Page 40 - The Farming Years proof

JUST BARLEY
1981
Jo started her riding school having spent two years achieving the ultimate quali cation which is to teach riding school teachers to teach a BHS11. Then, she spent another 2 years teaching at an established riding school near northampton. She was now ready to create a riding school at Home Farm in Loddington where she, ultimately, had 11 riding school horses. She started with 6 gradu- ally selected ponies and horses which was the stable accommoda- tion limit. She was also helped by Sylvia in this task who had good judgement and she could ride. Jo had two additional horses of her own to accommodate in the 2 principal stables. She usually hunted on Monday, her day off, and if the hunt was near Loddington she could have second horses.
on September 28th 1981 I bought 25 acres of arable land on the Harrington Road a mile away from the farm. The price of agri- cultural land had escalated since 1975, our initial purchase. We paid for most of the new land by selling our Spanish at at La Cala south of Benidorm.
The land was part of norman Partridge’s farm. He had recent- ly died and had a farmhouse and buildings near to us in Main Street, Loddington. Unfortunately, he clearly had not been well for a time and the state of the land I bought told me that.
It was two elds. Firstly a 13.5 acre eld that was covered in wet straw. It was now 22nd September so it must have been on the ground for over a month. I raked the straw into rows with the acrobat rake and set re to it. I hope I picked the right weather to burn it!
The other 11.5 acre eld was de cient in lime so we had to put that right with a contractor. Both elds were drilled with lgri Bar- ley by october 10th.
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