Natalie Redding's "How to Shear the Biggies When You are Small"
An article on this method can be seen in Sheep!
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Natalie Redding's "How to Shear the Biggies When You are Small"
An article on this method can be seen in Sheep! |
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| I thought it would be helpful for people - particularly women who are smaller - in having an alternative method for shearing sheep with the larger 220 + pound sheep breeds. Some of these breeds can be very aggressive. In these photos, you can see the sheep realizes he can't move because of how I have my feet linked around his head and my weight on his neck. This looks easy but it is very hard unless you have good body awareness and flexibility. It takes both muscular energy and organic energy to teeter on the sheep with this technique. The reason I came up with my own shearing technique for the bigger breeds is because I can't hold them up like the New Zealanders can (the most common method). It took me over 150 sheep to come up with this method. I hope this inspires people to see that they don't need to be a big person or a strong man to shear a 220 + lb. sheep. Back to Namaste Farms | ||||||||||
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| Taking belly wool off. | Belly wool. | |||||||||
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| Starting on barrel and then reaching toward britch. | Rump and britch. | |||||||||
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| Removing britch. | Shearing hamstring. | |||||||||
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| More. Shearing hamstring. | Inside leg. | |||||||||
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| Reaching around rump. | Getting rump and britch. | |||||||||
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| Inside off leg. | Around back. | |||||||||
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| Flipping over. | Starting other side. | |||||||||
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| Still working other side. | Front leg. | |||||||||
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| Finishing hindquarters. | Shearing throat and chest. | |||||||||
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| More. Shearing throat and chest. | Finished. | |||||||||