Welcome to our great little flock of sheep. We have 9 Soay and 3 Hebrideans plus our Soay and Hebridean rams. You will be totally confused by the Soay who actually look more like a cross between goats or small deer. Many years ago both breeds were common to the Islands because of their robust nature and ability to survive on the meagre food the island environments had to offer. The Hebrideans are more commonly known as St. Kilda sheep, they are used extensively by landowners who are looking to protect heather moorland in both Scotland and England. As they are so hardy, both breeds of sheep are ideally suited to our climate and flora of the croft. They are incredibly fast and amazingly agile, which makes for great entertainment when we make wild attempts to catch them for shearing and dosing. Luckily over the years the sheep have got used to us handling them and it's not quite the epic it used to be catching them, but you are always welcome to help or watch the various things we have to do with them. We generally shear the Hebrideans in July, thankfully the Soay are plucked which makes life easier as during a warm summer they lose their fleeces naturally.

We are the proud owners of three ponies, again Highland and Island Breeds. Glendhai is our Highland cross Eriskay gelding. He's been broken to ride Western style and hopefully sometime in the future he will be trained to drive. Highland ponies are traditionally used in this area by the estates to bring culled deer down from the hill after stalking sessions. They are the four wheel drive ponies of the horse world, having to negotiate quite rough and steep terrain while carrying great weights, so sure footedness is an essential quality of this breed. Our intention is to use all the horses as workhorses. With his strength Glendhai is ideal for carrying panniers to bring down peat for the fires or seaweed off the beach for our vegetable plot.

Pierrie is our wee Shetland pony, as the name implies this breed originates from the Shetland Isles. Although only half Glendhais' size, she possesses all the same skills. She is strong, sure footed and has two distinct characteristics that are very Shetland - stubborn and intelligent, have you ever seen a horse undo a reef knot!!! She might look tiny, but in her head she is as big as any horse and when Pierrie doesn't want move or do something she can be as stubborn as a mule and strong as a Shire! Shetland Ponies have a great history, they were bred as load carriers, despite her size, it is rumoured that they used to carry grown men over 40 miles a day! During the last century they were used as pit ponies in the coal mines, spending most of their lives in darkness, again their strength and size were used to pull coal from underground workings. Nowadays Shetlands are classed as a starter horse for young riders or for carriage driving. Pierrie loves to work (and eat) so we have a training cart to teach her (and us) to drive.

This year - 2006- I realised a long-standing dream of buying an Eriskay Pony. He's called Tearlach (pronounced Charlock) it's Gaelic for Charlie. They are such a rare breed, rarer than Giant Pandas, that we have only ever seen photos of them ! He's smaller than Glendhai and bigger than Pierrie, but like them both is a weight carrier and used to the harsh weather during winter. Like the other horses the Eriskay history is fascinating. They were bred solely on the Island of Eriskay as workhorses. The men of Eriskay were fishermen, the work on the crofts was left to the wives and children, the ponies had to be easy to handle, any pony which was classed as unsuitable was culled, consequently the Eriskay ponies earned the name "back door ponies " They now have what is described as a "human type gene" making them easy to handle and work, Tearlach is very typical of the breed, he loves to be handled.

You'll see them racing around the croft in pursuit of a particularly tasty titbit ! However I must warn you, each evening you will hear my battle cry of " Come on girls" as I lead them back to the henhouse for supper and lock up. It really is a sight to behold - hens and Mr. C frantically pursuing me for their supper !

We also have Bees

Most of the Hebridean and Soay lambs we successfully lambed in May 2003 are "user friendly" and come to humans for food and petting. All our little Soay sheep are happy to be hand fed and stroked.

Izzie

Thea

Clem