Plowing alone without nasal control

[bivol]

good day!

one of common complaints is that plowing with oxen needs two people , but i believe this could be avoided with proper training. the proof of that lies all over the world, oxen without nose rings plow directed by the teamster guiding the plow.

in north america, plowing is taught late, when oxen are physically capable to plow, but such cattle are hard to learn to plow without the teamster guiding them.
some teamsters find it practical to plow alone. this thread contains some ideas to how training cattle to plow alone could be done.

as i’ve never tried this before, i’m looking forward to what the more experienced forum members have to say.

this method should fit to training calves. for older cattle i’d use removable nose bits.

so the idea would be to do the:

once they learn to respect the lead rope, yoke them, then come from the back, tap them to get them going, and direct them from behind with the ropes. they learn you can control them from behind, much like with nose rings, only with no pain.

hitch something, a tire perhaps, to tire them out, then they listen better. after they slightly tire themselves out by dragging the tire to the field, i’d take them to a pre-made furrow, hitch a suitable sized log to the tongue (not a chain, for better turning), and set them down the furrow. at this point they’re tired so they listen, and don’t have much extra energy to spend on mischief, running away, etc.

also, imagine the oxen in the furrow. the off-ox goes in the furrow, and the nigh ox goes outside. sometimes i’d put a straight rope parallel to the furrow, near the nigh ox, as a cue the nigh ox learns to follow.
when i want to plow a field, i simply span the rope, and it makes a straight line. the nigh ox follows it and so a first furrow is made.

this way they have lots of practice until the time they can plow, but i don’t notice because i take little time almost each day i train them to plow, among other training.

the rope control is kept, but still, with practice, they don’t need a tamster to guide them.

so when they’re big enough to plow, i don’t need extra person to help me.

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