Kirsty Cousins, based near Canonbie in Dumfriesshire, is another business women celebrating International Day of Rural Women.

Provides specialist dog training and breeding, as well as services for shoot days, Kirsty operates all over Scotland. She established her business, Gorton’s Gundogs, over ten years ago and has never been put off despite being one of the few women in the field.

Kirsty says: “I’ve been totally passionate about dog training since I was ten years old and I never wanted to do anything else. I think women have to prove themselves to a certain extent when they are starting out in this line of work but things have worked out well and we are always busy.

“Women are doing these jobs and making a major contribution to the economy but that isn’t perhaps always recognised. I am lucky that my husband supports me and does the secretarial work for the business and a lot of the cooking and cleaning, that is really invaluable.”