The steer calf I'm training to be a riding/driving Ox
Posted: Thursday, 13 September 2007 |
I have two steer calves that I'm training to be future riding and driving oxen but right now I can't work with the older calf. I have the younger one here at this farm though. He's two months old and as bold as brass!
Hopefully my friend SheWhoKnowsAlot will be able to help me to teach the calf to jump and do basic dressage - as per cattle confirmation of course hehe!
This is going to be an interesting winter!
He's a bold little thing! Yesterday was the first time I was in the field with him and as I sat on a bucket he crept over and had a sniff.
I like his nice straight back.
He's a good chunky lad out of our stout bull, "Prince Chan." I was really surprised that he let me come up behind him like this. You can see that he's keeping an eye (and ear) on me...
Mum Moo is quite tame which is good because she's teaching the calf to come up to me. When she gets her treat of grain from the bucket I stand near her and scratch her shoulders while the calf sneaks a sniff of my leg. I'm going to start halter (head collar) breaking him soon.
Hopefully my friend SheWhoKnowsAlot will be able to help me to teach the calf to jump and do basic dressage - as per cattle confirmation of course hehe!
This is going to be an interesting winter!
He's a bold little thing! Yesterday was the first time I was in the field with him and as I sat on a bucket he crept over and had a sniff.
I like his nice straight back.
He's a good chunky lad out of our stout bull, "Prince Chan." I was really surprised that he let me come up behind him like this. You can see that he's keeping an eye (and ear) on me...
Mum Moo is quite tame which is good because she's teaching the calf to come up to me. When she gets her treat of grain from the bucket I stand near her and scratch her shoulders while the calf sneaks a sniff of my leg. I'm going to start halter (head collar) breaking him soon.
Comments
Do keep us posted. I've got a cat that looks like yours but no cows unfortunately.
alix from west midlands
Prince Chan eh? mmmmmmm. I'm feeling as if it ought to be April First and yet....all things are possible in the best of possible worlds, so they say.
Flying Cat from puzzled&confused&inhiding
cattle dressage? dressing up the quadrupeds might be more to the point.# As to cattle "confirmation", this must be a recent development in the Catholic Church, of which I had been hitherto blissfully unaware. Perhaps you meant "conformation"? # Nice green pasture, by the way: you must have had good rain. Lucky you.
mjc from NM, USA
'Good rain'??? We never seem to get anything else but rain these days The sun has died and the ripening grain will rot if it doesn't dry up a bit....there must be a happy medium somewhere...
Flying Cat from a damp green place
Confirmation mjc? If the church will confirm me they'll confirm anyone(thing).
Hyper-Borean from The chance(l)
Er..yes, confOrmation. but hey, I'm Catholic so I suppose I could get my oxen confirmed? Or at least blessed on the feast day of Saint Francis. This calf is amazing! We put him and his mother into the tied byre so that I could work with the calf. He's three months old so there is no time to waste! Anyway, after five minutes in his pen I was grooming him and putting my arm around him. He is so incredibly tame! And this is a wild pasture calf that only met me yesterday! He's going to be a lovely riding steer!
Michelle Therese from in barn grooming calf
Moo, I can hardly wait for the reports on the calf training process. BTW what breed are they? The mum cow is a very nice colour (shallow, I know, but I know nothing about cattle).
Jill from EK
On a genuinely serious note, Moo, sorry to hear about the most recent report of foot and mouth disease, the ban on animal movement etc. I understand that Erlend (and other farmers) work very hard, and I hate to have this kind of thing happen. Have a good weekend.
mjc from NM, USA
What do they confirm you as, Hyper-B? Or should I not ask? [kidding] # Did you have to go around, all dressed up, visit folks, and give them brioches?
mjc from NM, USA
Methinks I saw a calf like him in a manger, part of a Dutch painting some time back (I expect he's not moved since then). If cats can be blessed, so can your calf. Confirmation is another story: there must be prior instruction (heaven knows how Hyper-B. passed that hurdle?!!), and dressage is not what the Holy (Catholic and Apostolic, etc etc) Church has in mind, but then I may have missed the latest doctrinal developments ...
mjc from NM, USA
Sweet breads?
