Alpha Mare

 

Learn about us and why we do what we do.

 

Our mission

 

Excellence is our objective. By providing simple and focused web site solutions, our skilled team can make your web site stand out from the crowd and provide real returns on your investment.

So who are we?

 

As experienced horsepeople who have worked with a wide variety of breeds and disciplines, we know horses are labour and time intensive, and that few if any of the folks who work with and care for them will have the time to build or maintain a website.

Alpha Mare is a full service web provider - whatever you need, from a full site from scratch including domain registration and hosting, to just updating and maintaining an existing site - we can give you what you want.

We work closely with each client, ensuring the look and feel of the site meets their approval. We then add our technical magic and voila! A website that is attractive, clear, efficient, and user-friendly.

We pride ourselves on the quality of our work and attention to detail in making all the web sites we produce as user friendly and compatible as possible to ensure that they work equally well in all of the main web browsers, and across all desktop platforms.

Unlike many large web development companies, the fact we that we are a small business means that each project is special to us, not just another cookie-cutter job, and so it can be given the attention it deserves. With Alpha Mare you will experience an exceptional level of personal service and flexibility. Whatever your discipline and whatever your market - breeding, sales, boarding, lessons, trails, coaching, or products and services for the equine set, we can get you online and visible.

Staff

 

We have a small staff, made up exclusively of people both at the top of their fields in web design and development, and experienced with the world of horses.

M.A. Bell
and Chips

M.A. Bell and Chips at AERSO Dressage Show

 

M.A. is the owner of Alpha Mare. She has been working with and around horses for over 50 years, as a rider, owner and coach in both Hunter/Jumper and Dressage. She also spent several years in the Southern States working with racing Thoroughbreds (she actually touched Secretariat!), both on and off the track, and has ridden 5-gaited horses and hunted with the Lake of Two Mountains Hunt. The depth of experience she brings to the team ensures that each site we create is thematically appropriate for the target market.

About 13 years ago, M.A. first discovered computers, and then the Internet. Since then, she has been as hooked on the Web as she is on horses.

Several years ago she went back to College to expand her knowledge of the technologies required to create top-quality websites, and graduated from John Abbott College with an A.E.C. in Web Technology. She worked for a Web Design firm in Montreal for a while, and learned a lot there, but really wanted to find a way to combine her two loves. So she struck out on her own and established Alpha Mare.

Her job on the team is to put together the initial layout and design, codes the pages in XHTML and CSS, and makes sure all the code validates. Of course, that is not all she does - ultimately the responsibility for every facet of the process is hers, so she works with everyone on the team to ensure success.

 

 
Emilia Bell
and Chips

Emily and Chips at Martine Horse Show

 

Emilia is M.A.'s daughter, and is currently at University of Guelph, Kemptville Campus, in Equine Studies.

She is in charge of Beta testing every site. She and her wide circle of friends put the links through their paces, test the contact forms, make sure everything is working and working properly, before it goes live online. And you better believe these girls and boys put the sites to the test - sometimes in never-before-thought-of ways! (who would think of signing up a horse for a newsletter?)

 
Megan Garrett
Florent

Avatar

 

 

Megan, a longtime Dressage rider and coach, is a first-rate proofreader - correcting any spelling errors and grammatical inconsistencies.

She is also in charge of making sure that the sites render perfectly on Apple machines. We are lucky to have her - without her we would have had to go out and buy a MAC to test on!

History

 
1994
M.A. Gets her first computer, a PC clone 286, running DOS. Figures out how to write batch files and executables, realizes she loves this work.
1996
M.A. volunteers at Emily's Elementary school in the Computer Lab. Installs anti-virus software and gets a couple of the computers online (dial-up 14.4 kb/s). Creates first Internet project - Treasure Hunt - for Grade 6 students
1997
M.A. Starts WebMonsters, an extra-curricular program for kids who wanted to learn how to create their own websites. Uses Netscape as the WYSIWYG editor.
1998
Emily starts riding lessons, becomes immediately addicted to horse. It must be hereditary.
1999
Emily moves on to High School. M.A., no longer needed at the Elementary Lab, starts playing around with website creation on a much more serious scale.
2000
M.A. Starts doing websites for local riding stables, equine photographer, tack shop.
2002
M.A. and Emily buy Chips, an AQHA Quarter horse (regitstered name "An Awesome Discovery"), and start gearing up for show season.
1997
M.A. develops Eclectic Equine, designing and producing custom-made saddle pads, breeches, etc.
2008
M.A. realizes she needs to know more about writing code, starts looking for accreditation courses.
2009
M.A. goes back to school, graduates with A.E.C. in Web Technology. Starts working at Echo Stream.
2010
M.A. registers Digital Insite as a business in Quebec.
2010
M.A. wants to do equine websites again - recruits Emily and Megan - Birth of Alpha Mare.
 



 

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