[Jacob-list] Re: six horned rams

[Grose]

There was a question from Kate Barrett on a six horned ram lamb several days ago:
I am wondering if he would 
be registerable as this has filled some of the spacing between horns. I have no idea 
where else a ram would fit 6 horns then how this one has it arranged.. 

At the JSBA annual General Meeting several in June, we had an on-site inspection demonstration. One of the ewes that I brought has six full sized horns. The only comments that were made were of the " Oh, look at that" variety.  I also inquired about a ram that I have at home that I would like to register, [but for various reasons, will not use] that has five horns, fused on each side. This ram is of a type that most of us that have been raising Jacobs for some time have seen that is of "2-horned" phenotype. The basic response that I got from the inspectors there was that as long as the ram met the condition of "symmetrical and balanced" then he would be passed. This is where the subjective nature of the inspectors job falls into play. The basic criterion is that the animal not be lop-sided and the horns not be injurious to him. It would be a poor idea to discourage the inclusion of sheep with "multitudes" of horns in our registry, and the simple fact is that you cannot put 6 horns on a little pumpkin head without them bumping each other a little. The rules are written for the more common situations, and cannot be written broadly enough to cover every possibility. We have to stick with what is sensible.

If I am reading the British JSS standards correctly they do not accept sheep with more than four horns.

For the record, we have had a 6 horned ram that had rather nicely balanced horns, though they did touch at the base almost all the way around the crown of his head!

Neal Grose
PS: If any of the inspectors are listening and not suffering from heat exhaustion, feel free to check my comments on this.

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