Leading the Single Ox

Leading the Single Ox: Advantages and Disadvantages

The single ox is more prone to go astray due to distraction than a team of oxen. Leading the ox all but eliminates the straying problem. Leading also eliminates a lot of guess work for the ox. By being led he understands exactly what it is you want him to do.

Not being in the enviable position to work together daily, leading also makes up for the lack of daily reinforcement of the Gee and Haw commands.

One day I was leading Scout the Ox and we were crossing a ditch at the top of which the snow was very deep. I was getting stuck in the deep snow and unable to go any further when to my surprise he got his horns under me and boosted me up onto solid ground. Now that's teamwork!

One downside to leading is an occasional horn in the back. I'm planning to make a longer lead stick for the times when leading seems the best option, and I will also continue to drive him from the side or behind when working on the road or in open country.

Ox Checks Out Camera

Curious as a cow, Scout the Ox investigates the stationary camera. In hindsight, the results were predictable.

Making Firewood With an OX and a Dog: Day 2

Scout the Ox started easily on this cold and windy day. No block-heaters or jumper cables to deal with. We got out several small loads of firewood. I have switched from the wagon to a sled, and have replaced the lead rope with the broomstick.

Haltering and Hitching the Ox: A Two Act Play

I set everything up for an unflawed demonstration of haltering and hitching the ox to a sled, but everything didn't exactly go as planned! To start with Harry the Dog stole Scout the Ox's collar --- and wouldn't give it back--- Scout the Ox took over from there. It all turned out to be a bit of a yoke. 

PitambarTheRedBull commented on YouTube

Loved it! Made me smile!

 

http://www.enasco.com/product/C02446N

I have no association with eNasco nor do I endorse this particular halter. I have done business with this company and have been a satisfied customer

This type of rope and sliding chain cattle halter has been an excellent training tool. It offers some control by tightening around the nose when the ox-in-training resists. Once the animal complies, a gentle shake of the rope relieves the tension as a reward for correct behavior. Rough or indiscriminate use would constitute aversive behavior training, or even cruelty, and is to be avoided.

As Scout the Ox's training progresses I use this halter less and less. In a work situation I prefer a standard nylon web halter. The ox should be controlled primarily with the gentle guidance of the whip or goad --- not by tugging on the halter. Playing tug-of-war with an ox sets you up for failure.

With teams of oxen the halter should be removed as soon as reasonable control makes that possible. With the single oxen, in complicated working situations, the halter may continue to be a desirable tool for communication and to help him overcome distractions. Some teamsters would maintain, however, that the ultimate goal should be to eliminate the use of any halter.

The yoke pictured in the video is highlighted in this previous post.

The broomstick used in place of a lead rope is highlighted in this previous post. It has been a valuable training aid, and when it's unsnapped from the ox it doubles as a goad.

Scout the Ox: Can You Come Out and Play Now?

 

Scout the Ox managed to pop the latch on the pasture gate. He didn't wander away, but rather, came to our front door to see what was happening. He voiced his arrival, and I have little doubt but that he would have come right in if the door had been open.

Here's a video of a Pitambar the Red Bull who lives on a distant tropical island.  He is being trained as an ox. In this clip he is allowed a visit in the house --- but don't tell the the lady's husband! 

 Pitambar the Red Bull in the House.

Ox on a Stick: Whoa. Get-up.

At just over a year Scout the Ox is doing well with Get-up and Whoa. But take a look (video below) at this team of three-year old Highland oxen!




The trainer of this beautiful team of oxen is doing an excellent job. He projects what dog trainer Cesar Millan calls calm-assertive energy.

More about this breed: American Highland Cattle Association
Comprehensive information on all cattle breeds: Oklahoma State University
Oxen commands demonstrated: Get-up, whoa, back, gee (right), haw (left), and head-up.

This video is from AnythingOxen's YouTube Channel

There is only one video posted there now, but we hope to see more.

Winter Vignette: A Man an Ox and a Dog

Crossing a snowy meadow with a dog, and an ox pulling a sled.

