HAVING A FIELD DAY

What could be more Welsh than taking a sheep for a walk? Head away from the flock and follow in the footsteps of drovers at Bannau Brycheiniog (Brecon Beacons) National Park.

-  Kerry Walker

“We saved them from becoming lamb chops,” says Nicola Matthews with a smile. We’re trudging uphill on a muddy trail at the family’s 220-acre organic farm deep in Bannau Brycheiniog (Brecon Beacons) National Park, with several docile sheep in tow and a veil of misty drizzle obscuring the view of the surrounding peaks.

It was the desire to bring people closer to sheep that inspired father-daughter sheep whispering team Paul and Nicola Matthews to set up Jacob Sheep Trekking back in 2014. With “patience, food and calm cuddles”, they tamed and trained a small flock of native Jacob sheep and have never looked back.

“The Jacobs were all reject lambs that hadn’t met the pedigree standard for breeding, so we decided to give them a chilled life eating, strolling and sleeping,” explains Nicola. They were wild little things initially, but they soon came around and some were quickly as placid as puppies. Over the past nine years, we’ve tamed lots of different rare-breed sheep, from hardy, docile Jacobs to tiny, gentle Breton Ouessants, the world’s smallest sheep, and Blacknoses, the world’s cutest sheep, originally from the Valais region of Switzerland.”