Crumble son of Rhubarb, brother of Custard and grandson of Pancake was born with much difficulty on the 18th April 2020. His and his twin brothers’ birth was the most difficult lambing I have had to assist with. I am usually pretty confident at helping sheep during difficult births but poor Rhubarb was is quite a pickle with these two and it wasn’t for the support and encouragement from our farmer next-door neighbour I highly doubt that Crumble and his brother Custard would be with us today. The reason for the birth being so tricky was down to Crumble and Custard being born with large protruding horn buds, in fact, their horns had already broken through and were rather sharp. Thankfully things worked out in the end and Rhubarb and her boys are now a very happy little family of 3. After all, she went through there was absolutely no way I could ever separate Crumble and Custard from their mum so they will remain here for life. Crumble is a very friendly and gentle little chap. He likes to have his chin scratched and will stand on me if I am sitting next to him in order to encourage me to keep scratching and fussing him. After he was castrated Crumble’s horns stopped growing upwards and instead started to curl inwards towards his eyes, this does sometimes happen to wethers (castrated male sheep). I have had to trim one of his horns on two occasions as it was starting to touch the skin next to his eye. Typical of all the Icelandic cross sheep Crumble too has a really beautiful fleece that is reminiscent in texture and structure to his half-sister Dandelion’s fleece.