Winter Vignette: Ox-Breath at Sunset

Ox-breath, one of the wonderful touches of Winter!

An Outing on a Winter Evening Pays Big Dividends for the Dog

 

Harry the Dog discovers a frozen deer hide left behind by deer-hunters. 

Scout the Ox smells something of interest on the wind.

The deer hide was heavy and we had a long way to go. After several tries Harry the dog allowed me to put it in the sled and Scout the Ox pulled it the rest of the way home.

 

For the next several days Harry may have been the happiest dog on earth --- carrying this thing around and chewing it to bits!

(No this won't cause a dog to chase deer. It's the excitement of  "the chase" that causes that. Our sheep guardian dogs regularly ate dead sheep without it causing them to kill sheep.)

Ox and Dog on Ice, as Told by Scout the Ox

Sometimes life dishes out a chilling experience --- even when you are an ox.

Young Jersey Oxen At Work in the Woods

This team of young Jersey oxen are doing a remarkable job skidding firewood logs in the woods.

http://www.youtube.com/user/millerre3usa

Scout the Ox shows a lot more independence when working than these two young ones do.  I've settled on leading him when we are working in close quarters.

Because a single ox is not yoked to a team-mate, he has an easier time following his own whims.

Making Firewood With an OX and a Dog: Day 1

Scout the Ox's first day hauling firewood from the "woods'' in the snow.

Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells --- With a One Ox Open Sleigh

Scout the Ox breaks trail through fresh snow pulling the humble-tumble-bug

--- for a sleigh.

The Ox's Dog Steals the Whip

Harry the Dog's allegiance is more to Scout the Ox than it is to me.

That seemed more evident than ever as he pranced before me with my whip firmly grasped in his powerful jaws.

Scout the Ox had been refusing to respond to the get-up command.

 A perhaps too sharp lash to his rump got his attention and he then wasted no time moving things forward. At that moment Harry the Dog surprised me from behind when he leapt up and grabbed the whip from my hand.

The dog trotted ahead of Scout the Ox, and me,
keeping the whip well out of my reach. 

I've been experimenting with using treats in Scout's training,  and I was becoming increasingly frustrated with him. The treats seem to encourage the attitude that he's working for wages --- and he expects frequent payments! If he thinks it's time for a payment he refuses to go any farther until a treat is proffered; this is when I used the whip. I don't want to be stuck half-way from a destination and then become stranded, because I ran out of treats. A treat or none --- he's got to move forward.

Now, about the whip; it looks like a fishing pole because that is what it is. I cut off the reel portion and removed the eyelet on the working end. Over this I slipped a small rubber hose to protect every one's eyes. It works well for guiding the ox and is much less tempting to an adolescent dog than a leather whip would be; he'd have that chopped up in little pieces in a manner of minutes.

I believe a whip should only be used for getting an ox's attention, and for guiding him; it should not be used for "giving a whipping" as that would only serve to confuse the ox and make him fearful. Christopher Ostby demonstrates the proper use of the whip in these two videos. 

An Ox Brings Home The Body of His Master

A Faithful Ox

Photo: Decan Herald, Chamarajanagar, December 23, 2010 DHNS

On Wednesday an ox brought home the body of its master who had collapsed in the ox cart from an apparent heart attack. This was a journey of some distance through city streets.

 Read this touching story in the Deccan Herald, Bangalore, India

Don't Knock the Ox

The International Ox Pull, highlight of the Bridgewater, Nova Scotia, annual fair, is a holdover from the pioneer past when oxen cleared the land and tilled the soil. These beasts of burden have lost none of their pulling power, as demonstrated when they drag tons of weight loaded on sleds (the winner pulls up to 6 tons!). Competing teams come from various parts of the Maritimes and the Northeastern United States.  National Film Board of Canada

 You won't be disappointed! Shoeing oxen, making yokes and cowbells, shaping ox horns, farming with oxen, and the competitive ox pulling tradition of Nova Scotia --- circa 1970. Such a bunch of characters crowded into just 13 minutes and 6 seconds is quite amazing. Includes some impressive teams --- Herefords, Hereford crossbreds, Ayrshires and others.

