Training cattle for work is a area of big interest for me. The cattle breeds we keep were traditionally used for milk, meat, and work, and we want to demonstrate and maintain this versatility in our own stock. The Swiss Braunvieh and Tiroler Grauvieh will provide her family with a good quantity of quality milk, raise a well muscled and fast growing calf, and do her fair share of work on the fields or in the forest. Traditionally, cows were employed as draft animals, because it was not economical for most small mountain farmers to keep an ox or a team of oxen or a horse just for work.
During my time of keeping and breeding ponies I had the great privilege of meeting a young clinician who influenced my life profoundly. After attending his work shops with my ponies for several years he changed my approach of being with animals. While his passion focuses entirely on the horse, I took more than just mere lessons in horse training away from his clinics. I learned to see how my personality was mirrored in the behavior of my animals. They (mis-)behaved in response to my interaction with them. It was a hard lesson, but in hindsight left me amazed.
I already had my cows when I was still working with my ponies, and I was curious to experiment with them to see if they would respond equally well to the communication skilled I had learned for horses. Being a social, plant-eating herd animal it only made sense that they would. Surely they were in possession of extensive communication skills not unlike those of horses, which were undiscovered and mostly unimportant to humans. To my surprise they responded extremely similar as horses and very favorable to the methods I applied.
Achieving effective communication with animals require skills which take years to develop by applying the knowledge you have, expanding on it, making mistakes and learning from them. It requires a tremendous amount of honesty; honesty with yourself that the animal is rarely the one making the mistakes. It requires a tremendous amount of mental endurance to keep trying after repeated failure. Your mistakes are your most valuable lessons, and you will be making many of them. Sometimes it seems that you are not making any progress at all.
Training a horse or a cow or ox is like building a house. You have a dream and know exactly what the end result should look like, but when you look at the foundation of your house it looks nothing like the building you want to live in and make a home of. Yet, the foundation is not only your start but also the most important element of your house, because without it your dreams will eventually collapse and be buried under rubble. Even when the foundation is in place, the walls of your house are laid down brick by brick, and although you can see it take shape, it will be a long way before you can hang your curtains. One of the distinct differences between building a house and training a horse, cow, or ox is that it takes much less time to build a house than it takes to build a solid working partnership with your mount or draft animal. It is a journey rather than a project.
Related links:
Josh Nichol – the above mentioned horseman who influenced me much
Kuhschule (Cowschool) – website of Ms Anne Wiltafsky in Switzerland
Arbeitsgruppe Rinderanspannung (German Working Cattle Group)