audition video grand daughters did with their goats that they trained, they ended up going to Hollywood for a TV pilot taping for a show that was based upon David Letterman’s Stupid Animal Tricks I guess never aired.
well the link will not transfer to this site
Their goats have been taught about forty tricks
I’d still love to see it if you can figure out the link! My goaties will do anything for a craisin lol
My wife and I have three pet sheep in our stable yard and the statement above is very true. Sheep, no matter their size, are powerful and if they want to go somewhere you’d better not be in the way. They will go over you or through you if you don’t get out of the way fast enough. Our one ewe Verity will see even the tiniest of weak spots in a fence or a gate and push, push, push to see if it will give.
We adore our sheep, but they are not low maintenance. Ours require a quality sheep feed, mineral supplement, excellent hay (they will not eat anything they deem inferior) and regular hoof care. Ours require shearing yearly. Their teeth may need attention as they age, and our older ewe needs medication for her arthritis.
We’ve toyed with the idea of letting the sheep graze in the larger pasture but sheep will go for the grass first, then perhaps go on to nibble the other things in the pasture.
There have been goats here and we’ve enjoyed them but they also require nutrition specific to their needs and excellent hay and hoof care. All of our sheep and goats receive regular veterinary care as well - something to consider. It’s not an inexpensive endeavor to get sheep and goats if it’s done properly.
Hair sheep grow hair not wool and do not need to be shorn, they are popular with people who are using them for meat and don’t want to deal with sheering.
They are also the preferred herding animal to train border collies in the basics and refine those, they herd very well.
Regular sheep take a better, and better trained dog to work them.
I have never kept Goats, but have had them as neighbors.
They stink.
They are forever escaping, and coming over to pillage.
They do not “herd” like Horses, or Cattle; it takes several people, working in concert, to get them back where they belong.
Did I mention the stink? Dear me :-P.
The Mini Goats are cute. You can always tell when someone has them by the hoofprints on their cars.
If you do get Goats, get large ones, as the smaller ones are just impossible to contain. A 6’ chain-link might do it . . .
Around here (Colorado Front Range), we do see Goats pastured with Horses often enough, so there must be some benefit. Probably more often we see assorted New-World Camelids, chiefly Alpacas, but I’m sure some Llamas as well (difficult to tell apart at a distance). People who have them seem fond of the critters, but beyond that, I can’t offer much.
We also see Donkeys. I’ve never lived with them, but I can promise you that George (the Mule) has a far less discriminating palate than any Horse I have known. That might be something to investigate.
We very rarely see Sheep in any context.
I love that you used the name Verity! I know someone with that name and I’ve always loved it!
Sadly hot wire on several sections of dryland grazing wasn’t in the cards but we have hot wire on the exterior of our goat pen now. The goats we have now don’t press the fence but if they did they would reach that wire. It’s main purpose is to keep random stray dogs out. I still remember the feeling of being in the house with two toddlers and getting out the binocs to see if that sheep was really stuck or if it was just on its knees grazing through the fence… when all the other sheep left it there I knew it was time to go. ha ha
I love llamas and alpacas… but also not low maintance creatures. 
Honestly, if someone wants something “low maintance” to eat weeds, steers are probably the best bet. Still not truly low maintenance, but at least they will actually eat the weeds.
Un-neutered males stink, females and neutered males don’t smell any worse than sheep in my experience.
Place I boarded had a llama named Llamadeus.
Who lived in a field with 3 young stallions.
We’d feed mints to the boys & Llamadeus would belly right up to the bar for his share.
If he thought you were taking too long, he’d do that pre-spit SNARF!.
Rarely ever let loose with a llama llugie & made the same threat when asked to Kush!(kneel,)
BM thought he could leave Llamadeus out in Winter, but brought the studs in.
Llama made such a fuss, he ended up with a stall of his own, next to his Boyz. 
My daughter accumulated a flock of sheep as a 4-H project. These particular sheep have been fairly low maintenance - but I think that may vary a lot by breed. Hers are a line of crossbred show sheep and they’ve done well here. They have portable electric mesh fence from Premier during the day and are in a barn at night. I have two groups, with one group with their movable electric fence surrounded by the much larger horse pasture with its fence.
The electric fence keeps them in very well as long as it’s hot. It does not keep them in if it is not hot. 
Sheep are much more feral than horses. Ours like people, and know who their people are, but they don’t necessarily like to be caught or handled. Unlike horses, they will run you over/run into you and in that way IME they can actually be more dangerous than a typical horse despite being smaller. Be extremely cautious with rams.
Hers do need to be sheared once a year but that’s not the biggest lift and it’s something you can hire out. Spending an hour messing with each individual animal (we are slow at shearing) isn’t so bad. (Actually, for us the biggest issue is just catching them to shear.) There are also hair sheep that don’t get sheared.
If there’s someone near you who has sheep, maybe spend some time with them and help them on a shearing day or something to get a feel for what they are like and how to handle them. Sheep that are low maintenance for someone local to you will probably be low maintenance for you. Find a breed that matches what you want in size and temperament.
@George_T_Mule my barn owner has mini donkeys and while they are cute and friendly, they get into anything and everything and destroy things more thoroughly than the most thorough pony foal. I don’t think I want to go the donkey / mule route. At least with sheep or goats, I could in theory eat them if it didn’t work out.
Are the donkeys next to you un-neutered males? It is my understanding that they are the only ones that stink. I have no plans to get one of those.
