# how to hobble a sheep?



## Rhee (Jan 15, 2015)

We have a clever little ewe lamb who has taken to jumping the fence repeatedly and thereby avoiding all her necessary treatments (shearing, vaccination, etc). That's bad enough, but now she's got some of the other girls eyeballing the possibility of escape.

She should be lambing in about a month, so I'd like to let he lamb out and then she can go in the freezer this fall. Just wondering if it is possible to put a hobble on her for the long term or not? And should i do both front legs, both back legs, or one of each? 

This is all dependent on the chance thst we can actually CATCH her haha.

Thanks for any suggestions!


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## secuono (Sep 28, 2011)

Ehh, totally failed hobbling my cheviot, she still was able to jump. 
There's a tv show with some nuts who are hobble training their horses. He ties the front legs together of one of them and then shoots off a gun.
The horse stumbles a little at first, then realizes he can just 'step' with both front legs at the same time and he was GONE! Near canter speed in rocky, hilly wilderness. 

So, your crazy sheep might still be able to figure out how to jump the fence.
Worse, she could get tangled in it, too.

A small pen that is extra tall is what I'd put her in or a horse stall. 

Maybe a dangle stick, like for dogs, will work on her, too. But if she jumps the fence and catches on it, she could strangle herself...


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## bergere (May 11, 2002)

I would not recommend hobbling a sheep. 
As secuono said, is a good way to get them tangled up, break a leg or two or kill themselves.

Do you have a stall or the like to put her in, while you tame her down?
Do you have hot wire on your fencing, one with a predator rated charger?
Believe me, those chargers can keep fence jumping goats in, as they have a really good zap to them. If you have the grounding rods set up correctly.


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## MDKatie (Dec 13, 2010)

I'm curious what kind of fence you have (and how tall) that your 4 month preggo ewe can jump over it.


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## Maura (Jun 6, 2004)

If she is only escaping to avoid the fearful incidents of vet and shearer, manage her better. Create some sort of enclosure that she can&#8217;t jump out of and lure her into it before the shearer or vet comes out. Make her the first sheep to be vetted or shorn.

I had a dog kennel with 6&#8217; high walls and used that sometimes. Having a herding dog is also helpful. If she is not mean, is a good mother, produces good healthy lambs, why cull her.


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## Rhee (Jan 15, 2015)

Thank you for the responses everyone!
She's been behaving the last bit and staying in. Admittedly the fence is not as high as it should be (about 3.5 feet) but these sheep were a last minute arrival that cane from a questionable flock that we wanted to keep quarantined from the rest (they had sheep lice, for instance) so we knocked something together out of the lumber (mostly plywood off cuts, held up by 2x6's, the walls are basically solid plywood) left lying around from building our house lastsummer. We don't know exactly how pregnant they are either.... the farmer said something along the lines of "they should lamb late spring when its warm and dried up outside." So basically anywhere from end if April to June haha. They are bellying up a bit but have next to nothing for milk development yet.

The quarantine period has been ample now, we haven't moved them from their scrap lumber pen to join the ithers yet because a) they are wild and b) we have no (trained) stock dog to control them with and c) i havent got a round tuit.

We've been feeding them a taste if grain in the hopes of taming them down a bit, a few eagerly eat from our hands but she keeps the full distance across the pen from us while we're there. Once we walk away she scurries over the hunt down the kernels that got dropped. I thought sheep mostly thought with their stomach, so this suggests to me that she's REALLY terrified of people. I don't know if she's just had a really bad experience with humans or something? 

Anyway, if we ever DO manage to catch her, I'll try to move her to a more secure location until (if!!)we can tame her. If she comes around then she can stay, but i really don't have the patience for a daily rodeo!


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## hastyreply (Nov 10, 2012)

I tried to you electric net years ago and my sheep would just jump over it. After one of them tried to jump and some how got his leg tangled in the mesh tight, I stopped using it. Nothing beats good fencing.


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