BELGRADE — Cindy Mooers carefully pulled back the wool from the sheep’s belly with one hand and drew the electric shears across it, tossing a cloud of fleece aside as she went along.

Instructor Abigial Smith taught Mooers how to hold the head of the fawn-colored ram lamb, described as such because it is a male and under a year old, between Mooers’ upper legs to secure it for shearing.

“Sit him up,” Smith said.

Mooers and Smith were taking part Sunday in a two-day workshop on sheep shearing at Sunrise Farm and adjacent North Belgrade Community Center on Smithfield Road, organized and hosted by the University of Maine Cooperative Extension. Students learned about sheep handling, shearing and equipment maintenance, with participants expected to have had prior basic sheep-handling experience. Fourteen students, mostly from Maine, a handful of auditors and several instructors, attended.

“It’s a whole body movement,” said Rachel White, assistant extension professor in sustainable agriculture and livestock education at University of Maine Cooperative Extension. “It’s a lot. It’s like multitasking.”

Some of the students took the course in hopes of becoming professional sheep shearers and some because they own sheep and want to shear themselves, according to White. She said the instructors are very supportive of the effort.

“There’s enough sheep in the state for more shearers,” she said.

Mooers, 35, of Hodgdon, in Aroostook County, traveled three hours to attend the workshop, which ran Saturday and Sunday. She owns a small flock of sheep and is interested in using the fleece for fiber and fabric.

“I have six Romney sheep I keep for their wool and as pets,” she said. “I’m a knitter so the knitting is the justification I have for that, but they’re just sweet animals, and I love having them.”

She said her own sheep are much larger than the Icelandic sheep students worked on Sunday, and much softer.

“They have a really squishy fleece,” she said. “My sheep all have names and they follow me around.”

Mooers also is a registered Maine Guide and an art teacher at Houlton High School, where she helps run the outdoor club. She said she loves getting students outdoors and helping them to realize the opportunities Maine provides.

“I put a lot of effort into connecting students with outdoor opportunities in the community,” she said.

Mooers grew up in the Midwest and met her now husband at Colorado College, where she earned a bachelors degree in art and a masters in kindergarten through grade 12 art education. She said her husband was from Aroostook County where he grew up on a potato farm. She has lived in Maine more than 10 years.

“I like the people, I love the scenery, I love the easy access to outdoor opportunities,” she said. “I like the way that a lot of people work together and develop a lot of skill sets. There are just so many people with really diverse skill sets.”

Lauren Callas, 39, of New Gloucester observed the workshop, and held the electric shears for Mooers and Smith, handing them to one or the other as needed. Callas said she wanted to audit it because she handles sheep all day as part of her job at Nezinscot Farm in Turner.

“We have 42 lambs right now,” she said. “We have sheep right now out doing clearing (grazing) of solar farms. I’m learning so much today, honestly, being able to watch all the different groups and hear what different instructors are saying.”

Callas said as an auditor she isn’t allowed to touch the sheep, but she may handle the equipment, such as the shears. She can talk to instructors and watch and listen to learn the different challenges one faces when shearing, but also observe the ease with which students are able to work with good instruction and advice.

Smith, the instructor, from WISH Farm and Shearing of Auburn, handled the sheep skillfully, showing Mooers the proper way to hold the 55-pound animal in various positions to shear its legs, back and underside. It was steamy hot in the barn, with the door open to the air.

Each sheep was placed on a large piece of plywood for shearing, and they bleated and baahed during the process and quieted down during the pauses. The animal Mooers sheared quieted down when she finished and gave him a hug.

She said earlier that Friday was the first time she had sheared a sheep, with a lot of help.

“I love it, and it’s harder than it looks,” she said. “It absolutely is hard, but it’s really fun.”