P.E.I. sheep shearer lands second place at the Calgary Stampede

A P.E.I. woman has taken her side job shearing sheep to the next level: she is now competing, recently finishing second in her class at the Calgary Stampede.

Amber Petersen, of Hampton, P.E.I., grew up around sheep.

"My dad was a sheep shearer so growing up he took both my brother and I, we started probably when we were about 10," said Petersen.

"We would shear around the Maritimes and we would bag wool and catch sheep for him and then I was 14 or 15 when I started to learn how to shear."

Petersen left shearing for a while, returning to it in her early twenties. 

"I met another female shearer who was shearing in the area and she asked if I wanted to come with her," said Petersen.

"I went for the day and that was probably the time when I started enjoying shearing. As a teenager, I didn't enjoy it at all."

Speedy shearing

Petersen now has more than 100 customers across Prince Edward Island and also travels off-Island to shear. Her secret?

"Being thorough and getting all the wool and not butchering the wool," Petersen said.  "You don't want to cut it all up and have it in a bunch of little pieces."

Petersen charges $4 to $6 per sheep and she is fast. On Thursday, she sheared 88 lambs in the morning and another 91 in the afternoon, for a daily total of 179.

Petersen competed for the first time in 2017, after going to a shearing school in Ontario.

"I enjoyed it way more than I expected," Petersen said. "It's quite fun to get together with other shearers because here, most of the time, I shear on my own."

'Inspiration to do better'

The judging at the sheep shearing competition, she says, can be intense. 

"There is someone who is watching you the whole time you shear and they are marking you on how you're shearing," Petersen said.

"The sheep will then go out back and be judged again and they will be judging for any nicks or cuts and then time comes into play too."

Her goal, if she goes back to the Stampede, is to move up to the open class, where the professionals compete.

"There were some extremely good shearers there, the guy who did win the Stampede this year is a world champion," Petersen said. 

"It's pretty crazy to watch and it gives you inspiration to do better." 

'Thrilled for her'

Jackie Irwin Paynter of Blueshank Farms has her sheep sheared twice a year.

"Once they're shorn, you see how they relax, sometimes little fights break out because they don't recognize each other after they've been shorn," Irwin Paynter said.

Irwin Paynter was impressed by Petersen's recent performance at the Stampede.

"I was really thrilled for her and when I found out she placed second, I was just so proud of her," Irwin Paynter said.

For now, Petersen says sheep shearing will remain a side gig, in the evenings and on weekends. 

"You have to be willing to travel in order to be a full-time sheep shearer," Petersen said. 

"You would be looking at travelling at least across Canada and probably to other countries if you wanted to do it year round." 

She says she does it, in part, because she enjoys it. 

"I enjoy the physicalness of it. I enjoy the fact that not a lot of people do it and I've really built some great relationships with the farmers," Petersen said. 

"The very first flock I did on my own at 16, he still has sheep and I still go there and I still shear his sheep." 

More P.E.I. news