When Team-Work Makes a Difference in the Show Ring

Carole and her Scottish Highland oxen, Topper and Finn, placed 2nd in the Log Scoot competition at this year’s Sandwich Fair.

Click here to see this amazing team in the Sandwich Fair Show Ring.

Nine pairs of oxen stood quietly, lined up against the fence as the judge calculated our scores. I fussed and brushed my team as we waited for the results of Class 3 of the Log Scoot class at the recent Sandwich Fair. I'd spent weeks training my Scottish Highland oxen, Topper and Finn, for this day and was incredibly proud of them.

Most people are familiar with teams of oxen competing to see which team can pull the heaviest load. The Log Scoot event is not that. It simulates working in the woods by setting up a course in the show ring that the team must negotiate. It's about precision and obedience. Under the teamster's direction, the team pulls a wooden scoot, a rack mounted on runners designed to hold and move cut lots. The team pulling a loaded log scoot must negotiate the sharp turns and winding trails to pull the load out of the forest into the open, where the logs can be cut up for firewood or sawed into boards.

A team of male bovines is "working steers" until they reach age 4, at which point they are called "oxen." These terms are occupations. Any breed of cattle can be oxen. My team was the only pair of Scottish Highlands pulling that day, but Holsteins, Randall Linebacks, Herefords, Devons, and other breeds were represented.

The Sandwich Fair is a great one for oxen and working steers. On all three days of the fair, competitions are held, and on Sunday, over fifty teams walked through the fairgrounds in a grand parade.

I had picked the Log Scoot event for my boys to show their stuff. I'd trained Topper, now 12, since he was six months old. He and I had participated with him and his former partners, Flash and Stash, at the Hopkinton and Deerfield Fairs. His partner, Finn, now nine years old, had been part of another team that a 4Her had trained. Both Topper and Finn had lost their previous partners, and the conventional wisdom is that when one dies, his partner won't work with another. Never one to yield to traditional wisdom, I yoked the two up and they seemed to tolerate each other. 

Next, I had to get them to work as a team, so I pastured them together. Besides getting them to bond, I could also control their diet. Each of them was about 200 pounds overweight. Fat oxen can develop arthritis. Besides, they must carry that extra weight in addition to the loads they'll pull. For six weeks, I cut back their food, worked them daily, and brushed them before and after every session.

Cattle show affection for each other by licking, but there are some things, like licking, I won't do. Happily, brushing is just like licking. I had to win over these 1,600-pound beasts so they'd follow my commands every time, with no exceptions. Brushing was my secret weapon to win their affection and trust.

Equipment adjustment is also necessary. If the yoke doesn't fit properly, the team won't pull. Husband Bruce helped make adjustments until we got the yoke just right. It's challenging to hoist the heavy yoke onto their backs, put the bows under their necks, and slip them up through the yoke. The key was getting the boys to stand close to each other without moving while I essentially assembled the equipment around their necks. It took Bruce and me a dozen or more tries to get this to work, but we did it, and soon, I could yoke them up without needing help.

Standing in the ring next to Topper and Finn at the Sandwich Fair, I was proud of their performance. We'd knocked over a few cones, but they followed each of my commands without question. We could add ten bonus points to our score if we negotiated the scoot to snag a disk. It was like grabbing a ring on a merry-go-round, except we had to grab the disk with a hook on the side of the scoot; no hands were allowed. The other teams missed the disk, but we captured it.

Snagging that disk moved us to second place, an enormous achievement for me and my team. The boys are now off their diet, and I'll give them some time off while I work with my younger teams. I've put that red ribbon in a place of honor in my dining room, and I will always be grateful for the cooperation of my two gentle giants.

Click here to see this amazing team in the Sandwich Fair Show Ring.

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Carole Soule is co-owner of Miles Smith Farm (www.milessmithfarm.com), where she raises and sells beef, pork, eggs, and other local products. She can be reached at carole@soulecoaching.com. Carole is also now a certified Life Coach who helps humans and K-9s achieve the impossible a little at a time.
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