Walking The Dog with Emily Dean - Amanda Owen (Part One)

Episode Date: September 30, 2025

This week, Emily and Ray are joined by the wonderful Yorkshire shepherdess Amanda Owen. Amanda popped down from her farm in the Yorkshire Dales and instantly fell for Ray, perhaps unsurprisingly given that her life has been shaped by working dogs.Amanda shares the remarkable story of how answering a newspaper ad for a shepherdess job changed her life forever, leading her to Ravenseat Farm. She talks about becoming a much-loved TV presence on Our Yorkshire Farm and Our Farm Next Door, as well as her new children’s book Christmas Tales from the Farm, a heartwarming collection of festive stories inspired by her own life.It’s an honest, uplifting conversation with one of the most resilient and endearing figures on our screens.Follow Amanda on InstagramFollow Emily: Instagram - @emilyrebeccadeanX - @divine_miss_emWalking The Dog is produced by Will NicholsMusic: Rich Jarman Artwork: Alice LudlamPhotography: Karla Gowlett Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I've got a neighbour who's got a sheep dog and it always dry humps my legs, so I don't know what vibe I'm giving it. This week on Walking the Dog, Ray and I met up with a very wonderful Yorkshire shepherdess Amanda Owen. We caught up with Amanda when she'd popped down from her farm in Yorkshire to London for the day, and I wasn't remotely surprised when she fell in love with Ray because her entire career has revolved around dogs. Just FYI, Ray, these ones are called sheep dogs, and they have. actually do a bit of work. And she has of course dedicated her whole life to working with animals at her farm Raven Seat in the Yorkshire Dales. During our chat, I discovered that she's had a fascinating life. After growing up in Huddersfield, she decided to answer an ad in the paper saying

Shepherd wanted, no dog needed. And it was a decision that was to totally change her life. After visiting Raven Seat Farm one day to collect a ram, she ended up falling in love with Clive who ran the got married to him at 21 and in between co-running the farm has somehow managed to also have nine children. She's also become one of the most well-loved figures on TV through the hugely popular series Our Yorkshire Farm and more recently on Channel 4's Our Farm Next Door. One of the reasons we've all grown to love Amanda so much is because of her very honest, resilient, unaffected persona and I kind of knew I was going to love her the moment we met. She's the kind of person who you know you could call at midnight with a problem

and she'd be over in a heartbeat with a tractor rolling up her sleeves to get it sorted. She's also found time to publish a brand new children's book just in time for the run-up to Christmas called Christmas Tales from the Farm, which is a really beautiful collection of stories inspired by her Christmases on the farm, featuring everything from a runaway reindeer to three little goats who will absolutely melt your heart. It's such a joy of a read, so if you have younger people in your life, I can't recommend it enough. Ray and I loved our walk with Amanda so much that we're already planning our trip to Ravency.

I'm not holding out too much hope, though, when it comes to Ray managing to herd sheep. I really hope you enjoy our walk. Here's Amanda and Ray, Ray. Ray, can you follow Amanda, please? Amanda, I think he really likes you. Does he? I'm not sure. I'm feeling a touch of ambivalence. see a bit softer oh goodness does he just mosey he will what he does and I'm really hoping you might give me some insight into this where should we go this way no dogs what about this dog oh my god dogs are not permitted to enter Queen Mary's Gardens

which is Queen Mary's Gardens well if she if I don't even think she's alive anymore so well she won't know won't hurt her exactly I'm gonna carry him yeah it's such a joy to be to catch up with you. It's a joy to be here. Thank you. Oh, well I'm so thrilled. We're going to talk about your brilliant Christmas book which I've read. I've got a sneak preview you have and I absolutely loved it so I want to talk to you lots about that. And I also for purely selfish reasons, I've been a huge fan of yours for a long time and Raymond is a fan. Really? We watch your shows together. Are you sure you not just saying that? He's quite fussy about what he watches. Really? And I think he just likes the energy around your shows because he can hear the animals and outdoorsy and sheep and

yeah i'm not getting that much of an energetic vibe from raymond it looks like he's more more as an observer that's because he's undercover now that the wardens have gone i can let his soul sing openly i have honestly he is the sweetest little thing he's the sweetest most impractical dog i think i could ever have envisaged to be walking around Regent's Park what an expressive little face but what an impossibly difficult hair style he has that's what people have said about me I I you know when people talk about sharing the bathroom with a man and how much time he'd spend in there and how annoying it would be I feel like Raymond could be the equivalent of that in in in Kernine terms In other words, it looks like he needs conditioner and spray.

