"It was only with the help of the patient oxen that the pioneers were able to push the boundary of the nation across the continent."
"The ox has also had much to do with the settlement of our country. The pioneers could take care of an ox team in a new settlement so much more cheaply than they could a horse team that this fact alone would have made the oxen invaluable to them; but aside from this, oxen were better for the work in the clearing or for breaking up the vast stretches of wild prairie sod." --Covered WAgon Centennial and Ox-Team Days, Ezra Meeker pg. 59
The time had come to see if our modern ox team could live up to the history from which it has descended. With the completion of the sled building project, all that remained was to see if our young oxen could be convinced to pull it.
To our surprise, these fellows are so good-natured and laid back from their earlier handling sessions, that they didn't hardly bat an eye to the task they were asked to perform.
After an initial trip or two around the hay field they were working better than we anticipated. We found the cattle prod or "ox goad" an invaluable extension of our arm in communicating to the team what we wanted them to do. This communication tool would be synonymous to the proper use of a set of spurs to a horse by an experienced horseman. As our learning and the oxen's knowledge increases, we will replace the use of physical commands with visual and verbal commands.
Upon seeing the oxen's calm first response JW1 and JW2 didn't require a second invitation to try out the sled behind the team.
Out to the hay field again, this time with a load of happy boys.
After a day or so of pulling the sled and boys around the hay field the guys wanted to try bigger loads. So they decided to try hauling up firewood and poles from the pond area below the buildings.
The first task was to sled a couple water saturated rounds of firewood leftover from the barn building project to the woodpile. As you will notice in this and future photos, Kit is usually high stepping alongside the team.
These oxen can get out and MOVE! Our goal is to avoid breaking their spirit and keep them quick in a controlled manner, which at times, to me, can have the appearance of a fine line between that and a pair of runaways!
Much to the boys’ delight the oxen did a great job of hauling next year's heating bill to the woodpile beside our house. I am sure some of the enthusiasm was due to the fact that now they don't have to use their energy hauling it to the house in their snow sled.
Of course there is always the added benefit of riding back to the job sight.
Kit still uses the lead rope at this point as a guidance tool to insure they do what they are told, and don't get any ideas of running off.
After a week or so of hauling firewood to the house, the guys felt they could take the ox team to the next level. So on a perfectly gorgeous day, they took the team down "grade" to the woodlot area to try hauling poles up. The first sled load up had two poles on it. CW had been waiting all summer and fall for this moment. Whenever we needed an extra pole, he and his brothers were instructed to drag up another pole from the woodlot by hand. The poles were buried in snow by this time and had to be dug out. The poles had a good heft to them from water content which we saw as an extra "training weight" bonus for the oxen.
A load of three poles was hauled up next and then this group of four poles came up the hill. CW has become adept at tying both the trucker's knot and sheep-shank knot to secure loads.
During a recent snow storm we discovered another use for the team and sled. My milk cows have taken to sleeping down under some pine trees in their pasture at night, instead of in their shelter. This is fine with me, I don't have to shovel poo morning and night. However, they do tend to come up in the morning all muddy which makes milking time no fun.
So I bribed the guys into hauling down bales of straw and spreading it over the beds to help keep the cows a bit cleaner. So when it started snowing and the guys were just coming back from hauling a load of firewood, I mentioned it might be nice to use the team to haul a bale of straw to my cows’ bed.
It worked great for everyone, I got my straw hauled and the team got some more experience. And a couple of the boys got a hayride out of the deal. A win win!