Amanda Owen (47) is known best as the Yorkshire Shepherdess. Amanda lives on Ravenseat Farm, North Yorkshire, with Clive Owen and their nine children. The star of Channel 5’s Our Yorkshire Farm, she has five books to her credit, including the bestseller, T he Yorkshire Shepherdess.
If anyone ever says to me, ‘That’s impossible’ or ‘You can’t do it’, rather than crumble, I just get the bit between my teeth.
When I was at school in Huddersfield, my careers adviser told me I wasn’t bright enough to work with animals. At 14 years old, I remember being one of those kids who stared at the windows, daydreaming and did the minimum. But then I discovered author James Herriot’s books — about a veterinary practice in the Yorkshire Dales — and decided I wanted to work with animals. However, my career adviser was not so sure. ‘You’re never going to be a vet, Amanda, because you’re not smart enough,’ he told me, cruelly. Then I returned to the library, and discovered a photograph book called Hill Shepherd by John Forder. It depicted the lives and struggles of the shepherds living in the Lake District, Yorkshire Dales, and other parts of the country. Before I got that book I did not know it was possible to be a vocation.
North Yorkshire Shepherdess Amanda Owen is 47 years old. She said that a school counselor told her she wasn’t smart enough to be able to help animals.
That was my epiphany, and I set my mind on making it my life (milking cows, herding sheep, driving tractors, lambing, clipping and shovelling muck) before working as a contract shepherdess — and then, since 1996, here at Ravenseat Farm with my husband Clive.
Decades later, after seeking a solitary, quiet life, the irony is not lost on me that I’ve somehow ended up in the limelight. My life as a shepherdess was featured in the ITV show The Dales in 2011, which led to Channel 5’s Our Yorkshire Farm.
So far, the books I’ve written have sold upwards of half a million copies, all because I didn’t let myself be pigeonholed and I didn’t give up.
The same is my wish for my children. We’ve got nine, which was never the plan. They should be able to ride faster and climb higher. I also want them to always challenge others. Because life is too short, we owe ourselves the responsibility to do things.
Celebrating The Seasons With The Yorkshire Shepherdess, by Amanda Owen (£20, Pan Macmillan), is out now.