A Virginia Tech student is gearing up today for an international competition in what some call the Olympics of sheep shearing.
Sandy Hausman reports on the American team’s odds for success and one woman’s quest for personal best.
Maggie Passino grew up on a small farm in Fluvanna County, helping her mom – a spinner – raise sheep for their wool. She loves being outside. She loves animals, and she’s excited to compete against sheep shearing teams from around the world.
“I am what’s called a wool handler," she explains. " I clean and organize the wool as it’s being shorn off the sheep.”
She’ll assist two different shearers as they race to gently and effectively remove wooly coats.
Sheep shearing contests are common in places where sheep might outnumber people, and Passino says those countries are favored in the competition taking place this week in New Zealand.
“There’s a couple of big names out there – a guy with the last name of Fagan who’s really big – he’s Irish. He’s one a couple of times, and then the whole Tehoya family from New Zealand, they’re pretty big."
But Passino says it would be wrong to compare America’s team to the Jamaican Bobsledders and a mistake to discount the skill and stamina needed to compete – even as a wool handler.
“There’s a lot of walking. It’s a lot of back and forth. I walk about 14 miles a day just in the same 10 or 12 foot stretch.”
The competition, in Invercargill on New Zealand’s South Island, runs through February 11th. Thirty-two countries have entered to shear about 4,500 animals. As with the Olympics, there are no monetary prizes but plenty of glory for sheep well shorn.