Good points, and hard for people to understand. I desensitize any bovine leaving my place to not react when touched. But it is a process involving lots of grooming.
I wish every visitor to my farm would arrive having read this post! Everything the author says about his oxen holds double for Icelandic sheep. I have to tell nearly every visitor not to try to pet ram lambs or the rams on the forehead between the horns. Doing so is like wearing a "kick me" sign and teaches them to be aggressive toward people. The ewes and lambs don't like being touched either. If someone absolutely must pet them, the side of the face works best. That way they can pull away if they don't like it.
The most impressive skill I can think to possess is the ability to converse with other species. To talk to them. Talk with them. Have a dialogue. Get to know each other. Negotiate. In their language. Not the pidgin we use with domesticated animals, where the other species does all the heavy lifting with language learning. But when the human has learned other species' language.
Thank you for pointing out these human projections of insecurity. They get in the way of our ability to connect and relate to others, generally.
Our friends and mentors the Hoys practice advanced horsemanship and stockmanship that is premised on a lot of the insights here. They use herd integrity instead of fences for planned grazing:
Thats awesome I’ll have to check out their work. I have learned a lot from looking at horsemanship resources. I am not a horse person but they are similar enough that many things transfer. Equines and bovines do differ in many ways but many things can be learned from working with horses.
Yeah the Hoys consider horses "higher on the food chain" than ruminants. The IMG (instinctive migratory grazing) they practice is an incredible stockmanship paradigm for low infrastructure large scale planned grazing. The focus is on clear communication and herd integrity. They actually recommend people learn to ride dressage to give a greater physical vocabulary to use with the horses in translation to the livestock. I know they are in mourning but would be happy to facilitate contact when appropriate if you are interested.
Good points, and hard for people to understand. I desensitize any bovine leaving my place to not react when touched. But it is a process involving lots of grooming.
Grooming helps. There are some that are always more nervous around people. 😁💚🐮🐮💚👍🏽
Great post, hilarious title.
I thought it might arouse some interest. 😂
I wish every visitor to my farm would arrive having read this post! Everything the author says about his oxen holds double for Icelandic sheep. I have to tell nearly every visitor not to try to pet ram lambs or the rams on the forehead between the horns. Doing so is like wearing a "kick me" sign and teaches them to be aggressive toward people. The ewes and lambs don't like being touched either. If someone absolutely must pet them, the side of the face works best. That way they can pull away if they don't like it.
The most impressive skill I can think to possess is the ability to converse with other species. To talk to them. Talk with them. Have a dialogue. Get to know each other. Negotiate. In their language. Not the pidgin we use with domesticated animals, where the other species does all the heavy lifting with language learning. But when the human has learned other species' language.
Thank you for pointing out these human projections of insecurity. They get in the way of our ability to connect and relate to others, generally.
Our friends and mentors the Hoys practice advanced horsemanship and stockmanship that is premised on a lot of the insights here. They use herd integrity instead of fences for planned grazing:
https://sandcountyfoundation.org/news/2020/hoy-familys-flying-w-ranch-receives-kansas-leopold-conservation-award (youtube video embedded)
Unfortunately Josh Hoy and his father Jim died suddenly a few weeks ago, survived by Gwen and daughter Josie.
Thats awesome I’ll have to check out their work. I have learned a lot from looking at horsemanship resources. I am not a horse person but they are similar enough that many things transfer. Equines and bovines do differ in many ways but many things can be learned from working with horses.
Yeah the Hoys consider horses "higher on the food chain" than ruminants. The IMG (instinctive migratory grazing) they practice is an incredible stockmanship paradigm for low infrastructure large scale planned grazing. The focus is on clear communication and herd integrity. They actually recommend people learn to ride dressage to give a greater physical vocabulary to use with the horses in translation to the livestock. I know they are in mourning but would be happy to facilitate contact when appropriate if you are interested.