Emma Gray.. Sheepdogs, Celebrities and Cabin Fever

After taking on the biggest challenge a young shepherdess could imagine, Emma Gray discovered she's made of tough stuff and forged a successful career including writing a book, becoming a tv personality and of course running her own farm.

Emma was kind enough to share her time with us and we talked, sheepdogs, dodgy generators and her new tv series ITV1's Flockstars..

As we know you're a farmers daughter, did you know you wanted to farm from a young age?

Yes I think I remember going to the mart with my dad and someone asked me what I wanted to be when I grow up and I said 'I want to be a blacky farmer..' Obviously I went through fits and starts not knowing what I wanted but it had always been there.

Before becoming a solo shepherdess and taking on Fallowlees, you were engaged in your early 20's right?

I got engaged at a very young age, just 19 and suddenly had an epiphany, everyone was telling me; I’ll be getting married and having kids and baking and knitting, I just thought I can't cope with this, he was a really lovely guy but the timing just wasn’t right.

What was your parents reaction when they found out you wanted to solo shepherdess?

My parents reaction when I first split with my fiance was actually a little annoyed, I didn’t really have any direction and wasn’t sure what I wanted to do, I just knew I didn’t want to get married.

I was working as a shepherdess for 4 years when I saw an advert for Fallowlees and I just thought, that would be the perfect relationship, taking on the farm has actualised me and I feel I have become a bigger person and have become complete.

I have been very lucky.

When you took on the farm, did you ever think what am I doing? Has there been a lot of work at Fallowlees?

Yes there was an awful lot of work, the farm was dilapidated when I arrived and I'm not from a rich family so had to make do and mend, I have no mains power and had a really temperamental generator (bloody thing), I had to learn to approach mechanics, so I could tinker with it when it went off, I think when you're by yourself it makes it feel worse, being snowed in as a child, I was with my family and so it didn’t feel quite so isolated, but here I’d end up with cabin fever, talking to the dogs.

And how many dogs do you have at the moment?

12 ..I think, yes 12!

You wrote a book after your first year, had you always wanted to write or where you inspired by your experiences?

Yeah I wrote the book after the first year, I really enjoyed writing it, it wasn’t difficult as everything had happened so I just needed to remember it and I’d kept lots of diary’s. I’m an avid reader so I think that helped and English was a strong point at school!

You've also appeared on a few tv show's including Countryfile and Robson Green's: Northumberland, how did this come about?

The tv work has snowballed to be honest, once you get out there, you start to get approached more,. Obviously it started with Countryfile, (I have no idea how they found out about me?) – then Robson Green and then a clip appeared on youtube and that’s how the flockstars team found me. – it was difficult for the media to find someone who has the skills as a shepherd, but were also comfortable on camera and flexible with availability.

As you mentioned, your most recent venture was Flockstar's how did you find working on the show?

I absolutely loved working on the show, it was great fun, very different and very difficult, with really long days, we’d start shooting/training at 7:30am and finish at 7:30pm. I’m not great at doing lines and the celebs were struggling with the sheep/dogs and so what took hours to film, actually only appears as 1 minute on the show, but I loved the guys. Also the director may see something but then the other crew would miss it and need to see it again, they'd also have funny requests that maybe weren’t something the dog's could do.

The whole crew actually had a crash course in sheep handling and learnt a lot about the dogs, they were really good by the end of it.

There were a few negative comments about the show, some even before it had aired, it must be frustrating to work hard on something and have it knocked down?

Yes, I found some comments really hurtful, we worked a long time and very hard on the show, it's only supposed to be entertainment and not taken too seriously, I can't believe people would criticised something before they've even see it. 

It should be taken as intended a light hearted entertainment show.

Could you see any of the celebs making it within the world of Sheep Dog Trials?

The celebs took it very seriously, they were all very competitive by nature and worked hard and are very driven. It's hard to say, but I was really impressed by both Brendon and Lee,  Lesley did a great job, but I think she realised she wouldn’t want to be out in the middle of a field, it's not really her cup of tea.

Unfortunately, Lee Pearson was not well matched with his dog, so that was frustrating at the start, but they came on so well together.

Did the training take place at Fallowlees?

No, all the training was actually shot over 6 weeks in Bexleyheath, London at Woodlands Farm. It was so weird to be the country bumpkin, on a farm but with cars going by, it's polar opposites to my normal life. The whole experience was so different, the hotel even had a McDonald's downstairs! One night me Lee and the boys decided to go into London and got a McDonald's, it was so bazaar, driving around London in a range rover eating a McDonald's, then Lee said ‘check that box under the seat’ and it was his Olympic gold medal!! ..I actually got a bit teary, it was so surreal and spectacular.

Was it difficult to watch someone else, especially a complete beginner work your dogs?

Yes was really difficult to see someone else working my dogs, I have crafted them over a long time, the dogs are very stoic and sometimes a celeb would give a command and the dog would just look at me like what is he doing? the celebs would say 'that was the dogs fault', but I’d have to tell them, ‘no it was yours’

Sheep dog training and breeding is obviously a huge part of the farm, is that the most rewarding part of your job?

Definitely, I love training the dogs, taking them all the way through, it's my most favourite thing to do, to be honest that is more lucrative than the farm, as we know farming is struggling at the moment and there's no cost involved in training, just my time, but with everything else, if I want to sell a lamb, I need to feed them and look after them, the dogs have very much supported the farm, especially at the beginning,

If I needed to pay a bill, I could sell a dog; it’s always difficult but that’s also what they're here for. There are of course dogs I wouldn’t sell, but it stopped me going bankrupt in the early years.

So you advertised for a husband a few years back, how did that come about?

Nooooo! (in a very strong Scottish borders accent) ..A journalist advertised on my behalf, she came to visit to do a story and took pity on me, she said ‘oh, you’re here on your own, we need to get you a boyfriend’, then advertised in the local press for me.. I was mortified when I saw it and a bit put out, people always looked at me and thought she’s farming by herself, she needs a man.

But I have now been with a guy for 10 months and he’s a keeper, he looked after the farm whilst I was filming Flockstars and has two dogs of his own, including Gyp who appeared on the show. He’s from Scotland and we met through tinder.. that's how everyone meets nowadays isn't it? ..oh and he’s a fireman.

Obviously every day is different but when you're not shooting tv programmes what's involved in your average day?

Yes as you say everyday is different but at this time of year, for instance today, I will get up and let the dogs out, get them cleaned out then have breakfast. Then get the lambs in, tag them and load them at lunch time – then this afternoon I’ll be training dogs.

I get to train dogs every day.

Do you get much chance to spend time with family and socialise?

Yes, I’m a big family person and get to see my folks every fortnight, it's only an hour and half away so not too difficult to get there and I get to socialise quite a bit, it's mainly around the country calendar so seeing people at shows.

You're obviously making a success of Fallowlees, so what are your plans for the future?

Aww thank you, well I’ve taken on another farm, but I have to travel over to it, so ideally I'd love it to be ring fenced, but to be honest my main dream was to not work for other people and I’ve now achieved that and started working for just myself last October, I felt it was really hard working for someone else, because as you know with farming when your somewhere else something needs doing at home and vice versa, so I wasn’t doing anything properly. But really I've achieved my dream of having my own farm.

It’s been baby steps but I’ve got there.