From China to Loughborough, getting your invention on the market is harder than it sounds as a horse-lover from Leominster found out.

Karen Cholerton, from Stoke Prior, noticed there wasn’t a tool suitable to clean the inside of her horse trailer so took matters into her own hands.

She came up with the idea of Broomraker in 2014, a mix between a broom and a rake, to makes it easier to clean the deep-grooved matting in trailers. She worked with Hereford company Simple Design Works to design the tool and then travelled to China to bring it to life.

Mrs Cholerton, 57, said: “It’s been a heck of a challenge since we went out to China, the trip was a nightmare. People say you can do this and you can do that because unless you want to pay a lot of money in this country, the vital thing is to go to China.

“We met a British man who imported and exported this but he claimed he made things as well. He took us to some dubious places and there were no factories in sight and we were thinking who are these guys?

“They couldn’t do what they said they could do after we signed up.”

Along with her husband, Mrs Cholerton decided to return to the UK to carry on the search for someone to make her product.

“Armed with CAD drawings I attempted to get it made in the UK, but after a disastrous trip to China I was feeling very disheartened and was worrying about quality,” she added.

“Thankfully I met a company at BETA (British Equestrian Trade Association) in Birmingham and they said they could help,” she added.

“After a lot of difficult discussion with the English company working for me in China and the Chinese factory I eventually got my tooling out of China and back in the UK.”

Broomraker launched last week and the response has been positive.

She said: “Thankfully we’re there after five years. It’s been received very well. People have said things like thank goodness someone has made a tool to clean those mats.

“Having done it myself for years I’d had enough, I searched for a tool but it turned out there was a gap in the market.

“I never did (think about giving up), I’d say perseverance is key.”

Described as ‘the ultimate stable cleaning tool’, Broomraker is on sale via the website.

There are plans for more products in the pipeline, sticking with the equestrian theme, with the possibility of clothing items but not a range.

Despite the difficulties she faced, Mrs Cholerton is ‘spurred on’ to continue designing products.