Mini Horses
Herd Master
Life can be short. If it makes you happy, do it.
Gosh! by the time he is finished you might have to start all over again! Is he part Merino? I know that their skin is very loose and wrinkly to allow the maximum amount of wool to be produced. It makes them hard to shear if you are not expecting it. (Another Ridgetop experience shearing a pet Merino for a friend. OOPS! )I just spent 40 minutes working on Dingo and got one leg hand sheared.
One
His fleece is super thick and his skin is slightly more elastic/loose compared to the girls, making it really hard to know where to cut without cutting him.
Itās going to take me several days to get him done.
Thatās definitely a risk No, heās not part Merino. Heās 3/4 East Friesian 1/4 Charollais. Iām a big part of the reason he is so difficult to shear this yearā¦I didnāt fully shear him last year since it was too late to get it done by the time I built the shorter stand, so his wool is just really long and matted in the more sensitive areas, so when I try to get the blade in, it pulls the skin up with the dense wool . The girls donāt have that problem (even where it was matted around their bums), so it took half the time to do twice as much on them.Gosh! by the time he is finished you might have to start all over again! Is he part Merino?
E V E R !!Yeahā¦donāt change the routineā¦.
The whole wool growing thing fascinates me. It hadn't occurred to me that there would be throw away sections. But of course!Iām definitely not a consistent routine kind of personā¦I donāt know why he decided to smash the boarded off window. It was a rather random thing, really. Maybe the puppy was riling up the chickens and he wanted to protect (or silence) them, maybe he caught a glimpse of DSās red coat through the gap and thought he was under attack, maybe he was offended that I didnāt lift the flap and say āhiā before going to the chicken coop (the only routine thing) since I forgot (and not for the first time)ā¦who knows Iāve definitely mixed up his routineā¦more just because thatās how I roll than intentionally trying to train anybody to expect the unexpectedā¦but I wasnāt looking or paying him the least amount of thought, so I didnāt see what he was actually reacting to.
Personally, I think it was just a ram thing. My girls couldnāt care less what or where I want them as long as theyāre fedāwhich is why Iām assuming it was something to do with wanting food NOW!
Anyway. Got in another short shearing session with him today. He was good, though Katana was trying to lick his nose while I trimmed his back feetāwhich annoyed both of usābut was otherwise very good. Got most of the other back leg wool off, but mostly worked on his front leg and belly. I think I might have to move the stand or turn it around to get his other side done.
Iām basically just hand shearing all the throwaway sections for now. Iāll use the electric shears to do the rest later on.
So, maybe one more session on the current side to do his neck and trim his front feet (maybe foot depending on angle), then two sessions on the other side before taking him up by the house to use the electric shears on him and bag up the good wool to be processed. Actually, depending on how things go weather-wise, I might try to run a few extension cords out back to finish him up in the barnā¦weāll see how things go over the next week or so
Fleeces Pelts include the skin. Weāve harvested a few of those too, but you can only do it once per animalpelts?