I Think I Saw a Reindeer

Xavia, a Hereford Heifer is being Prepared for Training as a Riding Cow
Photo used with permission of Samthesteerrider; Copyright Law applies.

This is a screen capture from a video just posted by Samantha, known better on her YouTube channel as Samthesteerrider and on the Riding Steers Forum as sam-e jo. You can watch her fun Christmas video here: Marry Christmas from Huckle Bery Hobby Farm :).  Samantha previously had a riding steer named Ferdy.

Horned Hereford cattle have long been favored in Nova Scotia for use as oxen. (Nova Scotians typically use head-yokes which require sturdy horns.) The breed originated in England. They are thought of in this country as a beef breed with most now being bred as polled animals (without horns). For oxen they are a popular breed to cross with the dairy breeds of Ayrshire, Holstein, or Shorthorn; these crosses carry the best draft animal characteristics of both breeds. Learn more about Herefords and other cattle breeds at this excellent web site: Oklahoma State University

Sleek Single Hereford Ox Pulling Oxcart in Nova Scotia c.1910

postcard

Making Ox Shoes and Shoeing the Ox

Making Nails and Ox Shoes in Sweden, 1923

Spik- och oxskosmide 1923

Se hantverksmässig framställning av spik i smedja i Lerbäcks socken och av oxskor i Karintorps by utanför Askersund.

This is a phenomenal video filmed in 1923 in a small hamlet near Askersund, Sweden. It shows two highly skilled blacksmiths working in tandem to manufacture nails and ox shoes on a small scale.

Shoeing an Ox in Seattle, 1906

The most common method of shoeing an ox makes use of a heavy restraint called a shoeing stock. Shoeing stocks vary in size depending on the size of the oxen to be shod. Shoeing stocks usually have belly bands to support the ox while he is being shod, and provide a method to hold each foot up individually, one at a time, to be worked on. Shoes are required for oxen who wear their feet down too fast in the rigors of their work. Shoes are also used to provide extra traction on snow and ice or for pulling extremely heavy loads.

Oxen who are not worked heavily may never need to be shod.

Frost on the Brow of the Ox

The official temperature was -26 degrees F (-32.2 degrees C). Scout the Ox was happy to be in the barn out of the wind, in a well bedded pen (He's free to choose sleeping inside or outside; the gate is always open unless the night's weather is expected to be severe --- in which case closing it helps to break the wind.)

Scout the Ox has just had his morning feeding of about three pounds of an all-stock ground grain mix. Some of the grain stuck to his nose. He gets a second feeding of about three pounds in the evening. I feed his hay outside to help keep his pen clean of manure. I'd rather he not be inside unless he's sleeping, eating his grain in the wee hours of the morning, or drinking his water.

 

Harry the Dog is peeking under the fence from his bed while Scout the Ox  washes down his breakfast with a fresh bucket of water. I carry Scout and Harry's water in the blue buckets of which I have two. I exchange the buckets twice a day. The one in the barn is sitting inside a discarded rubber tire and has bedding stuffed around it to slow freezing of the water.

 

I bring the second bucket in the house so it can thaw out before I refill it. This prevents banging on frozen buckets and breaking them. One of our house cats, Squeak, likes to play in the frozen buckets.

Van Gogh's Ox Gets X-ray and CT Scan

Van Gogh's famous painting The Ox Cart had its paint digitally peeled at the Oregon Health and Science University Hospital on Monday, December 13, 2010. After hanging on the wall of a Roseburg, Oregon home for many years the painting was donated to the Portland Art Museum. The X-ray and CT scans are part of an international research project into the details of Van Gough's artwork. The painting is valued in the millions of dollars.

Source: Oregon Health and Science University Hospital

OHSU covered the expense of making the images of The Ox Cart. The data gathered will be shared with the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.

