Getting a sheep into a teepee is no easy task

For years at the Black Hills Stock Show, sheep have been sheared, ridden upon by youngsters, wrangled by border collies and corralled by ranchers on horseback. So what else can possibly be done to these woolly and wily animals? How about being tackled and then shrouded in a homemade teepee by two people racing against the clock? It's true: The 2017 Black Hills Stock Show will feature the inaugural Sheep Teepeeing competition in which a team of two chases down and tackles a ewe, assembles a home-made canvas teepee, and then must convince the sheep to go inside and stay there until the competitors can run across a finish line. While it's certain to be fun to watch, and a big challenge for the contestants, a big goal of the sheep teepeeing event is to keep a South Dakota tradition alive. "It's an opportunity for us to celebrate the tradition of sheep herding and use of teepees in South Dakota," said David Ollila, a sheep rancher near Newell who is also the sheep field specialist for the South Dakota State University extension office in Rapid City...more