Drew Conroy on Ox Reins

[Guest guest]

------------------------------

Content-Type: message/rfc822

 

Message-ID: <37740979.53F1ACA1 (AT) bowdoin (DOT) edu>

Fri, 25 Jun 1999 18:58:03 -0400

Noma Petroff <npetroff (AT) bowdoin (DOT) edu>

X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.5 [en] (Win95; U)

X-Accept-Language: en

MIME-Version: 1.0

ISCOWP (AT) bbt (DOT) se, Cow (AT) bbt (DOT) se, varnasrama.development (AT) bbt (DOT) se,

"Apocalypse 1999? (Are your ready?)" <Apocalypse.1999?@com.bbt.se>

Drew Conroy on Ox Reins

References: <002001beb0f9$bd6041e0$01010101@irene-dove>

Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1

Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit

 

Drew Conroy on Ox Reins

 

Rural Heritage: The Evener 1999, vol 24, no. 2 p. 102

 

DRIVING OXEN WITH LINES

by Drew Conroy

 

"I am interested in driving oxen from the wagon, as you would a horse," writes

Leo Canuel of Somerset, Massachusetts. "I have seen it done with a nose ring,

but I wonder if it can be done any other way?"

 

Oxen may be driven with lines or without lines. I nearly always train my oxen

to drive from behind, by using a longer whip and teaching them to pull a cart

on a back road. I usually begin the training by allowing them to walk home,

which they do willingly. You must be careful that they don't get away from

you, though, as young oxen tend to run on the way home.

 

In Tanzania most ox teamsters do not use lines. They do just fine plowing

beautifully straight furrows, as well as driving on the road. Their cattle are

trained to move over to the side when they encounter automobile traffic. They

are quite responsive to the voice and directions given by a stick tapped on

their rump.

 

Why do you want to drive oxen with lines? If your goal is to have a hobby team

that drives with lines, so be it.

 

If you want to plow and drive the team while riding in a cart, my answer would

be that half the ox teamsters in the world drive from a cart with one person

and no lines. Are you not willing or able to train your animals as well as a

12-year-old boy in Tanzania plowing with six oxen? The key to his success may

be his need to ox-plow an entire farm. The mount of time his animals spend in

the yoke may be more substantial than

you are willing to give this endeavor.

 

If you want to drive with lines because you think you will get better results,

don't do it. I judge ox cart obstacle courses every summer and fall, and I

have a feeling the results of using lines would fall short of the outstanding

performances I regularly see. I have never seen a team with lines that was as

well trained as teams I have seen without lines. Most teamsters who use lines

spend a lot less time training their

oxen, and a lot more time restraining them physically, rather than

psychologically. And, if you ever log with your oxen, you'll quickly see no

advantage to having lines – I hate jumping out of the way of rolling logs.

 

As you can see, I am not keen on driving oxen with lines, as doing so is not

customary in New England. ***Oxen are not allowed to compete in our shows or

fairs with any type of bridle, bit, or nose rings.*** [Emphasis added.]

 

Yet I have seen people successfully use bits, halters, hackamore bridles, and

nose rings. Any of these will work, provided the animals have been trained

accordingly. Most of the oxen I have seen with lines are poorly trained. The

reins become a crutch for both the team and teamster. Once the animals learn

to expect a yank or a tug to turn, other cues become seconary and are usually

ignored.

 

I am convinced that cattle respond more readily to visual cues than to voice or

whips. Both the voice and whip, however, work well to reinforce the teamster's

will. Since driving lines replace the cues given by the teamster's body

position and movements, the teamster must train the animal to respond to the

reins rather than to body position and movements.

 

How do you do it? At some point you must force your animals to move ahead of

you and respond to your cues from the lines. This training is similar to any

other ox training technique, in that you must be consistent in your requests

and directions; the animals must be responsive (not wilde and unruly); and you

must put in lots of time practicing. The less time spent practicing, the less

you can expect from your team. You

could follow any manual for training horses, taking into consideration that

cattle are slower than horses and are less tolerant of hot weather. They are

also less likely than horses to shy or run away if they are familiar with

people and the implements.

 

Cattle can wear bits. At the Midwest Ox Drovers Gatherings in Michigan, I have

met a number of people who train oxen with bits. Most of them are more

familiar with horses than with oxen, and find the transition easy. Some are

older teamsters who do not like the idea of walking beside their team. As is

true for any ox training program, training a team to wear bits is easier when

they are young.

 

Using nose rings is my least favorite method. Although nose rings offer an

effective method of control, animals that have their noses yanked on too much

become head shy and hard headed. Nose rings are a severe method of

restraining. The oxen I have seen with nose rings had little choice but to

obey.

 

In Uganda I saw a rope, instead of a ring, run through the nose. Many of the

oxen there learn to lie down in the yoke to resist working, a result of having

their noses yanked and of being rushed in the training.

 

The reason a bull is controlled with a ring is because this system of restraint

causes pain - not the best technique for working cattle. At an ox training

workshop in Missouri in 1995, I saw oxen that had been trained to drive with

nose rings. At first they seemed to go pretty well, but as the day wore on,

they became tired and despite the desires of the teamsters, walked right

through a fence while pulling a buckboard

wagon.

 

Halters with reins attached to the nose can give good clues as to what you

want, but they offer little control for stopping animals that do not want to

stop. A hackamore-type bridle applies pressure to the nose chin, which can be

difficult to do simultaneously when you are driving animals.

 

If you are going to use lines, my advice is to give it a try and stick with it.

Oxen act reluctant no matter what training method you introduce, lines or

otherwise. I know many horse people who have become frustrated trying to train

oxen. Just keep in mind that they are a different beast.

 

If you go ahead with this control technique, please share your results with us.

Few people in the world of oxen use lines - maybe you could teach us all a few

things.

 

*************************************

 

Drew Conroy, author of the Oxen Handbook, is one of the America's leading

experts in ox training. He teaches dairy science at the University of New

Hampshire, and conducts ox training course at Tillers International, in

Kalamazoo, Michigan. He also observes and trains African farmers in ox

training as part of Tillers' outreach program. http://www.wmich.edu/tillers/

He is a regular contributor to *Rural Heritage.*

http://www.ruralheritage.com/

 

Raised in New England, he is accustomed to seeing some of the most expert ox

teamsters in the world, even on a junior level. At our local Topsham Fair, I

have seen a 16 year old girl get her team of oxen to walk sideways for about 20

feet, without even touching them. She used only voice commands in a calm tone

of voice. That was in addition to many other required maneuvers such as having

oxen turn right and left and back up

into a small space. The children are not allowed to use a rope of any kind on

their teams. They must control them with voice commands and a small stick

only.

 

your servant,

 

Hare Krsna dasi