Oh, the grooming is a lot. Trimming. There's a lot of grooming. Because, I mean, he would take one step outside the farm door. And literally, he just, he's literally like a mobile sweeper, isn't he? Yeah. And the things that would stick to is undercarriage. I can't even, I can't even know, you don't want to know.

Because it's, it would just be really bad. I mean, do you know, we have a, you know, we have a. no access policy for chickens with feathers on the feet because they would be impractical. So we don't have any chickens that have feathery feet and I feel like Raymond is kind of the next level of he's not banned but he certainly would um he's doing a poo in Queen Mary's gardens. It's a tiny one though it's a tiny one. I can't even see it. You hold his lead yeah okay Raymond okay yeah so I want to go back and find out a bit more about your history with dogs. Because you grew up in the Huddersfield area. West Yorkshire.

Your mum, Joyce. Yeah. Dad Morris. Yes. And your dad was an engineer. Yes. And your mum, I love this, because she was a typist but also a model. Yes.

She was. And they met your parents. How did they meet actually Amanda? They actually met. She was. she was I do believe it was to do with

he was a motorcyclist and she was like handing out handing out trophies a bit like the umbrella girl I suppose because she was

she was you know she was in the 60s very much the twiggy era and very gamine and Bieber

thigh high silver boots that kind of stuff she sounds fabulous yeah exactly so that's where they met that's where that old began and my dad

He was interested in engineering, worked at David Browns and then... And David Browns was a factory, wasn't it? Factory, yes. It was a factory, so it made tanks and tractors and engines for ships and goodness knows what. So it's very much into the mechanics and motorbikes, see. So was he one of those people? I'm getting a picture of your dad as... It's like Ruben. I don't know if you've ever seen Ruben around... You've probably heard of the story. Well, you can't miss him because he's in high viz.

Ruben is one of Amanda's kids and obviously you know this if you're because everyone knows her kids. In fact, I can name them all. I'm going to do it. Go on. Okay. In order? I'll try.

Go on. Raven, Rubin, Miles, Edith, Violet, Sydney, Anna, Clementine and Nancy. Do you know what? I am amazed.

Yeah, you got it absolutely right. I mean, for me, they all respond to I, so you don't have to do it. you do not actually have to have to be so specific but honestly that that that is beyond believable it's because I love them oh I'm such characters so that's interesting that you can see some of your dad definitely definitely yeah definitely which is very pragmatic very the sort of personally like help this needs fixing oh yeah he's he's he's never happy when

everything works he's never happy when I you know if everything's going along swimmingly and and there's no sort of nothing broken then that isn't the aim of the game what he likes is pretty much to be sort of the the the hero the sir sir walter rally kind of welcome to your rescue and and sort out whatever it is i mean i remember a few Christmases ago uh on the farm i decided because obviously work continues on the farm over the festive period um i decided like you do that I would go to a very far-flung place to feed the sheep because it was beautiful, it was frosty, it was quiet, and there was that lovely Christmas feel in the air.

I don't know what it was. And I just wanted to go out, feed the sheep, but take them somewhere new, because obviously there's, with it being a kind of farm that is, a hill farm, there's a lot of space, and it was just, there was a lovely frost, and the ground was hard, and I was like, right, okay, I'm going to head out and feed the sheep,

and instead of rushing back to do everything, the opposite seems to happen at Christmas. You take more time to do your work. I don't know why. It's just the thing that you do. So I decided that I would pretty much venture to new pastures on the bike. And of course, the ground wasn't as frozen as I thought it was. So totally and utterly sunk right up to the axles

and then I had to do the walk of shame coming back and say, I've had to leave the bike at the moor because it's bog. You have never seen kids more delighted to have, to have a job to do, something to do. Because it's that kind of weird kind of, let's all sort of do the Christmas thing. But actually nobody really knows. It's an odd one because there's always so much going on that when supposedly there's not supposed to be anything going on and you have to find something, right? We can't totally. But I love that about your kids and I love the way you're raising them.

