Amateur jockey Charlie Marshall is combining stable duties at the Dorset point-to-point yard run by his wife Hannah Clarke with a growing business venture.
Marshall is the founder and manufacturer of Flexichase Products, which supplies schooling hurdles and fences with a difference – they can be adjusted in height, hence flexi. In an example of selling ice to Icelanders he is working on several orders from leading Irish point-to-point handlers having already supplied a string of leading yards in Britain. They include those of licensed trainers Paul Nicholls, Nicky Henderson, Donald McCain and Kim Bailey, plus the schooling grounds run by Jockey Club Estates in Lambourn. Point-to-point trainers Will Biddick and Chris Barber have taken delivery, as have professional jockeys Brian Hughes and Kielan Woods.
Taking the story back to its conception, Marshall says: “We were schooling our own horses over fences I had built from products off the farm, and people started saying ‘these are really good – you should start selling them’. I just love building fences and working on designs, but you can’t sell fences made with bits around the farm, and manufacturing costs were going up. I realised it had to be done properly, and Hannah said ‘stop talking about it and just do it’.
“In December 2023 I sold my first fence to Seamus Mullins, whose son James has an engineering background, and he was a huge help in design improvements. I owe the Mullinses a lot.”
One of the key selling points was height-adjustment, which enables the hurdles to be set from 2’7” to 4’, while the fences rise from 3’ to 4’2”. Double-sided hurdles (pictured on right in photo above) are popular for they can be jumped from two directions and work well in trainers’ sand schools.
Marshall's Flexichase hurdles and fences can be adjusted in height by elevating or lowering the plastic birch at the top of each jump
Marshall says: “A lot of point-to-point yards could not afford them and they make their own schooling jumps, so I targeted licensed trainers, which meant I had to work to BHA specifications and standards.”
It is time-consuming work, but after building a rapport with suppliers of the raw materials he has been able to speed up manufacturing of his product. He says: “I can now build them a lot faster than I used to, but I’m still the only person putting them together. I looked into manufacturing them abroad, but you need to place bulk orders and it wasn’t feasible. I used to deliver them too, on a trailer, but at least I’m now able to courier them to yards around the country and to the world.”
With 61 point-to-point winners to date Marshall is well-known at meetings around the southern half of Britain, but he leapt to wider fame last year when becoming the first Briton to win the famous Maryland Hunt Cup, a $100,000 timber race in America. His sister, Izzie Hill, also hit a peak in 2024 when winning the women’s point-to-point championship.
Marshall (left, on Blackhall) on his way to victory in the 2024 running of the Maryland Hunt Cup
He says: “Hannah has 14 horses to run in point-to-points this season, so we’re busy on that side. I handle feed and waters first thing, ride out until lunchtime, then the fences become my afternoon work – and through the night sometimes.”