The Shetland Head
     By Karen Valley

The ideal Shetland should immediately capture your attention with its bright, alert expression.

 

Ears should be of medium size set slightly above the
horizontal.

The ewe in front has a better earset than the one behind with" airplane" ears.  The one behind's ears are too large in proportion to her head

The perfect Shetland profile is straight as opposed to
roman nosed or concave.

Examples of roman noses (convex).

The hollow between cheeks and nose should be very
noticeable.

Wool on the poll and cheeks is desirable, being specifically required by the Breed Standard, although clean headed Shetlands are common in North America.

These three ewe lambs have proper
wool coverage on their heads.

These two ewes have larger ears that hang
a bit low on their heads.  Their faces are a bit too
long and their eyes lack the prominence and sparkle of
some of the better examples.

The Breed Standard allots over 20 points in total for the various aspects of the head.