Who we are.
I’m Simon Hanson — a people person, insight geek, lifelong horse lover, and marketing escapee on a mission to make risk awareness a bit more human and a lot more fun.
I moved to Kent with my family when I was 8, and when secondary school kicked off, it was in a very serious fashion at the local Boys Grammar - blazers, Latin, and a distinct shortage of the Racing Post. But by the time I hit 16, the call of the classroom had been well and truly drowned out by the sound of hooves.
That’s when the horses took over — and I’ve been galloping between mucking out and marketing ever
since.
From my first job as a working student at Limes Farm riding school (thanks Ann Berry), to racing and breeding college, riding out racehorses, then working with multimillion £ thoroughbreds in Newmarket and Kentucky, I’ve been bucked, bolted with, and blessed with the best.
I spent 30 years in the corporate trenches – sales, marketing, customer insight, product development – before undoing my tie for the last time – judging by the photo I needed the change 😉
With my wife Marya and her Welsh Cob/Thoroughbred mare Abbey — full of charm, cheek and more personality than most people — we built a little horsey world of our own. Abbey passed on all that character to her son Colby who we bred, showed, broke and competed.
Meanwhile, our daughter Becky was busy living every pony-mad child’s dream with Bambi — the most angelic-looking 12.2hh Welsh Section A you’ve ever seen… who could still throw in a cheeky buck just to keep things interesting.
Somewhere between mucking out, pony parties, and stud farm life, I somehow kept a foot in the grown-up world of insurance and marketing. Just about.
Oh, and my other passion – football. That dream lives on through our son Ryan. He’s a local pro footballer turned mortgage & protection adviser, and these days he’s not only helping others stay on track — he’s also keeping me in line (apparently he’s the boss now).
I still get to enjoy the proud dad moments watching him play each week — though when he’s not on the pitch or advising clients, you’ll find him glued to the racing, convinced he could ride a Cheltenham Festival winner. In reality, he’s more likely to back a loser than saddle one… but we let him dream.
Now I’ve created Risky Business Surveys to bring together all that experience — life, horses, sport, people — and use it to uncover the fun, fascinating, and sometimes risky truths we rarely talk about.