Youngster is best handler bar none (From Evesham Journal)

Youngster is best handler bar none

12:01pm Thursday 9th July 2009

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A YOUNG shepherdess from the North Cotswolds is making her mark in the show rings.

Poppy Godwin, aged 14, of Fosseway Farm, Moreton, was given a few pedigree Zwartbles sheep for her tenth birthday and immediately took a keen interest in the breed. She has been successfully breeding from them since, taking some of them to shows.

She took six sheep from her small flock to the Three Counties Show in Malvern, where she was named champion young handler.

“Poppy was delighted to be awarded the silver trophy for the young handler class where the exhibitors have to present their sheep in the ring and be tested on their knowledge of their breed and welfare,” said her mother Gill Godwin.

Zwartbles came from the Freisland area in North Holland where they serve as dual purpose animals, being kept for both meat and milk, both of which are said to have special flavours.

The breed is strikingly handsome, black with a distinctive white blaze. They are a docile and friendly sheep, naturally polled.

The Zwartbles Sheep Association was established in this country in 1995 to celebrate and promote the breed in the UK where there are now flocks in most parts.

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