Without Drama

Tillers' founder Dick Roosenberg often advises students of ox driving that a good way to approach plowing with a team is to remember that, when learning, the goal is not to plow.  The goal is to learn to plow.

I'd assume that the same logic would apply to other tasks:  Learn the task while acclimating the animals to the task.

Last week at Bent's Fort, we worked through the steps I like to follow when hitching to an unfamiliar object.  They may be overkill, but avoiding drama in hitching is a noble pursuit for both team and teamster.

Clark and Coolidge are quite used to pulling wagons and carts, both of which have a tongue.  I wasn't sure, though, that they were used to a chain. (In hindsight: of course they're used to a chain.  But I prefer a belt-and-suspenders approach)  Oxen are much more likely to tangle their feet in a chain and the bouncing and rattling motion chain makes some animals nervous.  Plus, wheeled vehicles and dragging objects sound different.

So we used these steps.  Feel free to modify at your discretion and as they apply to other "new" objects (wagons, mowers, rakes, carts, single yokes, brichen, etc.):

1. Rattle the chain around the team.

2.  Let them sniff the chain.

3.  Drag the chain away from the team.  This is an especially good strategy for new teams.  The object can make all the noise it wants, but as it heads away it's not perceived as a predatory threat.  With calves, half the time they get curious and "chase" the object.

4.  Drag the chain between the animals.  Chains look like snakes.

5. Hook the chain to the yoke.

6.  Hook the chain to the load (in our case a log, then later a 6-pound Napoleon cannon!)

7.  Step the team up one step and stop them.  I like to make that initial step glacial.  The moment they lean into the load I'm already whoaing them.  The goal is that the load makes a little noise, then immediately stops making noise and "chasing them."  To step right out quickly with rattling chains and noisy predators following, then chasing the team, you can get into a rapidly accelerating feedback loop in a hurry.  (Ask me how I know this!)

8.  Step the team up a couple of steps and stop them.

9.  Step the team up to walking pace then stop them.

Overkill?  Sure, but that always beats a runaway team.  If, at any step in the process, the team seems skittish, I like to unhook them and walk around a minute then go back to the "new" thing.  Cattle seem to have a sense that any new change is a permanent change.  Sort of, "Once I'm hooked to this wagon or wearing this yoke, my life will become nothing but this."  They can't envision a time in the future being unhooked, so it is reasonable for them to start thinking of escape.  A team looking to escape is unreliable.  Always.

"Recovering" a team that had a bad experience would follow the same process, just slower, maybe taking three to five sessions to acclimate the animals to the frightening object.  But what's the alternative?

One additional caveat for wheeled vehicles:  When the team stops, the vehicle keeps moving.  The first time this happens and the cart runs up on the team, they can panic and bolt.  The cart remains attached and "chases" them - like any good predator does - and that feedback loop accelerates in no time.  Mr. Roosenberg advises to always start new teams on carts heading UP a gentle incline to lessen the likelihood of this happening.

Clark and Coolidge really didn't need these steps, but moving slower to get farther, in the long run, makes sense.

No drama.