Some folks grow up around oxen, never knowing anything but. The rest of us had that moment: we saw oxen working and just knew.
Like walking out into deep water at a beach, lots of drovers slowly immersed themselves into oxen over time, gradually. A few of us toppled in like tripping off the deck of a ship. That's me.
Years ago, I took a National Endowment for the Humanities summer class for teachers: The American Farm in U.S. History, which was hosted at Tillers International. On the third afternoon, we broke out into sessions, one of which was grain harvesting. After using the sickle, scythe, cradle scythe -and before the horses pulled the binder (the video here is later, but does show Duane Westrate pulling Tillers' binder)- Dulcy drove Marco and Polo, pulling a McCormick-Deering reaper.
I was fortunate enough to have my camera going at that exact moment. The video at the top captures it.
The power, the docility, the connection to a huge, horned animal, oxen had it all. Before I left from the week, I bought a copy of Ray Ludwig's Pride and Joy of Working Cattle, and I started thinking about getting a team.
What's your moment?
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