I had toyed with the idea of getting a couple of mini highland cattle. Would they eat blackberry bushes? Anyone know?
We had regular highland cows, along with a lot of other kinds of cows, and they never did eat any brush.
I don’t think you’re wrong to think of the goats; all those goat crews clearing brush for a living can’t be wrong. My goats eat leaves like they are potato chips but especially in the fall when they are dry. Seems like something that could reach all the leaves of the blackberries would have the best chance of killing them off; goaties will gnaw on stems and branches too but mostly for fun. If you really want something to concentrate on the blackberries maybe you need pigs! ha ha
Cattle don’t have biting teeth, so I imagine they wouldn’t help on blackberries. Ours never showed any interest anyway, which didn’t bother me, I’d be out picking the berries. 
If the blackberries would stay where they were, I’d be OK calling a truce with them. But they want to overrun the pastures, and the pastures are for my horses, so that’s not OK. They push out from where they already are, grow on the fenceline, and then try to randomly grow in the middle of the pastures as well. Of course I can mow them, and I will if I have to, but if someone could save me the trouble then I’d rather go that route.
One thing I sure learned with my first goats, Pigweed and Thistle, is that if you want them to eat something they Will Not. They were supposed to clear a garden spot for me. Never worked but I did develop a severe goat addiction…
Where we used to live there was a place a mile or so down the road that raised Mini-Donks. We called it “The Burrito Farm” :-D. I didn’t know the owners, and never had any interaction with their critters, but they were petite; I can’t imagine any of them weighed more than a couple hundred pounds, if that. It doesn’t task my imagination to picture them as a wrecker crew.
I’m guessing you meant the Goats, re “Stink”. I never really looked to determine gender, or reproductive status, but I suppose one or more of the dozen-or-so animals in their herd must have been intact males, 'cause they surely reeked. When they escaped, they did so in mass; you could smell them coming, and it was gag-worthy to be downwind. Other than that, they were amusing guests, and the resident Equines seemed to agree, as they announced their presence with apparent enthusiasm; “Oooho, They’re Heeere! Ahhahaha!” I never met the adult owners, but their kids were polite and pleasant (generally means pleasant parents), and always showed up with apologies, and to help with the goat-herding chores. Other neighbors must have been less tolerant however, as the people moved on after a few months, taking their Goats with them.
Friends of ours have several of the “Scottish Highlander” cattle. “Mini-cows”; I’m assuming they’re the same thing. They are cute and almost obnoxiously friendly, but I sorta gathered that they are Prima Donnas, and I wouldn’t count on them voluntarily eating less-than-ideal forages. That said, the standard “Black” steers (Black Angus? I couldn’t say.) we see around here seem to keep their pastures pretty well picked bare, so something like that might work for you. In any event, I’d eat one of them way before I got desperate enough to try Sheep, or (shudder) Goat. I do know people eat 'em, tho.
Those would be males. Our goat was starting to stink at a young age, but fortunately one of the guilty party of two who purchased him for my daughter had him fixed and the smell pretty much went away to just regular goat smell, as opposed to stinky male goat smell, before they start peeing on their beards, I guess the girl goats find the stench attractive. 
My goats do weed duty in my horses pasture. It is 48" woven wire with a strand of barb on top. As long as the bottom wire is close to the ground level and your fences are solid you shouldn’t need to worry about them squeezing out.
I have only had 2 intact, mature breeding bucks find a spot to go over a fence in all my years of keeping goats ( since 2005) and that was 10000% hormone induced.
Sheep are fine and hair sheep are a good choice but they have copper issues so you don’t want them to have any access to horse feed/ supplements etc… that would allow them to consume it. Goats are braver in personality and many really like the horses. Sheep not so much although they can co exist alright.
Sheep owner here 
. They are complimentary grazers in that they don’t share parasites, eat the same high-quality hay, and do best in the same high-quality “horse” fencing of woven wire with 2x4 squares.
They have different mineral requirements and are very susceptible to parasites.
I find my sheep do not reduce my mowing time. I’d need a MUCH higher stocking rate and intensive rotation to force them to graze down problem areas. Rotating is much better for parasite management, but takes time and/or infrastructure.
Their mineral requirements are unique. You’d likely need to rig a sheep-proof place for your horses’ minerals and a horse-proof place for your sheep minerals, or rotate the sheep behind the horses. If you need to keep your sheep on the same ground year-round, you’re going to have parasite problems and will need check for and worm regularly.
I have Katahdin and don’t deal with shearing or horns. I expect hoof trims to be easy for most any horse person, as long as your back can take the bending over.
50 head on 20 acres of good grass and still mowing every few weeks during the season. They pick and choose spots just like horses, leaving poor, rough patches tall that have to be mowed before they go to seed and expand the problem areas.
I cheer when I see mine climbing up a tree to reach poison ivy! 
Aside from a particular species or two of invasive or undesirable plants, they prefer good grass just like horses.
Mine have never climbed on the fence or gotten out but they have tons of good grass, high-quality hay and a hot wire over woven wire fencing.
I enjoy watching the sheep head butt, play king of the hill, and get the zoomies. That’s enough entertainment for me. I will never have goats, no matter how cute and cheap are the kids. Want to see if you have a goat-proof fence? Throw a bucket of water at it. Did water go through? So will goats. 
All that said, sheep are a low-input, affordable animal to raise for market if you enjoy them. If you want them to reduce mowing, you’ll be disappointed.
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