[silkwoodzwartbles]

Do you do it loose or with them tied up? If you can, try tying them up or popping their head in a headstock, but holding it relatively high as someone would do if they were catching and holding them loose. This seems to help them balance better and makes picking feet up easier. Also - don't let go when they kick, only when they're calm, otherwise they learn that kicking makes you let go and will keep doing it

[Slimjim]

Oh yes, and when their leg is pistoning back and forth like a jack hammer, and you are hanging on for dear life, make sure you are close to a fence post so that the back of your hand beats out a drum roll on it and all the skin is removed down to the bone. It's great fun.

[Womble]

Do you do it loose or with them tied up?

As Slimjim says, I find it hard to know which I prefer:  having my hand minced through a rylock fence, or being dragged around the field by 100kg of tup whilst yelling "I'm not letting go until you caaaalmmm doooooowwwn!!!"

[silkwoodzwartbles]

  Awesome mental image and sorry I wasn't clear. I'm assuming they're already in a small pen when you go to handle them, but are they loose within that pen or tied up in a corner? I always tie mine up or put them in the headstock so I have both hands free to steady and balance them when I pick their feet up. I started with my shearlings when I first got them and they're pretty easy now and don't wriggle at all (bar Cookie when she's having an off day) and my 4 year old ewe and ram must have already had this handling as both were good already. When Cookie's having an off day, I find lifting the feet up forwards (towards the head end) easier than bringing them back (towards the tail end) as she doesn't kick or wriggle as much - slightly harder to see what you're doing but still easier (for me as I'm rubbish at it) than tipping them over.

Of course, if tipping them over works for you, keep doing that - if it's not broke, don't fix it

[Hellybee]

I find my Molly girls the worst to tip, they re absolutely mortified that We would do such a thing, spoilt brats lol 

[Daleswoman]

Having seen a sheep chair on TV (think it was on the Yorkshire Vet) I decided to try my Shetlands on an old-fashioned deckchair that I'd got in the shed. It worked fine once I'd got the sheep on it - the trick was to position them beside it when I tipped them, and let them roll onto it. Getting them onto it was still very hard on my back and after the first few I gave up and reverted to the traditional way.

Some of mine will stand and let me pick up their feet, like a pony, especially if I've got a helper at the head end and a shed wall to push them against. With my fat and placid Texel cross tup I actually sit astride him sometimes and grab his feet from there (again with a helper, or else I get a nice bumpy ride round the shed).