oxen vs horses

I was told a few things about oxen before I started:

They are weaker
They are slower
They are stupid
They are dangerous
You can’t ride them
They have to be worked in pairs, and will only work with their mate

All of which has turned out to be complete….well, you can imagine 😉

I think a LOT of the misconceptions come from the past, when nobody cared how they were trained or harnessed, when they were smaller and fed poorly (out of necessity). They were compared with horses which were larger, harnessed well, fed well and trained sympathetically. Those that took the time to harness and train oxen right seem to have been rewarded, but these accounts seem to be largely ignored by a public in love with the horse.

Don’t know where the needing two people comes from – I work all mine alone?

So far my oxen have turned out to be as strong and fast as any horse I’ve had contact with (and I used to be very horsey, worked with them, ridden since I was a kid etc). They also learn faster, are far more sensible, more sure-footed, agile/nimble/flexible, and don’t let their fear dominate their lives as much and seem to suffer far, far less from lameness, colic etc. Mine are all trained singly, and harnessed with collars or breast pads instead of being yoked to a mate with a big piece of wood. I think this allows them to move freely, and they are faster. Could you jog any distance (comfortably) with a big chunk of wood strapped between you and another jogger?

But, if you LIKE horses, definately work with them. You’ll only get results with cattle if you like them! In comparison I find horses faffy to work with, stupid and ugly, with long naggy faces, knobbly knees and big clompy hooves. Don’t even like the smell 😀 Used to love them, but since I discovered oxen I’ve completely changed! There’s a few exceptions, but I doubt I’ll ever own a horse. Plenty of horsepeople feel the same about cows!

Cattle do sweat; they might not ‘froth up’ like horses when working but we clip our cattle over here when they come in to prevent them sweating, getting chilled and getting pneumonia. I have seen my simmental in ther photos there drenched in sweat when used as a teaser with a cow in heat. They also have the dewlap as a surface area/blood flow increaser in hot weather, which horses don’t have. Obviously, Bos Indicus breeds take it further and have even larger dewlaps etc. But there is that variation in horses too – like the difference between an exmoor pony and an arabian? I’d see that as a breed chocie question rather than species 😀