Been a little while since my last update but not really much to blog as I've had my knee operated on so ponies are living a tad feral.
My sister M has been schooling Pait once a week so she is at least still in work and going very well for M. Rory has had his shoes off but the amount of playing him and Duke do should keep his joints mobile!
Both Rory and Pait have learnt the important art of being led from crutches and in typical Dales style just taken it all in their stride.

Belated post

Well I'd waited to put this on here as I was hoping the photographer put some pics of Pait on but no luck.
Both ponies went and did dressage on 23rd Feb at a local venue.
I'd left Pait in this morning and she was not happy about so I put her in the arena whilst I mucked out. (stood watching her do handstands and 0-60s I did slightly question my sanity) Went to get Rory in from field and I so wish I'd have had a camcorder with me. He and Duke were at the bottom of the field so I shouted, Rory picked his head up with something in his mouth and stood and stared at me whilst I tried to figure out what he had got. Both boys decided to come at canter so Rory is cantering across the field with what I suddenly realised was an electric fence post which he is still carrying like a dog with a stick. He got half way down the field before he dropped it! Daft pony.
Got to the dressage and unloaded. Pait was up first doing intro B and she was so good. We lost a bit of bend and suppleness at times but she pulled show trot out and fully relished in everyone watching HER. Like they should. (we had a few people come over and comment on her so she won a fair few admirers and gave the roan dales a good name)
Next up was Rory doing Prelim 12. Can I state now I know he is not a dressage pony he only went as the wagon was already going with Pait. The test went something like this.
Enter at A and get halfway down the centreline until spotting the TABLE OF DOOM at the bottom of the arena so slam on breaks. Get convinced to continue on giving the table a wide birth and a snort on every pass. Rider asks for canter in the corner next to the table of doom. Tell rider hell no and do a beautiful leg yielding half pass past it. Mean rider does a 20m circle and asks again for canter, this time with Mr smacky stick providing backup so promptly take off like your in the grand national and complete the test in that fashion.
I actually apologised to the judge at the end.Luckily for him there was only 2 seniors in that test so he got a frilly still even if he really didn't deserve it!

Knackered but a lovely day with the ponies. Went on a long hack seeing as my op got cancelled last minute on Friday. So A rode Rory and I took Pait and we went on a long hack. Poor ponies didn't know what hit them especially Pait.
First thing to content with was going under a bridge then over the bridge (the motorway is underneath us at this point) both ponies were really good and went straight over.
Got to Fairburn and had a trot through the woods and then over a few field tracks to the gallops. Well at this point both ponies were tiring fast so we had a couple of canters with breathers inbetween rather than a long blast like originally planned lol.
Headed home and it was a good traffic experiencing day. We had cyclists, motorbikes, cars and vans past us from in front and behind and neither pony batted an eye.

It's going to be a quiet year this year on the riding front for me as I go for the first op on my knee on Friday. So I hopped on Rory in the school today just to remind him what schooling is before he get a vaction from me.
Well after terrifying me coming into the stables on 3 legs (he had obviously stood on a stone) I picked feet out and make someone trot him up perfectly sound. We tacked up and went into the arena. This point it was trying to blow a gale but I was determined to ride. I'd put him in his show pelham and didn't the little so-and-so do some amazing work. I'm sure he knows I can't follow up and have him out at shows. He dropped a bit of weight and quite a bit of muscle which I'm a bit miffed about as he's being looking really well up to now.
I then decided to hang round until Pait came in with the herd before going home. L goes out and lets all the horses in only no Pait which is very unusual but we do have 2 new liveries that were also MIA and Pait's best friend Lily who lives out just viewable down the bottom end of the field.
I went out to shout and still no Pait (have to admit to getting slightly worried at this point) so I set off down the field. I got half way down and could see her so shouted her again and she stood, tried to take a step and then stood again. Cue a very worried me imaging all sorts of things wrong so got over to her as fast as possible and realised shed managed to wrap her back legs in some old wire fencing that had been missed in the field. Bless her she was just stood stock still and let me manipulate her legs free then when I said it was ok walked away.
She trotted fine and had no cuts but was quite warm so I'm not sure how long she had been there but I am so grateful she has an old soul to her and didn't panick.

Just a quick pic of Pait. She's starting to look a lot more mature at 4.5years old.

Lovely hack

Pait can be such a sweet pony at times. Went to get her in from the field, got to the gate and she was no where in sight. So I shouted. Cue a little dales face appearing from round the far tree with a "Is that mum?" look. Once she decided was it was me she took off in canter across the field. 4 strides out from me she trotted and 2 she walked so she didnt mud splatter me. She is such a considerate girlie.
We just did a quick hack out with A riding Rory out with us (Id call him the babysitter but hes usually worse than us :-p)
Really lovely hack with Pait doing show trot on the bridle for periods when I asked her and a lovely collected canter which she went into at the first gentle nudge. Really need to mimic this in the school!
She did snarl at Rory at few times and got a smacked behind for her trouble everytime but was nice enough not to kill him when he nearly wiped us out due to a plastic bag.
Pait and Rory do take their surrogate sibling rivalry to the absolute max at times.

Took Pait out to our local hunt meet today. Well she was good but very sweaty and on edge for the drinks and nibbles but once the field set off she got a tad excited. To be fair to her I think if I'd have just got going with the non jumping crowd she'd have been fine but I really wasn't feeling up to it after the week from hell- losing my gran on NY day. I decided we'd bow out and have a very fast hack back to the yard. (the good thing about the meet being on our hacking grounds). 
Oh well prob try again next year.