Marlow High School senior Hayden Travis has earned the name “sheep whisperer” because she has been working with sheep since the 4 grade in 4-H and continued her career with FFA in her freshmen year.

Travis’s interest was sparked by her sister, Haley Travis, when Hayden was in the third grade.

“When we were younger, my sister asked me to come help her with her sheep because she was afraid of the dark. We would go down to the barn with flashlights and feed the sheep,” Travis said.

The next year Travis got sheep and started showing them herself.

“My sister would probably be my biggest inspiration. She is my biggest fan and supporter,” Travis said.

When Travis started showing, the sisters were both there to support each other.

“We were a team,” Travis said.

Haley Travis, a 2012 MHS graduate, said she had always had confidence in her younger sister.

“I know that she is capable of anything she sets her mind to, and I will always be there to support her no matter where she chooses to go in life.”

–Haley Travis

Travis got the nickname “sheep whisperer” from her dad because she said the sheep are drawn to her and afraid of him.

“Sheep are naturally wild,” Travis said. “You have to work with them every night and by the end of the season the sheep are like puppies.”

Travis commonly gets attached to her sheep, especially Else her ewe, Elsa.

“Elsa is being bred right now, and I miss her.”

Elsa was the first sheep Travis placed with on a state level, winning Supreme Grand Champion at the 2014 Oklahoma State Fair.

Travis will show her in the spring at county and at the Oklahoma Youth Expo (OYE) in March.

Elsa is only one of six sheep in Travis’s barn.

Travis also has five wethers, two of which are descendants of her sister’s Grand Champion sheep.

Every night Travis has to work with her sheep for up to two hours to prepare them for shows.

Working sheep includes petting their legs and training them to brace.

When training to brace, the sheep are put on an elevated box and taught to lean against the trainer.

Sheep have a fear of falling so the elevated box makes them push up against the trainer, according to Travis.

Sheep shows do not come with an easy routine.

On the day before a show, Travis will load up the sheep and take them to the show barns for weigh in.

The next day Travis has to wake up early and go to the barns to exercise and weigh in again.

After they are weighed, they are fed and then they wait until it is time to show.

Sometimes Travis will get up at 4:30 a.m. and not show until 2 p.m.

Travis currently is the vice president of the Marlow FFA chapter.

Rylee Derryberry

MHS exPRESS writer