oxen training and commands ideas

[bivol]

hi!

this thread should serve the purpose of gathering and exchanging ideas about handling of oxen, commands and approaches to training.

note: some commands and methods could be familiar to some readers. the idea is to use new england way of training and driving oxen, and add a few details that could help.

so, me being the first, i’ll start!:D

halter command:

this is often used in starting the calves, but is encouraged to stop using halters as the training. i have no objection to that as long as the teamster walks by oxen and leads them.

but, lines attached to halters could also serve the same purpose as bits, and to some extent, nose rings (to some extent, because if they get frightened, the halters are useless). they could help control the animals in controling them from behind.
i have seen this system of control used on cows in germany, and i think it would work fine on calmer cattle, replacing the bits and nose rings, and still giving the teamster some control from behind.

to start the oxen to work from being with halters, it would be best to start them while they are small calves, but in addition to learning them to follow you, they would have to learn to lead while you are holding lines from behind.

easy halter-breaking:

i red this somewhere: the teamster had two calves, but didn’t feed them where they were tied, instead he put a halter on the calves and more-less dragged them to the place where he fed them. once the calves associated the halter with food, they’d practically jump into them.

but it could be done: to put the bottle in sight of the calves, and when they want to go to it, you put the halter and walk them to the bottle. each day the bottle is on a different place, and more away, so they will follow you on a halter.

shoeing commands:

this would be very helpful if you have to shoe oxen, and don’t have access to a shoeing stand for any reason. what you do is learn the oxen to lie down, and then to lie at a side and not move until given the command. i’ve seen oxen lie down on command and stay down on youtube, so there’s no reason why such a command can’t be used when shoeing oxen. if they move, tie them down. still, ordering them to lie down at command is considerably better than throwing a 2000+ pound beast to the ground.
now idon’t know the exact procedure how to make them lie down, i’ve seen it once, when they bend the head of an ox completely at one side and than lift it(i think). but they used the nose ring.
for not using the nose ring it would be best if young calves could learn the command. i heard in a book than a man learned his steers to play dead. what he did was to bend their legs and make then lie down while they were young. no nose ring.

[CharlyBonifaz]

shoeing commands:

front feet:
touch the one you want with finger and say “up”: he’ll place it in my hand
hind feet:
same command, but I have to bow down and put the lifted leg on my knee

trained from babytimes

cattle flat out will run into problems with gas in their rumen (cannot eructate in this position); so I need to either give them a break where they can at least sit, or I have to hurry the shoeing…..

[Vicki]

When placid oxen are resting and ruminating in a lying position, it is often possible to at least file the hooves without provoking them to get up. Mine did this especially when younger when I handled their feet more frequently.

I used to trim quickly by lifted my steers’ feet, but they grew too heavy for me to be leaned on. Oxen can’t balance on three legs, and lean their weight on you. I have tied mine short, then lifted the foot by a rope thrown over a beam, and after he quit thrashing and got balanced, was able to trim.

You can trim a hoof or shoe after casting an ox with a rope. The rope puts pressure on a nerve and so temporarily “paralyzes” the ox. It takes one guy to pull on the rope, and sometimes another to hold the head down, so not a one man job. It’s how it was done on the Oregon trail. I’ll post a pic of this in the gallery.

See an ox being cast in the video “OXen for Work and Fun” by Rural Heritage filmed at the ’05 MODA Gathering.

[Author]

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