Emma was 12 years old and had nagged for months about getting a Shetland pony as a pet and to do a little bit of showing. We were introduced to David Kay, who has given us so much help over the years, and he had a pony that he was willing to sell us, her name was Langa Delight and we all loved her. Emma called her Dilly as a pet name and we did our first show at Chipping, Lancashire. She got loads of advice from the judge due to the fact she was the only one in the class. But it helped her immensely. We enjoyed going to the shows and getting to know more Shetland owners so we went to more and more shows. We also met Joan and Bob Headon who bred Dilly and we let them know how she is getting on when we see them at shows. Dilly is now the boss of the herd and stands no messing from the others, but she is adorable and is a pleasure to own. Emma says this is the only pony that is not going anywhere if we have to sell any.

Next we went to see David's new foals in 2007, Emma went a few times when they were ready to be halter trained to learn how to handle them. We decided we wanted another Shetland and we bought Oxendale Katie, from David, in October of that year. Katie is the sweetest of ponies, she always comes to you and wants you to make a fuss of her. She also has some very good Marshwood bloodlines in her, which we will hopefully carry on with when we breed from her.

The next step was discussing putting Dilly in foal and after a while we decided to go ahead. In the meantime we bought a lovely Shetland, Julmar Chatterbox, in Summer 2008 after some friends decided they were selling her, we hadn't planned on buying another but they do seem to take over your lives! We put Dilly with David Kays Oxendale Benjie, he now belongs to Mr & Mrs Lowthian, and in May 2008 she foaled a gorgeous filly, Landale Diamond. The start of Landale Shetlands. She has always been lovely from the start, not a bad bone in her body.

It was quite fun running out of work and taking Emma out of school quickly to try and catch the birth, sadly we just missed the foaling but my sister Janet and her husband Mick were there. Everything went really well, thankfully.

Just to let you know how we came up with the prefix:- The name Landale comes from our first Shetland, Langa Delight and a gentleman, who has been fantastic with us, David Kay. He has the prefix Oxendale so we took Lan and dale from both and got the prefix Landale.

In October 2009 we bought a lovely foal that we had watched during the show season, this belonged to the Woods family. The filly we bought is called Lathom Jocelyn and she was placed 1st in the Shetland Pony Stud Book Society National Awards Scheme 2010 in the foal section. She is making a lovely forward going pony with lots of character and presence, especially waiting to go in the ring!!

Emma was at Badminton Horse Trials on Bank Holiday Monday 3rd  2010 when my brother in law rang to tell me that April was ready to foal. I got there just in time and again Janet and Mick were there to help. Janet has done all the night watches for me as she doesn't sleep very well and April was in the field next to the house. April had a beautiful colt and he was soon up and wobbling around. We can't wait to show them both. Dilly is going to the Allengrove stud to their stallion ready for next year, I can't believe how these animals take over your lives. We spent many an hour with the new foal again and he is very friendly just like the others. He now likes to torment the others in the field and has them chasing up and down, which is lovely sight. He's a proper little lad!

Now for the latest one, Landale Darcy, she was born on May 13th at 1am. Again my sister was up in the night and got Mick out of bed to help, she had a leg stuck so Mick helped to put it right. We had our alarm set for 2am so maybe it's a good job Janet got ther earlier! The sire to Darcy is Allengrove's Lotuspoint New Venturer, also called Jack. They looked after Dilly really well while she was there. Darcy seems like a good strong little filly with plenty of bone, so here's hoping for another good one.

We hope you have enjoyed reading about how we got started with shetlands. Maybe we will see you at some shows. 

Sadly we had to have Landale Diamond, our first Landale, put to sleep. She had a bad case of colic and there was nothing we could do for her. It was a very sad day for us!

Richard, Helen and Emma Walker

P.S. Emma does all the showing in the ring and Richard goes into the ring with the foals while I horse sit and help brush them up before they go into the ring.