and it was interesting going back to what you're saying about your dad raising them Raven says I dragged her up she says she was the practice but you see I'm like I turn that on its head and I say look but what you've got is

resilience independence you've got a can do attitude initiative yeah initiative and all that for me being neglective how look you neglect

you know it is a fact isn't it if you do everything for somebody at some point they're going to have to sort of take up the reins and do things to themselves so why not start as you mean to go along yeah so um i still don't think raymond looks like a dog honestly well that's good we'll get away with it absolutely are you scared of authority um scared of authority no so when i see them i immediately think i'm in trouble you bristle yeah do you not you're quite confident aren't you i don't know that i'm confident i just think ignore the warnings. It's like on my car when my car says things like engine overheating or or tire deflating or whatever I just I just change the view I just don't look at it carry on that's quite good that means you're an optimist I think or or probably just dicing with danger but it's just it's

just your just your mindset isn't it really but you you grew up because we're you grew up tall obviously and I was the smallest one in the class and presumably you were one of the tallest ones in the class. Everybody feels small in London. I feel huge. I feel massive. Do you? My hands feel massive. Everything about me seems to ooze doesn't belong and I just can't feel like I can't quite fit in. I love it down here. Yeah. Because everyone assumes you see you're either city, countryside, nothing in between. And that's not true. I absolutely love it down here. I love going home. But you can have the best of both worlds.

Has Raymond ever been out of his comfort zone? Oh yes. See, I take him travelling quite a lot. Okay. Where to? And we wonder, what's so great about this podcast is that we go everywhere. So that's why I'm going to insist that we come up and have a sneak visit to you. Because we did, I went to do Judy Murray.

Yeah. At Andy Murray's, here's a house. hotel the family have a hotel in Dublin so we had a little Scottish trip didn't we Ray hang on that sounds quite it sounds quite sort of civilised though still yeah you'll be coming to cowboy country literally you will be out in the stick there's no five star no exactly organic sausages Ray no no I mean I don't think if I'm honest chalky was ever really fed until probably about 18 months ago when she began to fail as she was getting older you see this is

chalky or terrier yeah this is choky the terrier and nobody really knew what she ate so you see again it's that it's that same thing I remember once the headline was written Amanda treats her children like animals and I was like oh here we go again and what it was that I was trying to say was there were so many similarities with with the and the animals bringing them up together, you see the traits. You see what they like and what they don't like. You know, they like a certain amount of order.

They like to know what to expect. They're like their freedom. But they, I don't know. It's just a mind. Yeah. Always love and boundaries, don't you think? Yeah. It's just a mindset, isn't it?

Don't you think? I would agree with you. Well, I also, because it's interesting, what we were saying earlier about, you know, when you were growing up in that confidence, you struck me as someone who's very confident. So were you like that as a young kid? Were you sort of, really? Yes.

I was, I was kind of lost in a fog of unknowns in that I didn't, I think particularly when you're in your teens and there's a lot of big questions being asked of you. Like, hello, what you want to do the rest of your life? I mean, I feel for my children now because they're being asked the same question. And for some people you absolutely know where you're going to go and what you want to do and for others You don't know maybe for a whole of your life what you want to do and where you want to be And I it was a book it was a book that actually sort of changed changed my viewpoint I was always a person who sort of like disappeared into the ether I was never really good I was never one of the swatter children

but I was never downright naughty either. So, you know, if you remember the trend, friends reunited? No one ever remembered me. That was the thing, and that's how I wanted it, just to mind my own business. And I think if you're one of those children, particularly, you know, in the 80s, you know, you didn't particularly get a mentor

or anyone to fight your partner because basically you weren't really any trouble, were you? So I needed something to focus on, I needed to find something. Weirdly, it was a book. I picked it up off the shelves at the library. And it was called Hill Shepherd. Oh, sorry Amanda, he doesn't like bridges.

It doesn't. My horse doesn't like bridges, neither. It doesn't like the noise of who's going across. She'd rather go through the river. Hey, come on, cross the bridge. So where were we? Yes, I'm interested in you were talking about how. Oh, the Hill Shepherd book.

