Contents 1 Little money, hardly any vacation, still, happy 2 meat, especially the tender lamb, bring to the court’s money is a 3 “Suddenly, the Wolf of all problems debt” On a page to read

In a group-the shepherd and are based on long rods, their shepherd shovel, the symbol and tool of the shepherd. They wear felt hats, costumes, jackets and leather vests in a forest-and-meadows-colors, feet stuck in boots in manure resistant. A mixture of the stable and the smell of cigarette smoke marked the authority of their inner circle.

heroes started on the Swabian Alb. Here, the national guard will take place at the end of September, something like the German championship for the shepherds and their dogs. From all of the länder, they travel every four years to measure. Who starts, has previously won the selection at home.

Joshua Seeberger is call 26 years old, since a few weeks, he may swim the best Schäfer-württemberg. A young shepherd has won the national selection, is unusual, the professional has great talent. The Federal performance this weekend, Seeberger hats with the participants from North Rhine-Westphalia, the Youngest, both in their mid-twenties. The average age of the other is just under 60 years. In the audience many young families and shepherdesses and shepherds from all over Germany, up to 5,000 visitors, the organizer expected, the Association of German country sheep breeding associations.

600 ewes, seven old German herding dogs and a flock of geese

Seeberger stands with a hat and a shepherd’s shirt on the pasture in front of an enclosure and swung his shepherd shovel, his most important tool. In front of him a herd of 300 sheep. The task: Seeberger and his dog Ilyas to lead the animals to a pasture on a narrow piece graze, then along the marked path and around a sharp corner around the guide, and finally over a bridge to a wide field, and in moving cars passing back into the enclosure. Three judges will evaluate the work of the two.

If he does not take heed to the bet sheep, works Seeberger as an employee of shepherd. His farm is located in a valley outside the town of Baden-Baden, between vineyards and fruit meadows. He is part of the shepherd champion Ute Svensson. Here’s to you and your husband live in, one of the trainees, and Seeberger, together with 600 ewes, seven old German shepherd, several ponies and a flock of geese. Seeberger inhabited close to the yard a cart, as known from circuses.

shepherd Joshua lives on a hand-painted sign car at his place. Inside the album of Teenage singing Riot in the house, in the bookcase at the Steppenwolf, and Seeberger is handled with the espresso pot. Outside the car, a small porch is attached to the railing dying herbs point out that the shepherd’s care is familiar with the consciousness limits.

1/9 in The early Morning, Joshua comes as the first participant. However, the sheep and the dog are not in a competitive mood. © Anne-Sophie Balzer for TIME ONLINE 2/9 Joshua and Ilyas are for about half of the sheep is responsible, the other half of the 600 sheep that keepeth his Boss Ute Svensson. © Anne-Sophie Balzer for TIME ONLINE 3/9 winner of the VDL-Federal leistungshütens is the 67-year-old Thuringia Klaus-Dieter Knoll with his two dogs, Fenja and witch. © Anne-Sophie Balzer for TIME ONLINE 4/9 The Youngest and only woman among the Participants: Marie-Kathleen Rodemeier North Rhine represents-Westphalia. Even when the sheep don’t want to run. © Anne-Sophie Balzer for TIME car ONLINE 5/9 Joshua in front of his residence. © Anne-Sophie Balzer for TIME hats ONLINE 6/9 with work clothes for the shepherd and the shepherdess in heroes began with the Federal power. © Anne-Sophie Balzer for TIME ONLINE 7/9 exchange among colleagues. © Anne-Sophie Balzer for TIME hats ONLINE 8/9 Maik Gersonde Mecklenburg-Vorpmmern the Performance. © Anne-Sophie Balzer for TIME ONLINE 9/9 maintain sheep, friendships, explains Joshua. Some of them are always together and cuddling. © Anne-Sophie Balzer for TIME, ONLINE

Seeberger looks like you would imagine a young shepherd: heavy boots, carpenter pants, and a sun-bleached T-Shirt, in summer a hat, and in Winter, a wool sweater and the waxed jacket. His broad shoulders tell more about the work than his hands. The are amazingly soft, his nose a delicate pair of glasses sits. The curly hair he wears short, as sheep their summer fur.

That he became a shepherd, he would not be able to imagine after school. Seeberger grew up in the vicinity of Erlangen, and comes from a theatrical family. After the Abitur at the Waldorf school, he wanted to at the Ernst Busch school in Berlin, puppetry study. Today, life in the big city would be too narrow for him. With his biography, he is, among shepherds, but not an outsider. “We shepherds are a colourful bunch,” he explains. There is a lot of newcomers, more and more women, and most have a high school diploma. He has become the animal farmer with a specialist in the direction of sheep-farming, the apprenticeship is – did he owe to his uncle. With him on the farm, in the Wind and weather on the pasture, and surrounded by friendly ruminants, felt Seeberger. An internship led him to the sheep.

tells If the shepherd of his work, he chooses groping his words, as he would go to his sheep advance of a suspension bridge: the rates of testing, such as rotten wooden boards under the feet. Often he stops, turns prefer a cigarette, unusually long Silence. In the thoughtfulness, the dedication of young people is an idea that is dedicated to a task without much talk.