Girl training to become shepherdess

By Sarah Ward via SWNS

A 14-year-old is training to become a shepherdess - and saved up to buy two lambs.

Hayley MacDonald lives in Friockheim, Scotland, with her brother Kai, 12, and foster carers Alison Yates, 59, and husband Ron, 55.

The siblings had never seen a squirrel until they moved to the small village four years ago.

Hayley is shy and doesn't enjoy school but joined a course last year, Estates that Educate, and found a passion for sheep by working at the Hunthill Estate.

She got a part-time job with the soccer team Dundee United to pay for two blackface lambs of her own, named Bonnie and Blossom and is now hand-rearing them.

Hayley gets up at 6.30 am to feed them and is hoping to get another two - meaning she will have a flock, constituting four sheep.

She hopes to have 50 lambs in the future.

Hayley has even brought the lambs into a care home so the kids could bottle-feed them.

Bonnie and Blossom appear to think she is their mom and come running up to greet her when she arrives to feed them.

The prospect of a sheepdog is now on the cards, although the family already has dogs.

Gran-of-four Alison, who has two children of her own, does an 80-minute round trip once a week to help Hayley pursue her dreams.

Hayley said: "I got the lambs on April 30, we still bottle-feed them because they would normally get milk from their mom for six months.

"They live in a little hut, me and Ron built on land where our horse is stabled.

"I'm planning to get two more. Ideally, I would like 50 lambs.

"I would like to be standing in a field with them looking at me asking, 'Where is my milk?'

"It is very different from having dogs and rabbits as pets.

"Being a shepherdess is a hobby, I got a part-time job to pay for the lambs but was gifted them.

"Lambs have a really good way of telling you to back off - with humans, you don't know until they start being angry.

"The lambs come running over when I come to give them milk, they are running up and down the fence.

"They think I'm their mom.

"As soon as they see the car, you can hear them.

"There are a few thousand sheep on the estate and 36 petting lambs.

"I want to have more blackface sheep to breed off them."

Alison said: "They had never seen a squirrel before and entered into life in a wee village.

"We bought them a horse and they have taken up horse riding.

"Hayley is very quiet and very reserved, she doesn't like school but knows she needs to go to agricultural college to fall back on.

"We never thought Hayley would take to this shepherdessing, like she has done.

"She got to try sheep shearing and we got feedback saying how well she has done.

"She has learned so much more by doing hands-on work.

"She's so keen, there is also talk about getting a sheepdog.

"Our friends have got land, and also kids who are into farming.

"Their young lad drives a tractor and Kai has been out in a combine harvester.

"Trying to get into agriculture if you're not brought up with it is really hard."

Hayley is studying an equine course on livery and also learns dancing.

But she formed a bond with lambs during Estates that Educate and is now an ambassador.

Ron added: "If she could get more tomorrow, then she would.

"The hope is Hayley will have the lambs for 18 months to two years.

"They will go up to the estate and be 'serviced' by the male lambs - then she'll have lots more lambs.

"She sees it as hard work but it's fun, it's a new activity she really enjoys.

"She just fully immersed herself into that way of life.

"The estates are trying to open it up as much as possible especially to people who don't have family working in that area."

Alison added: "Every parent would do what we have done if they could.

"She has discovered something she really cares about and that has motivated her to work towards a goal.

"This is the thing she has been most excited about for years. We are so proud of her."

As well as learning farming skills, Alison believes families should have fun together - and she put a disco ball in the kitchen.

Family vacations total 10 people including the couple's own children and grandchildren.

Alison said: "Life is for living, it's for fun.

"Hayley comes home covered in sh*t from doing the lambing.

"Kai wants to be an engineer and get a bus and make it into a motorhome."

Lianne MacLennan, National Campaigns Manager for Scotland’s Regional Moorland Groups said: “Hayley is an incredible inspiration to us all.

"She has not stopped since the first moment she was introduced to the upland flock, even getting a part-time job to pursue her dream.

"The shepherds and gamekeepers are delighted to share their love of nature and their skills with children across Scotland as often young people just don’t know about the rural careers practically on their doorstep.”