I helped with a lot of drafting last week in preparation for scanning our lambs for our LambPlan data, and got my quality time with Farrer our most friendly stud ram again. We only needed to draft off the ram lambs so in an act of self preservation Graeme had excluded Farrer from the sheep yards and Farrer was sitting outside the yards all on his own. If you would like to know why it was an act of self preservation on Graeme's part go and read Sheep Drafting Spring Rock Style, my 19th January blog entry. Other big rams were excluded too, but they didn't take it personally. Of course I walked over to Farrer before I got to the yards to give him a pat and have a chat. As soon as he saw me he jumped up and hurried away from me. I thought our beautiful friendship was over, but all he was doing was trying to get to the gate before I did so I could let him in thus putting him front and centre for more pats in the yard during the drafting. Graeme vetoed this idea and manoeuvred Farrer away from the gate, so I gave Farrer some sympathy along with pats and head scratches and promised more when I had the chance. Farrer just waited patiently outside the gate, plotting his evil plans.
When we'd drafted off the older rams I opened the gate to let them back out into their paddock. Farrer imitated a salmon swimming upstream and dove into the mass of exiting rams, headed the other way and managed to get himself into the yards. From there it was a simple matter to stalk my every move and offer his head for scratching. Drafting was seriously slowed down, but I didn't mind. Farrer is such a gorgeous ram it's hard to resist him, well it's hard for me to resist him, Graeme finds no problem resisting him at all. Graeme had a moment of panic when he saw that one of our newest stud rams decided to find out what Farrer was up to fraternising with a human, and came up to see what I was up to. I shared the love between the two of them and the new ram, Ash, found having his head scratched rather pleasant. I ended up with two rams to pat and love while trying to help draft the rest of the rams. At least Ash, unlike Farrer, didn't plant himself directly in the path of the rams we were trying to move. Still, Graeme was not impressed with a new addition to my pet stud rams.
Drafting was eventually finished. All ram lambs in a holding yard and nearly all larger rams back in their paddock. Ash followed the last lot of older rams out of the yards and into their paddock but Farrer held out hopes of more love and attention if he just stood still and looked hopeful. I literally pushed Farrer out of the sheep yards and told him the love fest was over for another day. He reluctantly strolled off to join the other rams when it became obvious that the pressure on his rump was my gentle hint for him to move off and join the boys.
It remains to be seen if Ash comes back for more pats and scratches next time we draft the rams. Graeme is hoping against hope that he forgets all about it and returns to being a normal, scared of humans ram, but I think that as soon as he sees Farrer lining up for the pats and head scratches Ash will make sure he's close by for his share.
I have a dreadful feeling that drafting at Spring Rock is going to be even slower from now on!!!
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