You went, yeah, you read the Hell Shepherd book. Yeah, and then you, there wasn't much to read, to be fair. It was like mostly pictures, but it was the images that got. me it was their shepherds and they were working working our sheepdogs and you've got these sort of images of a life that for me I was like my goodness this is this is actually not that far away from me as a crow flies hundred miles whatever but it's a different world and it was there it was just it was kind of a really eye-opening moment and you are you ended up answering an ad which was so brilliantly surreal

because you didn't say something like shepherdess wanted yeah exactly shepherd wanted no no sheepdog required and I was like okay this is fine this is fine it should have perhaps been a few warning bells there but but again it's that old thing of ignore the warnings so yes headed off to Wiltshire pretty much just on my own some with a head full of ideas and and daydreams etc etc and probably not that much practical experience but bluffed it out as we do and as I still am doing of course because that doesn't change does it as you as you get older I feel like you almost get bolder let's go that what do you think but you know what I do think you're right you do get a bit more less you know there's less of a sense of why would they want me and more of a sense of well why wouldn't they want me yeah

you know whether it's jobs or whatever you know you just think well I can do this yeah and that's what I kind of what I kind of want to portray to the children right you know because because I mean I don't I don't feel as old as I am and I feel like challenge-wise etc like with me with the book that I found something I was fortunate I found something to inspire me and with my children some of them have found their way Ruben with his is machinery and his diggers and his kind of work And some of the others they haven't. Edith doesn't quite know and I'm like there's no rush. You almost have to sort of work your way through life

and do a few things that you don't like to find the things that you do. And if you look at from a perspective of getting older, you know, you can spend quite a bit of time sort of feeling like you're almost competing with other people like trying to keep up with whatever trend or whatever you're supposed to be doing. And then you reach a certain time in your life and you think, you know what? I can't please everybody. So I'm just going to, often, I think I can't please anybody.

Yeah, well, that's true. And I'm fine with it. Yeah, exactly. Do you, so when you took this job as the shepherdess and other things I don't often say in an interview, go on. I'm really intrigued because obviously you'd had this period before then where, you know, you're very tall and striking. And it had made sense. understand because your mum are done modelling she obviously thought oh well let's give

that a go you can earn some extra money so you talked in your brilliant first book you wrote about you had a bit of a narrow escape there was a really dodgy guy wasn't there yes there certainly was I think for a start anybody who puts an advert in the Huddersfield examiner saying models wanted I will make you up a portfolio, perhaps you should sort of, this is in pre-DBS kind of times, you know, they're all tech kind of times. Um, but it put an ad bit shady, a bit shady. Put it this way. When you go to do your, um, have your portfolio put together and it's in a lockup on an industrial estate, maybe, maybe it should be a few warning. A warning bells should be ringing.

And of course, you know, as a 14 year old, you think, you know, this could be the the beginning of front page of Cosmo or whatever and as it happened of course it was it was kind of more Princess Diana and knitting catalogs if we're if we're being honest here it was florals it was everything that I despised because I you know at that time at that time in your life you're going through the sort of period of wanting to I don't know upset things a little bit you know you're kind of wanting to farm who you are. You want you to sort of rebel. Yeah. Rebell. In the end, I ended up rebelling by

becoming a shepherd, which sounds stupid because of course you have this bucolic kind of an image. You know, it wasn't exactly very rock and roll, but believe me, it still has the ability to upset people. But you know, when you've tried being a goth etc. And everybody else is doing it, it doesn't have the desired outcome does it? Yes, you were a ghost. You could have been the goth shepherdess. I could have, yes. Again, I don't feel that would have worked. So anyway, So I went off to do the photographs and there I am,

uncomfortable sitting on one of those high-backed conservatory wickerbacked chairs, dressed in cardies and bits and pieces. But of course, what I didn't realise was there was cameras in the changing rooms. Well, I say changing rooms, it was not like a cupboard with a curtain across it. So, but I didn't discover this until a few weeks later. So in a way, I did get my sort of front page, my sort of front cover. But it was kind of like to say, did anyone want to come forward to, because I mean it got loads of people, they'd all gone.

