What makes it unusual is that oxen prefer to work on one side for their entire lives. The conventional wisdom for working cattle is that they have a partner for life and they work on one side exclusively.
Don't fall for it.
Hershel and Walker, two of Tillers' Shorthorns were in a trailer accident 10 or more years ago. It was pretty serious and Hershel injured his leg, putting him out of work temporarily. A few weeks later, we had Harvest Fest and the team was going to plow as a demonstration. Dulcy and some of the interns got Walker out and paired him with Marco (another mature ox who also had only ever worked on the nigh side, like Walker).
They had them out once.
That weekend, one of the interns and I plowed for the afternoon in front of a crowd using Walker, with Marco as the off-ox. They weren't fantastic, but they weren't bad, either. That put the matter to rest for me. So back to Zeus and Brutus: Kendy Sawyer commented on the photos, saying she'd like to see them working with a pole between them. 10 minutes after I saw the comment, I was out with a camera on a tripod. See for yourself.
The disclaimers and reflections:
1. I edited out me walking back and forth to the camera and one redundant shot. That's it. You get basically a real-time view of how things went, warts and all.
2. The task isn't quite so monumental, as they are housed in the same paddock 24/7, 365. Two unfamiliar animals might have a bit of a rodeo quality to them in a yoke.
3. They aren't super sharp with their moves, but half of that - at least- is me trying to figure out how to combine the commands that each expects. A better teamster would get better results sooner. Go figure.
4. The tongue confused Zeus, but only a little. He works singly, so the rubbing of something on either leg is not an issue. If he hadn't done that already, confusion could quickly shift to annoyance and on to panic in a hurry.
5. We got the cart hooked, moved, backed, loaded, navigated and unloaded - without hitting anything. Anything beyond that is gravy anyway.
6. It is SUPER helpful to put a camera on yourself to drive. It forces you to "see yourself" as you are working. Plus, going back to watch things, painful as it may be, is how we get better, faster.
7. I, you, or we should have a "request line" to have people ask to see something demonstrated - particularly something we can't do yet. Watching someone with experience learn a skill in real time would be a tremendous asset to the craft of ox-driving.
Who's in?
