TWO sheep that have spent years on the run have had a haircut, and while their clips don't compete with the mighty fleeces of the Monaro wether Samson or New Zealand's Shrek, there were plenty of surprises when their locks were lopped at the town's local show on Saturday.
While shearing one of the bush-rangers - which everyone assumed was a wether, Glen Innes shearer Jeremy Newberry, who also won the show's shearing competition, found teats - making he a she.
Locals quickly added to the moniker to rename the black Suffolk ewe, which had a fleece of 18kg, Nicky.
Her mate Pip, a first-cross Border Leicester/Merino ewe, carried a more impressive fleece of 23kg, and was shorn by Brett Mayled, from Guyra.
Just over a week ago the pair were running wild in the hills east of Guyra before being caught by Wayne Mills, who leases the property on which they run.
No one was more surprised than Mr Mills when Nick turned out to be Nicky.
It was believed the sheep had been on the run for 12 years, but now she's estimated to have avoided shearing for at least the past seven years.
"It turns out she must have been a lamb that was on the property, and by the look of her teats she's about eight or nine years old," he said.
"She's lived among the blackberries for so long and we'd never see her, that we thought she was a wether run by the couple who owned the property."
The freshly shorn ewes have been put back in the same paddock, but judging by the amount of work it took to shear them, Mr Mills won't let them get out of shearing again if he can help it.
While only two shearers did the hard work, they needed an extra man on each sheep to hold up the wool while it was being cut.
It may have been a lot of work to get them in and shorn, but it ended up being a good feature for the show, with plenty of locals and visitors turning it to watch the ewes lose their wool.
"It was a bit of a spectacle for the crowd.You don't see that every day," shearing steward Bruce Reeves said.
