Moving sheep

I have heard people exclaim that getting their particular group to do something together is like herding cats. I think most people have witnessed the independence of cats and can relate to the potential difficulties. I have, however, experience with moving sheep and relate well to the Biblical phrase “the LORD is my shepherd” (Psalm 23:1).

I thought it appropriate to capture some of the memories of moving sheep.

I remember a few beautiful days, lovely weather and sheep that moved almost effortlessly from one pasture to the fresh pasture. But mostly, I remember, having to do a lot of running and some fancy footwork that would put the best dancer to shame. Of course, the object was to never have to run because that tended to scare the sheep. Moving sheep, always began as gently walking around on one side causing the sheep to graze in a particular direction. I remember this as the easy part. Then we got to the gate. Things got a little hairy at this point. The sheep would circle around but not go through the gate. At this point, Dad would take a bucket of grain and try to coax a “Lead”sheep through. This was often pointless, the “lead” sheep would go through with a few others and when the flock did not follow, they would return back through the gate. Occasionally, we used dogs to coax the sheep through the gate but Dad and probably Grampa before him thought that the end result of using the dogs was wild sheep. So the use of dogs seemed to be kept to a minimum. I can remember a few times, that we sort of carried sheep through the gate one at a time until there was a critical mass on the other side of the gate the encouraged the rest through. I remember a few times, all of a sudden the whole flock went through the gate for no apparent reason after having been at a stand still for some time.

This was not always in the lovely weather. Many times it was cold. Occasionally, we used horse and riders. But most of it was on foot and why not we were kids. A couple of times, an old ewe would bolt back and hit you dead on. It not only knocked a kid over it knocked the wind out of you. It took minutes to be able to breathe again and you had to get right back up. It was better to be knocked over than run over so you didn’t want to be lying on the ground.

Moving ewes that had lambs created additional challenges. Why would a mother, of any sort, leave her lamb to go and look for the very lamb she left? Strange but true.

Green pastures never seemed to be a good enough motivation for sheep to go through the gate.

What I learned from herding sheep…
Be patient
Be patient
If you cannot be patient get help from someone who can be
Be creative
Don’t give up; it is in the best interest of the sheep to be in green pasture and after all you are there for the benefit of the flock as that is in the shepherd’s best interest as well (Circular argument).
And lastly be patient

PS: I asked my Dad for some of his sheep memories. He said herding sheep was staying with them 24/7. He has done this, I have not. I have only experienced “working” sheep and “moving” sheep. “Moving” being a short stint at herding about a day long. Dad commented that it was while herding that you really get to know the sheep and yourself.