A former regional newspaper journalist from Essex has achieved her dream of launching a successful horse riding magazine in Western Australia.

Rebecca Wallis, 32, launched Perth Rider last March as a quarterly magazine with 1,000 copies.

Less than a year on it is now a monthly publication, producing 5,000 copies a month.

Rebecca started her career as a features writer at the daily Echo newspaper in South Essex, where she worked for four years and even won an award for an eco-friendly campaign she created.

She then emigrated to Australia with her fiancé Wes, who she is now married to.

She continued her newspaper career as a sub-editor on the Cairns Post, and then a reporter and sub-editor work on country weekly newspaper The Tablander in Queensland, but it was a later job on a newspaper set up by a former colleague that inspired her to start her own publication.

Said Rebecca: “It was brilliant being part of a brand new newspaper – I created the design and many of the features that are still in place there today. It gave me great confidence to launch something of my own.”

A smaller version of Perth Rider called Tableland Rider was Rebecca’s first project. She and her husband would spend hours stapling it together after producing copies on a photocopier, before handing them out at saddleries and events.

She added:  “I remember the day I went to one competition and I looked down the row of chairs where I was sitting and every single person along the row had their nose in a copy of Tableland Rider. It was a good feeling.”

Rebecca started Perth Rider with financial backing from her dad Philip Peppiatt who still has an input into the magazine and offers business advice via Skpe from his Essex home every week.

In the beginning she was doing everything on her own but now has three staff to lighten the workload.

Added Rebecca: “It was a great feeling seeing my mag on the shelves of the newsagents for the first time.

“It makes all the hard work worthwhile because I slave away on Perth Rider day and night and I am also a full-time mother and my husband works away in the mining industry for two weeks at a time.

“I usually sit up working till the small hours every single day but I know it will be worth it in the end when I can look back at what I have achieved and be really proud.

“I think it will be a success because the horse scene here is insanely huge and there is no one covering their news.”