For any beginner, I'd recommend Shetlands and cross them to give a decent butchers lamb. We started with Coloured Ryelands and we loved them but I had sheep experience. For a complete beginner, Shetlands are hard to beat. We have a couple and I've never seen them lamb - check them, go back in an hour and two lambs are bouncing round the pen.
Sounds like the OP has chosen and booked some Zwartbles by now
- but I agree that Shetlands have much to commend them, especially the hands-off lambing. My top bit of lambing kit is a pair of binoculars so I can keep an eye from a distance; I rarely need to go closer. On one occasion, I did go up quietly once I saw the first lamb, hoping to be able to video the second coming out. The ewe stood up, I switched on my video recorder, she turned around to face me, and there was lamb #2 dropping to the ground behind her! The lambs pretty much jump up and run straight to the milk bar too, and are very persistent, so even with first timers who are finding it all a bit discombobulating, the lambs pretty much always manage to get their colostrum without any human intervention.
(I have said many times that if my only needs were the shepherding and the welfare and wellbeing of the sheep, I would have pure Shetlands, put to a Shetland tup, every single time. )
But, given the provisos about lambing first time Zwartbles mums indoors, or at least where they can be penned with their lambs under cover pretty quickly after giving birth (and then of course making sure that the lambs are being mothered properly, get their colostrum, etc etc), and getting the feeding right, I think Zs are a pretty good choice for first time sheepkeepers too.
Several of us have said on this thread and others similar, that it is very important to to get sheep (or any livestock) that float your boat, so if the OP goes gooey at Zs and not at Shetlands, I would say that they have made the right decision for them!