 Vincent Willem van Gogh (1853-1890) was a Dutch Post Impressionist painter perhaps better known for his painting Cart with Red and White Ox which hangs in the Kroller-Muller Museum in the  Netherlands.

Oxen Team in Training

Oxen Being Trained to Work Together

Photo caption was created by bitzi and posted on bitzidoodles.blogspot. Bitzi is my sister, and she introduced me to the concept of blogging back in February of this year; she is a Graphic Artist and does digital doodlings on her blog.

1850's Farm and Town at Living History Farms

The two photos were taken August 13th, 2005 at the Living History Farm near Des Moines, Iowa by photographer Virtual Farm Boy. He wrote,"Oxen are regular cattle who go to special school for four years to learn to become oxen." The photos were shared on flickr.com and can be viewed here along with copyright information. Living History Farms has a website here. Living history museums and events have helped to keep the tradition of oxen alive in this country.

Scout the Ox Pulls Hay Feeder Using a Tumble-Bug Drag Scraper

Ox in Yoke Pulling Hayfeeder With Tumble-Bug Slipscraper

I built a hay feeder for our sheep some years ago. It is constructed of recycled lumber and is quite heavy. I decided to move it up by the fence-line to experiment with using it to feed Scout the Ox. I hitched him up and he gave a good effort to break it loose, but fell to his knees. I tried cutting the load (having him pull at a slight angle) but he still couldn't get it moving. The front-end just dug into the snow and turned it into a snow-plow. Our next tactic was to go and get the tumble-bug (dirt scraper) that I bought at a farm auction last summer.

An Amish farmer at the auction had found it in the tall weeds behind a barn. He drug it out hoping to buy it. It was without handles but otherwise in descent shape. Having been the last item to be auctioned off, there were only the two of us left to bid on it; the rest of the crowd had fanned out to claim their stuff. I felt kind-of bad when I won it for only $15 --- I thought the Amish man would be willing to pay more than that. In any event, I was happy to get it home because I thought I could use it to scrape up gopher mounds in the pasture, and to haul the loose dirt to wherever I needed it.

Earlier in the summer, I had drug home a pair of mahogany organ legs, from a discarded organ at the recycling center. I was thinking, "I really shouldn't drag home any more junk, but I might need these someday."

I may now have the only tumble-bug scraper in the world with mahogany handles trimmed in brass!

Scout was too young to pull the tumble-bug this year, so I used it behind the lawn tractor and it worked satisfactory. It should work much better when I can use it behind Scout the Ox, so that I can be on the ground to operate the handles.

The feed bunk width fits inside the tumble-bug; I pushed it under the feeder and chained it in. It brought the front up, and over the snow; Scout was able to pull it singlehandedly, like a champion team of oxen at an weight pulling contest!

We've been using the hay feeder several weeks now and I'd say it's working pretty well.

Antique Ad for a

Tumble-bug, aka Drag Scraper or Slipscraper

Starting at $10.60 each

Watch a Team of Oxen at Work Pulling a Slipscraper

Tillers International 2006

Tillers International is a 501(c)3 IRS non-profit organization for international rural development, specializing in farming with oxen. Based in Scotts, Michigan, USA at Cook's Mill Learning Center, Tillers offers classes in farming techniques, draft animal power, blacksmithing and metal work, timber framing, woodworking, cheesemaking, and many other farming and artisanal skills. Tillers International can be contacted at http://www.tillersinternational.org/ 

Storybrookeripples: Ox and Dog Blog and it's author are not affiliated with Tillers International.

Scout the Ox Meets Grandbaby

When our Grandbaby came for a visit Scout the Ox was polite about meeting her, but quite taken with the toys on her car-seat! Maybe I should string some toys on a wire in the barn for Scout to play with.

Let It Snow! Let It Snow!: Ox in Winter

Scout the Ox Begins His Second Winter --- With a Smile

The blaze orange ribbon was for safety during hunting season.



Winter for Scout the Ox Means Cozy Nights in the Barn

[Editor's note: Don't tape your ox's horns!  In several weeks time the tape began to deform Scout's rapidly growing horn and was discernible for a long time after.]

