EQUESTRIAN


Martin has five members of staff who help him not only to maintain the track, lawns, fences and gardens, but also the maintenance of the buildings inside and out. Rob Pemberton, twenty-five years’ service; Craig Townend, twelve years; Andrew Van der Wal, eight years; and Derek Townend, who is, unfortunately, on long term sick leave, so they took on Mick Appleyard last year.


Martin uses agronomist Lawrence Hayes for testing on the track. “He puts the reports together and sends them to myself and my gaffer Mr. Gundill and, from there, we work out what fertilisers and sand needs to go on, which helps us to determine the budgets for


the coming season.”


Martin does not use any outside contractors to renovate the track as what they require is very limited, so this is all done in-house, which mainly involves deep aeration using their own verti-drain and SISIS spiker. Contractor Peter Linley does all of their spraying for them on the track and around the course. Martin explains that the track’s soil profile is varied. “Where to start with this track? It’s clay in parts, sandy soil in others and limestone down the mile straight, with about nine inches of soil on top. It can be challenging at times when it’s raining; it’s a funny old track is this. We have put umpteen


sand slits and French drains in the past, alongside some polypipe ones, but mainly we like to use French drains as we find them more effective on this site. Over the last few years, we have taken the tops off and redressed them with sand to keep everything nice and clean.” Martin talks me through the issues he has had with the irrigation system. “We have an Upton boom system irrigator that's not a bad piece of kit. It used to be motorised and run off a computer but, like much hi-tech stuff, it didn't last very long, so we had it all taken away. It was sensor driven and used to be in charge of you anyway! We’ve now had a drawbar put on, so we just tow it around


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