Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Training the Ox to Back-Up for Hitching


Gee or Haw, Back, and Whoa are commands used while hitching or unhitching an ox to a log for skidding. I have a number of trees to move from a wetland. This makes for a lot of repetitions which are great for training. At this stage of his training I'm asking the ox to make at least two steps back each time he hitches. He is accustomed to responding to the reins for left and right turns, and for stopping. So backing a few steps with a sustained tug on the reins comes fairly natural for him. I use a standard nylon cattle-halter without a cinch-chain, bit, or nose-ring, and as you can see in the video he is very responsive to that.