theprancinghorse.co.uk started up in 1997 by just one person where it was hosted on a free internet server and had a couple of pages which contained information on the drivers Schumacher and Irvine.

As the years went on the website grew and I beg to learn about HTML and how to create a website. I self taught myself by looking at other websites and learning how they did things, today I still do this and I haven't once entered a classroom to be taught how to create a website which I am pretty proud of, mainly because its saved me money.

In 2000 I was offered my own hosting server with my own domain name of www.prancing-horse.com. This was the first time that I now had my own website without advertising. The site was then updated daily and grew pretty big with news, profiles, pictures etc. Unfortunately the hosting company pulled out of hosting my website and others and so I was forced to find a new home. So at the beginning of 2001 I registered the name theprancinghorse.co.uk and paid to have the website hosted on a UK web server where is still is today.

The website then grew new features which includes a shop, at first we were affiliated to other Formula 1 shops on the internet and we took a percentage of each sale but after a couple of months and a few people emailing me asking for various Ferrari merchandise I decided maybe I should setup my own. After using some contacts which have links to Ferrari in Italy I started to sell rare Ferrari articles which include autographs and other memorabilia. Today I sell authentic signed photos and very products and memorabilia. The little profit I make from selling these items all over the world is re-invested in this site so it can pay for the hosting. Yes unfortunately this site does need to be paid for and its pretty expensive to pay for hosting of the forum, over 200mb of space, domain name etc.

What some people find hard to understand is that I actually work from 9-5 weekdays for an Address Management company and this website is just purely a hobby which I update before I go to work and after work.

Alex - Webmaster