They are limbering up by running about a field and their specialist training diet involves eating a lot of grass.
The competitors are a dozen highly agile sheep preparing to do ovine athletic battle at a famous North Yorkshire sheep fair.
The Wensl
eydale and Jacob breeds have been hand picked for the 200 yard sweepstake dash which has become a popular feature of Masham Sheep Fair, near Ripon, being held tomorrow and Sunday.
The chosen flock were selected by founder and organiser of the show Susan Cunliffe-Lister. "Only the fittest ones are chosen for the races and we have been putting them through their paces ahead of the event," she said.
Tradition
The sheep are tempted to run for the finishing line by one of the organisers rattling feed in a bucket ahead of the flock.
Mrs Cuncliffe-Lister started the fair as a "one off", but it proved such a success that this week's event will be the 18th.
The sheep racing was introduced later as a fun event. But the crowds loved it so much that it has become a tradition.
Backers get caught up in the excitement as the race gets under way, cheering their sometimes reluctant choices to the line, although some sheep have been known to stop for a graze on the way.
Even the foot and mouth crisis three years ago did not prevent the show from going ahead – although contestants displayed cardboard cut-out sheep or models. But even that was a crowd puller.
This weekend there will be 108 classes for the serious part of the show and more than 500 sheep in the spacious Market Place, one of the biggest in the country. Many years ago sheep were driven from the moors around Masham and at times 80,000 sheep were packed into the little market town.
"It's bad enough clearing up after 500 so I shudder to think what it was like when there were so many. Apparently the organisers used to make the elderly people clear up," said Mrs Cunliffe-Lister – a tradition not carried on today.
A feature of the event will be the Bishop Blaize procession at 1.45pm on both days. The Bishop was patron saint of woolcombers which once abounded in Masham.
Youngsters will dress up as soldiers, kings, queens and clergy to mark the link with Bishop Blaize and Masham's past.
Insurance
Contestants are urged to keep their sheep under control after one made a dash for freedom, finally rampaging into a greenhouse.
Ironically, it was the greenhouse belonging to the man who had arranged insurance for the show.
He was able to make swift and professional arrangements for compensation for the shattered panes.
A children's fairground and harvest floral displays in Masham Parish Church and the town's Methodist chapel are also linked with the weekend of celebrations which is expected to attract thousands of visitors. All proceeds go to charity.
In a coals to Newcastle touch a New Zealander will demonstrate sheep shearing and talk about the history of sheep in the Market Place.
