by Carol Mowdy Bond
As a university student, Kim Steagall came across a Border Collie that
liked people and was fully loyal and obedient.
“I told myself I wanted a dog like that someday,” Steagall said.
Steagall researched dog breeds, and in 2016, she bought a seven-week-old Border Collie pup from an Atoka sheep owner and dog breeder. Purchasing the pup as a pet, Steagall named him Riley because she wanted him to have “the life of Riley,” a phrase referring to an easy and pleasant life.
“I was absolutely smitten from the first time I saw him,” said Steagall. “And I wanted Riley to have a fulfilled life. So the breeder suggested sheepherding for Riley.”
For about a year, Steagall and Riley tried different activities. Together, they waded through obedience training, disc dog, agility classes, and dock diving. “I wanted to give him what he needs, like a job,” Steagall said. “I was figuring out what he can do that he loves because we live in a neighborhood.”
Steagall noticed a herding clinic for puppies in Broken Arrow and enrolled 10-month-old Riley. When the dogs were placed with ducks to ascertain any herding instincts, Riley’s passion exploded. So for a year and a half, Steagall and Riley took weekly herding lessons.
“We were figuring out this herding thing,” she said. “After the lessons, I felt like I was ready to get sheep and practice on my own.”
Launching a Sheep Farm
Steagall borrowed five sheep for a few years. But she and her husband live in a residential neighborhood. So she went door to door in a rural area, asking people if she could lease their land. Initially snagging a four-acre parcel, Steagall and Riley worked with the borrowed sheep.
When she mustered her confidence, Steagall bought Katahdin sheep — 11 ewes and one ram — launching her Lucky
Ewe Sheep Farm in Canadian County. She chose Katahdin sheep because they are hearty, fertile, and low maintenance. And they are meat-producing sheep. Rather
than producing fleece, or wool (which can be made into textile products), Katahdin sheep grow hair which they shed in the spring. So owners don’t have to annually shear the fleece. And the sheep grow the hair back each fall.
Although Steagall is not from a farming family or background, she continues to learn about sheep through friends and social media. In addition, prospective buyers find Steagall through social media. They usually buy her sheep for pets on their hobby farms. Thus far, buyers hail from Oklahoma and Texas.
From Steagall’s vantage point, sheep are a hobby. She and her husband aspire to own and live on land with the sheep, but for now, they are still in a residential area with the sheep living in a rural area. And Steagall said the sheep sales mostly pay for the sheep and their needs.
Good Buddy Riley
Fast forward, and now 43-year-old Steagall and six-year-old Riley tend to Steagall’s 28 ewes, 30 lambs, and one ram named Ram Ram.
“I named one of the ewes Ornery Mama,” Steagall laughed. “She was the first sheep to run after Riley instead of running away from him.”
Steagall said, “Riley is my buddy. When we’re working together, he wants to please me. He’s a really good partner. He lives in our home. I can tell him I need to bathe him or rinse him off, and he goes straight to the bathroom. And Riley and my husband are buddies. But if my husband tells Riley to do something, Riley will first look at me.”
Dialing it up, Riley and Steagall hit the competition scene. In 2020, they competed in dock diving in Washington, Oklahoma. And they qualified for world championships in dock diving in 2020 and 2021 in Dubuque, Iowa. In 2022, they took a 23- hour road trip to Indian Valley, Idaho, for a herding clinic. At that clinic, Riley and Steagall won the award in the intermediate sheep class, and Steagall snagged a cool rodeo-style belt buckle as a prize.
Born and raised in McLoud, Oklahoma, Steagall earned a psychology degree from Oklahoma State University in Stillwater. But she has been a dental assistant since high school graduation, and she maintains that career.
Maneuvering around her work hours in the dental office, Steagall and Riley care for the sheep at least once each morning and once each evening, regardless of weather or snow-packed roads. During lambing season, they sometimes care for the sheep three times daily.
And Steagall has plenty of lambing stories to tell. “One year, we got big bales of Bermuda and fed the sheep all winter off that while the ewes were making babies,” Steagall said. “It was the all-you-can-eat Bermuda buffet, and the mamas were fat, so their lambs were big.”
Steagall recalled when one ewe was giving birth and ran off. “Riley and I cornered the ewe to control the situation. The babies were so big…. Without Riley, I couldn’t have caught the ewes. So Riley and I birthed the lambs.”
Steagall said, “We started herding because Riley loves it. But I have grown to love it too. It has inspired me to be the best leader I can be for Riley. I have had to work hard, learning the skills of working sheep with Riley, and I have also had to learn how to stay calm and think under pressure when the sheep run amuck. Riley will stay calm if I stay calm. He will be nervous if I’m nervous. It is the best feeling to do a big farm job, like sorting the lambs from the ewes at weaning time, with just me and my dog!”
A Much-Loved Breed
Riley is part of a much-loved herding breed. Originating in Scotland, Border Collies need huge amounts of exercise and
activities for mind and body. They excel in dog sports. Extremely energetic, they are loyal, responsive, alert, driven, hardworking, highly intelligent, and athletic. They are happiest when working or playing. With strong and agile bodies, the dogs have ready-to-go attitudes and strong instincts. They are sensitive to noise and will alert owners to visitors, passersby, and other movements.
Border Collies can be excellent companions for very active households, but they are medium on the scale of friendliness with other household pets and are medium on the shedding spectrum. They will not tolerate boredom or being alone. If Border Collies lack high levels of activity, they will get into all kinds of mischief, including eating furniture and developing other problematic issues.
The life span of Border Collies is 10 to 17 years. They are 18 to 22 inches tall at the shoulder, weigh 28 to 48 pounds, and have a double coat.
Katahdin sheep, a domestic breed developed in the later twentieth century, are a cross between selected St. Croix sheep from the Virgin Islands and various other breeds, including the Suffolk breed. Ewes normally weigh between 120 and 160 pounds, and rams weigh 180 to 250 pounds. Their hair can be any color, and they are resistant to parasites.