Flying Cat from banoffal pie
Hi Moo! Great cow photos, they are so cute! Forgive the ignorant question, please, but what does "riding and driving" mean? Your blog is great, it is really educational and interesting- I am learning so much about farm life from your experiences!
Bound4Orkney from Smelling the urban pasture
I'm really struggling with the idea of bullocks doing dressage...
Flying Cat from bridling
Will the cattle be for flat racing or over hurdles?
lester piggott from hmp stornoway
Sweet bread, FC? Nothing so common. Those brioches (where I was raised, French colons have been, preceded by the Dutch, and succeeded by the British) were baked specially for Confirmation, and had a cross on it. The cross did not interfere with the taste, but I don't think it enhanced much either. To tell the truth, I did not mind gobbling the left-over brioches, crosses and all. I chomped with equal relish at Easter time on the sugar candies made specially in the shape of the cross, and others in the shape of the Virgin Mary, and Joseph her side-kick, not to mention the ubiquitous St.Anthony. I was raised a Catholic, and ate heartily whenever I could. If the monarch (no, not the butterfly) had been sugar coated, I would have munched on her as well, lese-majeste be dam**d!! Instead, she was on the wall, in public places, usually rather cheaply framed. No, I did not flip her the bird: my ma and pa taught me to exercise self-control.
mjc from NM, USA
Calf training update: the calf thinks I am Satan. He hides behind his mother, who can kick like a mule, and stares at me from under her belly. However, when I get him into a pen he let's me brush his shoulders. However, like his mother, he kicks like a mule!!! He is an Aberdeen Angus cross calf with a variety of bests in his family tree. Great-grand daddy was a Herford. BTW: he's nae a bullock, he's a steer. Think snip-snip. Only we don't snip, we use rings. ANYWAY, riding = I'll put a saddle on him (or ride bareback) and driving = he'll pull a cart. IF he ever stops kicking...Soon I shall break him to a halter (head collar). I'll probably have to blog from the hospital after I get the thing on his head...
Moochelle Therese from Mooo and Baah!
This is getting exciting! Make sure someone is handy with a camera at all stages in his developement. You know all that stuff American soccer players hap themselves up in? It mightn't be a bad idea Moo; no-one really wants pics of you languishing with a drip.
Flying Cat from I thought bullocks didn't have any...
Where I come from, ladies ride side saddle. Makes no difference whether the critter being ridden is an ostrich or a cow. Of course, in the UK, you would be expected to be in fox hunting regalia, no matter which mount you choose. Good luck. Send pictures or, better still, video.
mjc from NM, USA
Either way, (as George W. said to Bush pere) it ain't my ox getting Gored. Some turkey in that white-washed house...
mjc from NM, USA
American soccer players, FC? I assume you meant American Football Players, the ones who regularly get their bodies busted up, and their spines crushed?
mjc from NM, USA
Yes. Give me the rugger b*ggers any day. Real men! I hope Moo isn't a 'lady'... it's not a word anyone here at Anorak Towers would take as a compliment...sidesaddles, hobbled skirts, high heels...Bah to the lot of 'em!
Flying Cat from on my Tod
I just MIGHT have to ride side-saddle on my bovine just to see if it's possible hahaha! But I refuse to wear a riding habit!!! Hmm...maybe I'll wear one anyway, just to get a photey of me sidesadle in full costume on a cattle-beast. THAT would be something to show the grandkids!
Michelle Therese from Moo
Doesn't there have to be something else first?
Flying Cat from pattering paws
Just do it, Moo, and send pictures!!
mjc from NM, USA
Good to see you are game for it, Moo. That's the Alaska spirit (or what I take it to be). May I suggest a series of photos with different costumes? No need to have accidents hopping up and down in too much of a hurry. Would Prince Chan be game to be saddled? I mean, you would not want to break the spine of the calf or crumple the ostrich ...
mjc from NM, USA
So...I traded my quiet cabin in the Alaskan woods for the howling winds of Orkney and life on a farm. 
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