Four shorn for sure

With the heatwave looming on wednesday, and three pregnant females due from the end of June onwards, I put my newly-learnt skills into practice this week, and sheared four of the herd.

Due to the heat at the time of shearing, and their 'expectant' state, we had to be swift, and couldn't spend an excessive time trying to reach perfection, and so, harking back to the seventies, the feather-cut has made an unexpected return to fashion! (of course I'm not old enough to remember it, my Grandparents told me about it! ;-) Not only that, but we now have a bearded lady - sorry Minnie, but it was boiling hot when we sheared her, and she needed to be released - there wasn't even time to ask where she was going for her holidays this year...

Autumn Gold

We did the shearing in two seperate sessions, mild-mannered ones first on wednesday, though Autumn Gold squealed throughout, followed a couple of days later by Minnie & Ambrosia.

Ambrosia - where did I leave my top knot?

Bramley and Camelot have to wait until after the Royal Bath & West Show on thursday for their visit to the salon. Meanwhile, the water trough and tray have at last been called into service, to provide the cooling dip that alpacas love.

Disregarding the slight lack of finishing touches, it was a great relief to have relieved them of their over-coats in hot weather, and to remove the anxiety of reliance on the weather being kind to the professional shearers and their inevitable tight programmes - and yes, my back did ache straight after, but was soon long forgotten.