Getting ready for Royal Cornwall (4th -6th June 2026) our first show by Katy Waters
This was our first show so it was very much trial and error. Figgy and Frieda were shorn on the 21st of April so had a decent covering of fleece but they were also very dirty!
I initially bathed both girls on the 24th of May.
I filled a large white tub with cold water and left it in the sun to warm up a little.
We then lifted each sheep individually into the bath. Surprisingly neither were overly phased by being in the bath. Tom held them while i poured water over before rubbing in showtime sheep suds shampoo. This shampoo has lanolin in it and doesn’t strip out all the natural oils. We rubbed the fleece gently to make sure it was fully saturated with water and shampoo. I then used the water in the tub to pour over until the majority of the shampoo was out and finished off with a quick hose.
I let them drip dry in the sun. Both came up extremely clean so the shampoo worked very well!
Unfortunately the week before the show was very wet and both girls got pretty filthy, so i did have to do another quick wash 2 days before the show. In future i would wait till a few days before to bathe to avoid too much washing. Once they were dry we also used some general horse trimmers to tidy up any longer sections of the fleece. At the show we took a bucket and sponge in case of dirty back ends and a small slicker brush to gently “fluff” the sheeps fleece. I actually believe as primitive sheep we shouldn’t do this and next show will simply use fleece fix spray and scrunch the fleece.
We have definitely learnt a lot for next time. If you are interested in following our sheep please follow us on face book Little Pendarves Ouessant Sheep.
Equipment used:
Large tub ( ours was used for soaking hay nets)
Showtime sheep suds
Horse trimmers ( lister)
Helpful second handler to hold sheep!