BY LOU ANN GOOD
MILTON GROVE (Lancaster
County) If you have attended
sheep shows during Lancaster
County’s Fair season, you probab
ly saw Lorie and Joelle 801 l with
their hampshire and Suffolk sheep.
Nine-year-old Lorie won the
reserve champion mark# lamb at
the Lampeter Fair and her thirteen
year-old sister Joelle placed first in
Junior fitting and showmanship.
The sisters say it is exciting to
win trophies and ribbons with their
sheep, but they admit preparing
their sheep for the shows involves
some hard work.
At first the sheep act wild
because they are scared of the
girls. Lorie and Joelle make
friends with the sheep by petting
the woolly lambs while they are
eating. The sheep must be fed
twice a day.
“But you must be careful you
don’t overfeed them,” Joelle
warned. Usually their dad feeds
the sheep so they don’t gobble
down too much food and get tum
my aches.
If you go to sheep shows, you
will notice how the sheep allow
their owners to lead them around
When 9-year-old Lorle takes a try at shearing her sheep
even their white fluffy cat wants to get Into the action. From
left, Joelle, Lorle and Rodney.
Kids Have Fun With Woolly Sheep
with halters. But it isn’t always
like that.
Joelle said, ‘ ‘The first time you
put a halter on sheep, they fight
and buck.”
Joelle’s daddy learned a trick
that can easily teach the sheep to
stop fighting the halter. After he
puts the halters on the sheep, he
ties the halter to the back of his
tractor and takes them for a walk.
They soon realize the tractor is
stronger than they are so they stop
fighting and quietly follow the
tractor. After that, they allow the
halters to be placed on their heads
and they walk with the girls.
Lorie said, “It is easier to walk
them when they are hungry
because they think they are goiong
to get a treat.”
You would like Lorie’s sheep
named Skeeler because he pulls
Lorie on her bike so she doesn’t
have to pedal in the long lane that
leads to their house.
Two days before the show, the
girls help their dad wash their
sheep by squirting water from the
hose on them and sudsing them
with Ivory soap. Then they put the
sheep on a special table called a fit
ting and blocking stand. The
Joelle, left, Lorle and Rodney work together to pack the eggs that their3o,ooo chick
ens lay.
sheep’s neck is tied to the stand
while their thick wool is cut with a
clippers. Then, the girl’s dad takes
a shears and blends in the marks
left by the clippers. The girls cord
the sheep’s hair by using a prickly
brush that pulls the curls out of the
sheep wool so their hair lays
smooth and silky across their
body
The sheep are just like children
because Lorie said, “They don’t
like to have their hair pulled while
combing.”
After the sheep have a bath and a
hair cut, the girls put blankets on
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iheir sheep to keep them clean.
They want their sheep ot look their
very best so they wash the sheep’s
ears with cotton balls dipped m
alcohol. The sheep don’t like that
either.
The best thing about having
sheep is showing them, Loric said.
“But sometimes they step on my
toes.”
The girls live with their parents,
Jay and Lois 8011, on their Milton
Grove farm. Their seven-year-old
brother Rodney likes to play in the
creek that runs through their fields.
On weekends, all the children help
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their parents gather eggs from their
30,000 chickens. The girls don’t
like the chickens they said
because, “They stink.”
Lorie said, ‘‘l have five rabbits,
but I like my sheep best because
rabbits just sit there; you can’t
walk them around.”
If you would like to own sheep,
the girls suggest you join a 4-H
club that teaches you how to raise
sheep. That is where the girls and
their parents learned how to care
for the sheep and win ribbons by
showing them.
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