On Thursday 10th Aug was Okehampton Show. This was our first show and our sheep’s first show.
On the Monday to Wednesday Georgie and I had a go at trimming. This consisted of looking at photos on internet then going out and trimming bits off, then looking at more photos and repeating the process. We had been to trimming days, and we did have a plan on paper with pictures of square sheep, scissors and arrows on it, but with the live creature in front of you and sharp shears and our first show, it was just a bit daunting. We hoped we had done okay. Our boys were so tolerant of us!
We arrived at the show and offloaded. The boys were on the end of the Texel row with a sign at the end of the row stating Texels, so needless to say were spent much of the day telling members of the public who came to see our boys that they weren’t Texels!
We got our numbers, and set about tidying the boys. Gizmo just wanted to lie down and rest!
We helped a friend with their groups of three class first then watched the Older Ram Class followed by Shearling Ram Class. These classes were for ‘Any Other British Breed’, and so there were a variety of breeds in these classes but the judge gave the highest places to some huge Cheviots and some immaculately turned out Southdowns.
It was our turn next, we didn’t want to be the first in as it was our debut! We were about position 6 and 7 in a row of 11 in our class. Our boys were so well behaved. Each was examined by the judge and asked to walk out and back to show off paces and movement. The judge then beckoned Gizmo and I into 1st position. At first I thought he must mean someone else as I couldn’t believe this was happening on our first show! Especially with such a strong class of Cheviots, South Down, Herdwick, Border Leicester, LLeyn, and other Coloured Ryelands.
And then the judge announced 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th! We were first, what a dream for us, with our first lamb born at our first show and he wins, very proud.
We were complimented on our boys and what good looking rams they are, so we are obviously doing things right, including the trimming!
We then had to go forward to the male championship against the huge Cheviots, they were very impressive big beasts and Gizmo felt a bit intimidated I think. The Cheviot Older Ram won, but we were so proud of our young boy on his first outing, with so much to look forward to.
The rest of the day flew by. Our boys were so well behaved and seemed to be very relaxed about their first outing. It was nice to see members of the public making a fuss of them and taking their photos, they are handsome friendly boys.