Shedding Back

It was sweltering today.  I felt so bad for the animals.  More than half still have not shedded their winter coats.  So I took my shedding blade and did what I could to help.

Willow and her colt, Tex were first up.  Their coats look so wooly and hot.

I was able to get alot of Willow's winter coat off but sadly what is mostly left on Tex is his baby coat.  And I don't tamper with that.  If mother nature believes he still needs it, I won't go against her.

But this is how they looked after.

Willow isn't quite done shedding so has some fuzz still left on her sides and her neck.  And as I mentioned, Tex doesn't look much different.

Sierra was next and got right into the grooming.

She too hasn't finished shedding out but you can see her undercoat starting to come through.  She's getting tall and lean looking.  But still young as her tail has yet to grow in.

When I was done in there I went over to the sheep who looked downright miserable.  Alot of them looked like muffins with their winter coat muffin tops.  I tried using the shedding blade on them, but it was useless.

The coats were too thick.  Some of the older ewes looked like they still had last winters coat on top of this years coat---maybe even the year before that as well!  In the end I gave up on the blade and called to my sheep asking who wanted a hair cut instead!

You'd think they would have all come running.  Especially considering they looked like they were melting into earth that's how low they were trying to get to remain cool.  As it was, only Queenie, the friendliest ewe we own came up to me and nearly begged me to get rid of that monstrosity on her back.  Like Sierra, she got right into it.

And would have been happy to take a nap right there under the tree while I groomed her.

The finished cut!  I would have liked to taken more off but as it turns out her coarse hair made the blade very dull fast.  Guess it's a good thing nobody else got in line for a cutting.