Wow! Where has the time gone. We got our new ox team from Montana just before Thanksgiving. After our trip things got hectic with training the new team, schoolwork, milk deliveries, and of course with the general rush of three holidays and a birthday within two months. So the blog writing is a hair bit behind.
Training this second team has been easy. It might just be because we've done it once before, but I also think the temperament of the new team is a lot quieter and more easy going than the older team. This team is half Guernsey, and according to the oxen book, Guernsey's rate higher on the ease of training scale. Plus, their previous ground training in Montana was excellent, so we had a good base to work with.
The team spent the first few days getting used to being tied up, being brushed by little kids, and getting familiar with the sights and sounds of their new home. Eventually CW and JW1 were able to lead them. Then they progressed to just standing yoked up and getting used to wearing it.
As you might observe from the above picture, Lucky, the one nearest the camera, tends to be a sulker. He was totally offended by having to wear the a yoke and go to work. He tends to be slower and slack off on his duties. We positioned him as near ox so we could keep a better eye on him. Sal, though not thrilled with the idea of being joined by hardwood to Lucky, did choose to walk out faster and came around to the idea of working for his meals quicker.
CW and Kit started off by walking the driveway with them, Kit leading and CW prodding from the rear when necessary to keep them going forward. After a few trips up and down the driveway, more often than not dragging Lucky along, the human tutors were getting tired and slightly impatient.
Then they had the brilliant idea of letting the big team teach the little team how to "Giddy Up".
They hooked the two teams together with a chain. This taught the younger team that it is possible to walk while yoked. By the end of the session they were doing much better and listening, although they were still sulking about the idea, and hiding from the camera.
The second day they decided it was easier to walk with their heads up, but it wasn't always in the direction they were supposed to go.
The cool thing about digital photography is that you get to take a whole bunch of pictures until you find the one perfect shot that makes them look good. By this time they weren't doing too bad, so the guys headed to the wood lot with them to try pulling something!!!
Heading down the logging road here. Had to stop for a moment, because it was either run the front team over, or pull back and sulk. But they were getting the hang of it better and better.
Once at the bottom, they practiced making turns around the stacked firewood the boys are accumulating for next year's heating bill. I didn't get any pictures of them making the circles because at this point it took all three of us to get them to make the turns.
By the time we made it down the trail to a small log, the new team was ready to stop. They very willingly stood nice and still!
The log chosen for pulling is approximately 18 feet long and 10 inches in diameter.
Getting teams positioned to pull and Lucky is not happy.
Here the teams are chained together and chained to the log ready to pull.
And they are pulling it, or rather the big team is pulling the little team and the log. The log did prevent the little team from running up on the big team!
Taking a breather before they head up the hill.
Even the big team revolts from time to time. Chestnut and Walnut decided halfway up the hill that they were done pulling double duty, and dragging the youngsters around! We ended up unyoking the younger team, and letting the big boys pull the log to the top of the hill and then re-yoking them together on easier terrain to continue the training.
By the end of the training session and heading back home, Lucky and Sal were doing much better.
After a couple of weeks of CW and Kit working with them, they have settled right into pulling.
Our next oxen post will show CW and JW1's ability to handle the team by themselves every morning for chore duties.