The course of Lyle McNeal's life changed in 1972.
Then a professor in California Polytechnic State University's Animal Science Department, McNeal led the college's Boots and Spurs club on a weeklong trip to the state's agricultural Salinas Valley. The group visited a ranch whose owners, a father and son duo, provided horses to Hollywood productions. A few sheep who were there to graze the land caught McNeal's eye.
They turned out to be Navajo-Churro sheep. The descendants of animals brought to North America by the Spanish in the 1540s, Navajo-Churro sheep are of deep importance to the Navajo—and of great use to their keepers. Their fine wool comes in many colors and can be spun for use in weaving and other crafts, and they produce desirable meat and milk. They also make "dang good mothers," in McNeal's words, lambing twice a year and often yielding twins.