Ox in Training: Hauling Firewood

On a November day when the sky was grey, like the side of a fish, I chunked up a fallen Box Elder tree. After checking out the chainsaw with his usual curiosity, Scout the Ox grazed nearby while Harry the Dog hunted mice in the tall grass.

 We went back for the wagon and Scout the Ox stood patiently while I loaded the two-wheel garden cart that I had converted into a four-wheel wagon by adding the forecart attatchment (see How To Convert a Garden Cart into a Small Wagon to Pull With a Single Ox ).

Scout the Ox pulled the load without difficulty; the cart was a little top-heavy and we did tip it over one time, but otherwise it worked great. I lead him with my lead-stick (see Broomhandle Ox Training Aid)  because the trail to the woodpile meanders around numerous obstacles, and the like.

The dump function worked well. When we'd get a load to the woodpile I'd trip the dump and have Scout the Ox move the cart ahead. I came back to split and stack the firewood later.

Hoof Trimming on Yearling Steer: Ox in Training

 

Before Trimming Hooves, the Medial Claws Rocked Back and Curled In

I posted the following on Riding Steers Forum on October 25th, 2010:

"I brought Scout onto the concrete Saturday and was soo-o discouraged with his front hooves. I was able to get the lateral claws trimmed to stand up pretty good, but the medial claws are so rocked back that all the weight they bear is on the heel. He showed this tendency very young.

This is not uncommon in dairy cattle (I trimmed cattle hooves full time for a couple of years), but, the main reason I bought my calf from the dairy I did, was that they never had hoof problems --- always good solid feet!

Sometimes you can do everything right and still get bad results."

 

Five Days After Hoof Trimming the Hooves Stand Up Straight 

I'm very pleased with the results of the trimming. Scout is standing up normal now.

Before anyone attempts trimming cattle hooves, I highly recommend study, and hands on training (Practicing on hooves salvaged from a butcher shop is in order). It would be easy to cripple an ox by making trimming mistakes.

Scout the Ox had overgrown hooves at an unusually young age. To see before and after photos of that click Hoof Trimming Calf.

Bennett Buggy, Hoover Wagon: Ox Tows Disabled Lawn Tractor

Towing my lawn tractor back to the shop for repairs reminded me of the Bennett Buggy and the Hoover Wagon of The Great Depression. Folks who had purchased automobiles in the good years before the economic downturn now found that they either couldn't afford gasoline or it wasn't available --- a number of automobiles had their engines removed and were hitched to oxen or horses to provide transportation.

Ox Team pulls 1933 Bennett Buggy, Crescent Lake, Saskatchewan, Canada

http://www.metismuseum.ca/resource.php/03617

Bennett Buggy Pulled by an Ox and Horse Teamed Together. Saskatchewan, Canada

http://musee.societehisto.com/bennett_buggies_et_anderson_carts_n384_t343.html 

The Bennett Buggy was named after Prime Minister of Canada, Richard Bennett, and the Hoover Wagon was named after the President of the United States, Herbert Hoover. Both served during The Great Depression of the 1930's. I have not found a photo of a Hoover Wagon; does anyone have one?

Demonstration of Chinese Masters Painting Oxen (牛)

If you like art and oxen, this is an interesting video of two skilled Chinese artists at work. Watch the ox appear before your eyes.

牛

World's Slowest Riding-Steer

骑马黄牛
(riding ox)

張僧繇《十八宿神形圖卷 》 ﹝局部﹞，南梁

The Chinese Tortoise is believed to be the worlds slowest riding-steer (ox). It's slow and steady gait has earned it a reputation for being very dependable transportation.

To learn more about riding-steers join the discussion at http://ridingsteers.freeforums.org/index.php

How to Write "Cow" or "Ox" in Chinese

牛
Click here for video.



Oxherd Riding on Ox and Playing Flute
Guo Xu, artist
[Chinese, 1456-1526]
Ink on paper

黄牛