Horn Trim

I have been uninspired about posting lately. Mostly it's because I've been super busy. There is also mud and snow everywhere. Winter is old and seems to have no intention of leaving. Water is flowing across our road in three places so I know things are melting somewhere. But the ground is still quite covered in crusty snow.

Today was supposed to be my shearing date. I postponed it last week as it was obvious no amount of warm weather was going to give me bare dry ground...even on a hill top. We've rescheduled for the last Saturday in April and I'm praying the blizzards don't sweep in late like they did last year.

Lambing officially starts next Wednesday April 15. I am NOT ready. The girls are still in their winter pen. I always move them to new ground for lambing but the ground has been too frozen to put the electronet up by the lambing barn. The upper Dutch doors on the lambing shed need to be hung as well. Last year the barn wasn't quite finished and I worried about babies when the cold windy weather blew in. Clancy should be able to get that job done in just a quick hour.

The CD&T shots were given to the pregnant girls at the right time. The lambs and rams still need theirs but that can happen anytime. We trimmed hooves on the bred girls the same day they got their shots. We just trimmed ewe lambs hooves tonight. Toes were long but everyone has healthy feet otherwise.

Bombarde also had his right horn trimmed a couple weeks back. That was harder to do than I expected. Clancy held him and I used that wire back and forth. It did a fine job of cutting through the horn once I got a groove started. The photo above is a before shot. Clancy wants to file down the side of the horn that runs along the cheek even a bit more. I expect that will be a bit of work. This type of job actually goes fast, but it requires a whole lot of fierce, concentrated energy from the human to get done. Bombarde is a half-polled ram. If I didn't know so much about him, and value his conformation and fleece so highly, he would be an example of bad horns on a Shetland. His one and only male offspring from last year had nice widespread horns.

Here's hoping for small scurs on one of his ramlings this year. The ewes can hold off for a bit longer, though. I'm patient. There is lots to get done before lambs hit the ground.