All my friends, all the people, sort of in the middle grades at school, they'd all gone to get the photographs taken. So, yeah, so that was it. That was the first sort of dip my toe into that line of work. But it wasn't for me. You know, I was doing the old sort of teenage long art. I'm kind of like, oh, I don't want to do this. Yeah.

But again, tried it. And funnily enough, fast forward 35 years. And I do do some modelling, weirdly, as a modder of nine with very dry, bushy hair and a face that is, how can we say it, weathered? weathered every day is like derma abrasion for me on the farm. So, you know, it's funny how things come around, isn't it? I'm fascinated by your decision to become a shepherdess. And I think, you know, you spent time with animals as a kid,

because you had, you had dogs, didn't you? Did you have a Westie? I did have a West Highland White Terrier. And it took a bit of getting, getting them persuaded. Because, of course, you know, like any child, it was like, can I have a, can I have a horse? Can I have a, can I have a, and. you know you we'd have a few tropical fish he Amanda I fairly know about animals and

training them why do you think he just stops like this I think he's just taking it all in do you yeah look oh he's having a good look at having a good look at what's over there right you see if it was one of my dogs it was straining at the leash and we're trying to leaping to sort of basically shred a duck or just to befriend everybody or at least rolling some pigeon poo. What do you think of the ducks, Ray? Come on you. Is Roman got a jumper? He has, but you know what? Chuck has got a jumper. What you would think, but you would be surprised because I think looking at him, you would assume I was one of those people that called him a fur baby and gave him poor seco. I'm actually not, surprisingly. I'm not into too, like I don't dress him up

too much and I don't do all that Instagram stuff. Just because I am aware that, look, he is an animal. Yeah. And I try and respect that. He's just that he's my best friend. What's not wrong with that? You see, that's interesting from my perspective, because everyone will say, huh, you're a farmer. Yeah. So therefore, you don't do pets. In other words, if you're part of an industry, then it, then literally it's either commercial or pet.

There's no in between. but they're absolutely is it's a bit like the sheep dogs yes the sheep dogs are certainly a breed apart in their mindset because they the sheep dogs don't don't live for me they live for their job they are so work-orientated some of them more than others they have an inability to switch off their energy is just well you first so you'd had westy this westy when you were growing up and then Yes. Your first, when you first became a shepherdess, I feel like you slowly built up your menagerie because... Oh God, yes. You got Difa, the sheep dog. Difa? Yep. That was a really... You see, that was such a stupid name for a sheep dog. Because that was the first thing that was going to destroy any credibility. Because, right, if you think about sheep dogs and one man and his dog and that kind of thing, it's always like, you know, it's that dynamic.

nip, fly, tan, murk, it says I'm in business, I know what I'm doing, okay? So I called mine Difa, Difa dog and it just has that kind of like, it just gives you an idea that literally I didn't know what I was doing and I always think that Difa became a sheep dog out of pity. purely out of sheer pity that I was so desperate for her to be able to work that she kind of went, oh, go on then. But she actually ended up being, well, being literally, well, I suppose you can have to say my best friend, because the bond that we had meant that, that she could translate what I wanted her to do

without, shall we say, the usual kind of professional sheepdog trainer signals. In other words, desperation, hand waving, crying, swearing and pointing seem to have exactly the same outcome. So that's all good, that's dogs for you, isn't it? She ran. And she was a bearded collie? She was a bearded collie, yes. And what is, because I know sheep dogs are traditionally border collies, aren't then?

Yes. I think you have border collies now. We do have border collies. Yeah, bearded collies are known for how much they bark. Oh, are they? Yeah. You see the thing is. I had lovely Ross Noble, the comedian on this podcast, and Ross loves bearded collies.

He has them. But they're very, why are collies, particularly, you know, border collies? Why are they sheep dogs, Amanda? What is it that makes them special and different? Well, I think perhaps they have a, well I say intelligence, but of course even, we're going to get taken out by Conquers here. Oh, look. Honestly, look at that. That is a beauty, isn't it?

