I bet you think this has to be easy, right? They are
sheep after all and we all know they follow the flock mindlessly, well, like
sheep.......right? If you believe this you will be in for a little surprise the
first time you head out to round up your mob.
Sheep are often considered to be stupid, mindless animals
that run along together because none of them has a brain big enough to come up
with a better plan. This is simply not true. Sheep are actually intelligent
animals, capable of planning a strategy and implementing it, if given the
chance. We have seen this time and again with our sheep. They can find the only
way under a fence to get to a plum tree, or can understand that the gate is the
exit and squeeze between it and the strainer post. They also know what time of
day they will be fed and will be waiting for you at that time. They are
thinkers, planners and doers and you will see this if you take the time to
watch them. However, they are prey animals and are aware that they are low on
the food chain and are considered to be a tasty dinner morsel by all the
predators out there. Being on everyone else’s lunch list means that it is never
wise to wander off alone, because if you wander off alone, the nasty predators
will see only you and not 1000 others just like you and therefore you will most
certainly be the one chosen for dinner. There is safety in numbers for sheep,
not because together they can mount an assault on their enemy, but because if
someone is out to kill one of
you, you best be standing in a crowd of 1000 rather than alone! So the first
rule for mustering sheep is- don’t underestimate them. The second rule is keep
them together as a single group and do not allow them to split up. If you
understand that they are thinking about what is going on and not just blindly
moving along, you will not become as frustrated when they outwit you. If you
understand that they prefer to be in a group and are actually almost impossible
to move if they split up, you will find the work of moving them so much easier.
Before you start out with your sheep mustering endeavour,
here are a some tips that are well worth knowing:
·
As mentioned above, sheep are herd animals and prey
animals. They will always try to return to the safety of the herd if they are
separated from it. This can be helpful and unhelpful when it comes to mustering
sheep. A single sheep who breaks away can be left and observed- it will
always try to get back to the group, if you allow it to do so, and usually does
not need you to intervene. However, if several sheep break away, the rest of
the sheep now have two herds they can potentially join and this creates chaos.
The sheep from both herds will try and join the other herd and sheep will soon
be running all over the place. You will not be able to move them anywhere once
this has occurred. If your sheep do split up into two or more groups- start
again. Round them all up into one group again and try to keep them as a single
unit.
·
Sheep have very good eyesight and can see almost the
entire way around their body- this is handy when others are out to do you harm
and all you have for defence is a cloven hoof and a hard palate. They also have
very good hearing for the same reason. Sheep do not like sudden or dramatic
movement or sudden loud noises. These things frighten them and frightened sheep
are much more difficult to move that calm sheep. When handling sheep always
remain calm, take it slowly, keep the noise levels down and don’t wave your
arms about shouting “Geddup there!”
You are not helping your own cause if you choose to do so! Sheep will naturally
want to move away from you regardless of your performance and they need very
little prompting to do so. Simply walking towards them will get them moving. You do not need to add the high dramatics often associated with an amateur
night at a Shakespearean play in order to get them to move. You do, however,
need to know where they will move, why they will move there and how to make
them move where you want.
