5 steps to shear a sheep

My father has often told us the story of when he went to Australia for his gap year. When he arrived and was looking for work, someone asked him if he could ride a horse. He couldn’t. Or if he could shear a sheep. He couldn't. He was then not so politely told that he would be of no bloody use to any one. 

As a self respecting city dweller, I have myself never seen a sheep being sheared. In all honesty, I have never given any thought to sheep shearing (except for the above childhood story) and chances are that if someone had offered to take me watch some shearing I probably would have politely declined. 

But one morning we walked into Nick and Dan shearing their sheep. They had spotted the night before some infections due to insects that lay eggs inside the wool and attack the sheep’s skin. Apparently in that case you’re better off shearing the thick coat to get rid of these insects. (The things you learn, I tell you). And I never thought I’d say that but it was pretty fascinating to see how the thick wool comes off as it is being cut. The sheep were for the most part calm and sat there in an awkward position as they were shaved. 

The waiting line

I wanted to help but it’s not easy to do. (As you can see I kinda just stood there the whole time, watching.) 

I found out that they have shearing competitions (I promised myself I would youtube ‘best shearer next time I had internet) and that they even talked of having sheep shearing at the olympics. Sadly it was apparently vetoed because people thought that sheep died when they were sheared. Not too difficult to guess that city people took that decision. 

Unfortunately for the brothers their shearer broke down so one sheep ended up half done with a mohawk on his back (above). 

And below a short video I had fun making: