Nimmo and Poste's 50-strong stable looks to be on the right track

Dr Beeching's axe may have been the death knell for thousands of rural railway lines in the 1960s, but it did Francesca Nimmo and Charlie Poste a favour.

One such stretch near Stratford makes a tree-lined canter on which to warm up their string of pointers before descending the railway bank into an open field for more serious work on an all-weather gallop. They rent a cottage, stables and the gallop on a working farm owned by Richard and Ken Hutsby, the last-named having owned the high-class jumper Mighty Moss.

Nimmo and Poste met six years ago, moved to their current yard three years later and now look after 50 horses, comprising breakers, horses out of training, and a string of pointers that focuses on opposite ends of the sport, namely stores who are bought to race and be sold, and horses ridden by their owners or novice riders.