Preparing Show Lambs

There seems to be an art to preparing show lambs for the ring.  Go to any sheep show and you will quickly begin to realize that each shepherd has their own way of  getting their sheep ready for the judge, from how they trim their sheep, condition their wool and clean their feet to how they handle them in the show ring. It seems that most of the people at the larger shows have been showing sheep for a long time. We entered the show ring for the first time two years ago. When I had applied to put my sheep in the breed display and was turned away due to lack of space, I decided to enter our sheep into the show instead. It is something I had always wanted to do and had secretly hoped one of our children would have been interested in doing when they were growing up so I was ready and eager to try. This was our second year to show at the NY Sheep & Wool Festival.

I have had a few people ask me how we prepare for the sheep shows. I have come to realize that there is much I do NOT know about preparing show lambs. I am still on a learning  curve myself. Google “how to prepare a lamb for a sheep show” and you will find lots of articles that will walk you through how to build muscle, how to condition wool, hydration, skin condition, and disease. When I registered for our first show, I knew virtually nothing about how to prepare my lambs. Gotlands are shown as a long wool breed and I wanted to be sure that I showcased the lovely Gotland characteristics of their wool as well as their body structure.

Preparing Show Lambs

Halter Training -Gotland lambs are quite easy to work with. They seek out attention from their shepherds so they are naturals in the show ring. We begin working towards halter training at about 3 months of age. We begin by just having them stand while wearing the halter and work up to having them walk beside us on halter. I have found that a little grain in the palm of my hand does wonders for convincing a lamb to walk.

Leading Without a Halter-As soon as the lambs can walk with a halter, we begin working on walking with their chin resting in the palm of our hand without the halter on. We have found that the lambs much prefer walking this way than wearing the halter.

Quarantine-A month before our first show, I will put my show lambs in quarantine. I put them near the barn to make it easy for me to work with them more frequently. As we begin taking them to festivals, I want them separated from the rest of the flock so that I can monitor their health closely.

Body Condition-I monitor my show lambs closely throughout the summer months, making sure that they are healthy and in good condition. If I feel they need to put on a little extra weight, I feed them alfalfa. By having them in quarantine, I can easily feed them what they need without them having to compete with the other sheep in the flock.

Hooves-I like to trim their hooves about 3 or 4 weeks before their first show. This allows the cut area to heal over before taking them to shows.

Bathing-We will bath our lambs about a week before the sheep show. I use a mild soap if they are dirty. Our sheep stay on pasture all summer, so they are usually quite clean from being rained on. We make sure that ear tags are clean as well.

Trimming & Show Prepping Fleece-Since Gotlands are shown as a long wool breed, I do not trim them closely as other breeds often do. I found this video online from Namaste Farms which showed how to prepare a long wool breed for show. We follow Natalie’s advice on trimming and prepping.

NY Sheep Show 2019

Linnea Takes Third Place! This was our second year attending the NY Sheep Show. Our Gotlands are entered into a mixed breed show for natural colored long wool sheep. Mixed breed shows are tough as the judge must be familiar with all the breeds in the show and their breed standards. I feel it can be challenging for the smaller breeds to compete against other larger sheep. This year we entered our yearling named Linnea. She had gone to show with us last year as a lamb. She has grown out to be quite a nice ewe with lovely Gotland characteristics. We were thrilled when she took 3rd place in her class!

Matilada Takes Fourth Place! We also entered two of our Gotland ewe lambs, Marta and Matilda who placed 7th and 4th in the lamb class for natural colored long wool. Congratulations lambs!!