Amanda Owen

The Yorkshire Shepherdess tells Martha Terry how her passion for horses blossomed on an urban council estate, and about the day she bundled her newly purchased pony into the back of a Land Rover

- Martha Terry

“THERE are lots of people like me,” says Amanda Owen, star of the documentary TV series Our Yorkshire Farm, which draws in millions of viewers each week. “I love hacking out, riding in a pair of wellies, just enjoying it. I’ve ridden a bit of side-saddle, but it’s never been my goal to do travers and renvers. I like something I can get on and go – I’m not going to spend time schooling it.”

She may be talking about her approach to riding but there are, of course, very few people like the Yorkshire Shepherdess, as Amanda is nicknamed. For those who don’t watch Our Yorkshire Farm, Amanda is the matriarch of Ravenseat Farm, wife to Clive, mother of nine, a shepherdess with 1,000 sheep to tend, 40 beef shorthorns, six dogs (sheepdogs and pet terriers) and four horses in various shapes and sizes.

The Owen brood live the sort of life many wish children could still live today. In the middle of nowhere deep in the Yorkshire Dales, “screentime” isn’t a thing, smiling children willingly carry out their set chores and – most appealing of all – their scruffy pony hangs out in the living room by the open fire.

Amanda is refreshingly down-to-earth. On TV we see blissful views of babbling brooks, wild moors and children gambolling about with the lambs in the cowslips and harebells. But when we speak on the phone on an autumn Monday morning, Amanda is just drawing breath after packing the children off to school. The previous day, she’d been driving sheep across Southwark Bridge in London, a ritual celebrating our historic dependence on animals. Today it’s back to the daily grind.