Yeah. I need to take that back of plant it. I love that you've kept the Conquer or too right. Well, it's something we don't particularly get a lot of in our neck of the woods. Go on. Tell me about border collies. Border Collies. Well, if you think about it, they are, it almost feels.

like they have got so much going on in their heads that it needs to be channeled. You know it takes a certain sort of person to have to have a board a collie. So regardless of whether you're working the dog or you've got it to do agility or even you have to be active because they need a lot of things going on. So Amanda I want to get you to this wonderful farm Ravency which has been your home in such a big part of your story because you ended up going there quite sort of almost by chance accidentally yes yeah you were going to see a man about a sheep the man about a sheep yeah that's that's a good one not a man about a dog a man about a sheep yes and then you did and this man took quite a shining to you

yes i was a bit i was i wasn't particularly looking for anything other than a sheep right so so so i was kind of a bit more sort of you know i was i was busy i wouldn't say i was living my best life because of course there is a tendency to look back isn't it on on how you were you know yeah back in those days and rose tinted glasses and freedom and all the rest of it but the truth it was a bit lonely bit skint well yeah yeah but but you had all these animals in a little cottage working as a shepherdess you had a goat you had horses I did you had oh well I started I started the accumulation of all the things I feel like I was in a way making up for the the child to the No, you can't, we haven't got the room.

Is that what you used to get when you were in? Yeah, well, of course. Of course, that was it. You know, guinea pigs, Fiona, the Westhound White Terrier. Desperately wanted a horse, but it was never going to happen. You know, I could only afford a riding lesson on the local council estate once every couple of weeks, and I had to pay for my sister to have one as well. So, and that was my freedom.

That was what I, it was just, it was like, a he was just like a going into a different a different sort of a world yeah and and in a way coming to ravency was that again because already I'd immersed myself in the in Raymond's come to a standstill he will do this Raymond oh do you want to carry you have you had enough walkies for a minute is that it is that is that sometimes he just says I want to break now Really? You see, a sheepdog doesn't do that? It will run until it literally drops.

It will sit in a water trough, sit in a stream or a river. We had a sheep dog before called Bill, who sadly is gone now, and he used to enjoy playing dog skittles, so therefore he would go and we would gather the sheep. If any other sheepdogs were with us, because sometimes we'd have one, two, three, or even more, he would take great delight in when all the work was done, literally setting off in a great big arc and coming back in and running into the other dogs and knocking them over. It was just such a strange thing to see, but you see sheep, sheep, love to see. I love how things just happen in life.

Yes. People think there was a big clam that never was. It never was. It was just like, I'll find out about this sheep. And then you find yourself at this farm. The farmer takes a shine to you. But he's a little shy, it seems. Yeah.

Is he? And then he sort of gets his game on. And I wouldn't say he's sort of like, he's like not sort of stalker material because I mean we're sort of like, it sounds like ages ago, doesn't it? But it's sort of pre-internet, pre-text message. And he's like ringing up, leaving me messages on the answer phone. I'm not a replying at all. And then of course he leaves one to pull on the old heartstrings.

it's like his favourite sheep has come in from gathering. Yeah, exactly. From the moor and it's broken its leg and he needs a hand to get it set. So because it's pretty difficult to set a sheep's leg on your own because you're sort of standing astride and you're trying to get everything straight and lined up. And yeah, it worked. It worked. Well, it didn't actually work because the sheep always had a bent leg after that.

He got what he wanted to go. No, no, exactly. Yeah, he got the girl. So that, yeah, it was all the sheets fault. And I always do remember that Clive said to me at the time, if my dog don't like you, then it's not happening. I feel like that. Yeah.

I really do. That's good. If Raymond doesn't like, I knew he'd warm to you. Yeah. But sometimes he doesn't really warm to people. And it's, I think he's quite a good character charge. Well, I think, I think certain people will give off. certain vibes. Do you see, I've got a neighbour who's got a sheep dog and it always dry

humps my legs so I don't know what vibe I'm giving it. So there's warming to people and there's warming to people. It can be a bit direct that one, can't it? Oh look, another conker. You know what I would say to that sheep dog Amanda? Why me a drink at least? Why me a drink first? Exactly. That's all I ask. Now then you see, She really shouldn't be picking about in the undergrowth, should I. So just so you know, Amanda is currently picking Conquers. Yes. And I love this.

Look at these. Look at these. They're amazing. I really hope you love part one of this week's Walking the Dog. If you want to hear the second part of our chat, it'll be out on Thursday. So whatever you do, don't miss it. And remember to subscribe so you can join us on our walks every week.