reach the equestrian demographic. Susan and her late husband Gary also owned Benson Photography and produced several coffee table books on Railroads and equestrian sport.Their work took them across North America on assignment and creating a stock photo library of over 50,000 images.
In 1997, Susan began to grow the agency side of the business, Somerset SportArt, and Beval Saddlery remained her most important client. Under her guidance, this high end equestrian retailer and wholesale supplier grew from $1million to $15 million in Annual Sales. During this period Susan also worked on other projects and consulted for a myriad of equestrian events, manufacturers, service companies and retailers both within and outside the horse world. The common thread remained her ability to help build brand awareness in the equine and equestrian world.
Susan, along with her co-founders, was and is instrumental in the vision/conception of Home & Horse