The Abacus Shetland Flock was founded in 2009, although the first consignment of imported sheep from Shetland arrived in 2010.
History
Where it begun.
We started as the Abacus Shetland Pony Stud back in 1990. I travelled to Shetland, to the Shetland Pony Sales, where the foals born that year were brought off the hills and sold. It was very exciting and that was the start of 22 years with the ponies. I would travel to Shetland with a good friend of mine almost yearly to the pony sales. We made many friends up there and enjoyed the amazing scenery. .
Shall we get some sheep?
I always thought about sheep, but the ponies kept me busy. We then moved to this current grazing and the docks and buttercups started arriving as they do so often with ponies grazing. With my love of Shetland and with the many visits seeing the sheep up there I had to go with Shetland sheep.
The first sheep arrive
I purchased my first sheep locally in August 2009, just to see how I got on with them. Five ewes and a ram. Having fallen in love with the breed and their great characters, I needed more. I had always over the years only acquired my ponies from Shetland so I was determined to do the same with the sheep. Not as easy as the ponies. Sheep tend to be transported across the country in hundreds not tens. So arranging the transport down from Shetland was difficult. The other issue is the registration. The Shetland ponies have one Stud Book, the ponies in Shetland are registered in the same way as the Shetland ponies down here. Not so the sheep.
I travel to Shetland to buy the first Sheep from Shetland
It was the summer of 2010 that my friend and I travelled to Shetland around the solstice time (21st June), and spent a week visiting Shetland flocks and choosing the sheep that would travel down in September to Abacus Acres. 38 sheep in total. As explained earlier the sheep are not registered. I needed to get a three generation pedigree for each sheep, signed by the breeder and then they need to be inspected to check that they are Shetland sheep and can enter the Flock Book down here, even though they come from Shetland. I had to wait until their two front teeth come up fully which is usually when they are approaching their second winter. It is enough to put many people off imported Shetland sheep from Shetland.
The second batch from Shetland arrive
The second batch from Shetland arrived in 2012 mainly looking for rams as having had three fail inspection on the first batch, I needed more rams. Three rams arrived with 9 ewes.
The third batch arrive from Shetland
Our next visit was in 2019 when again my friend and I visited Shetland. This time we visited two particular breeders that we know and focused on these sheep, choosing a trailer load. 3 rams again, this time with 5 ewes and 7 ewe lambs.
Taking another step
In the autumn of 2021 we travelled to Yorkshire to acquire a small flock of white Shetland sheep. They have close Island bloodlines. These are to add new bloodlines to the coloured flock at home, and to improve and maintain the confirmation and fleece. Some whites will be bred white to white, to keep the white flock and others will be crossed with the coloureds. This first generation will be white carrying the coloured gene but the second generation should be 50% coloured.