Nigh Ox Newsletter

December 2001

Ray Ludwig and Training Oxen

Ray and Jean Ludwig drove out from Conneticut, and Dixon Ford from Utah, for the first Ox Training Clinic held at Tillers. There has always been training occuring during the Oxen Basics class, young calves started, continued training of older teams, but always traditional results were the expected outcome. This clinic was different, if not altogether unorthodox. Rob Hewlett, Will Workman, Abbey Richmond, Dixon Ford, Glen Bigilow and his son Daniel, and Tillers staff and interns were all there to teach and learn.

A young team of calves was started with Ray's technique of a loose line and long lash. Ray worked with the calves and the students 2 and sometimes 3 times a day. Teaching subleties in driving and training is a difficult task, and trying to verbalize what makes the animals respond is an ongoing challenge. But soon everyone got the feel for where to stand and which que to give for a certain response, and when the young animals were learning, or just daydreaming.

Toby, Coultier, Grant, and Traveler, the 6 month olds, were on hand to learn and to help teach the pupils secondary training techniques, such as side stepping. Dixon demonstrated a technique on Toby and Coultier that he finds helpful in getting both steers to be focused on the same thing. By placing a jockey stick between the halters, both animals are forced to turn their heads together.

Marco and Polo, two year olds, were quick to respond to commands from behind. Using only the goad, and walking between the animals, being careful not to get stepped on, Dick Roosenberg gave the commands and was close enough to their heads to reinforce them. It didn't take long, and Marco and Polo were turning and stopping on command. When they were hooked to the stone boat and cart, starting and stopping was not a problem, they turned most of the time, but reinforcement was difficult. It was decided all that was needed was a longer lash. Marco, Polo and Rob Hewletts steer, IH, were used on the grader and slip scraper as well to work on the lane.

Will Workman wanted to learn to drive oxen from behind using lines, so Slick and Rough had reigns snapped to their halters in an effort to learn how to teach trained oxen to respond to lines. Dixon Ford and Dick worked on this, and the boys caught on quickly without any apparent stress. A traditional form of ear reins was tried out on Tug and Suni, but they accepted riding a little more readily.

Of course fieldwork is where much learning takes place, so soon the cattle and people were up in the field with plows and harrows. Abby's team, Paul and Silas, plowed in tandem with Marco and Polo, and then IH was hooked with Marco and Polo forming a unicorn hitch. Students drove 2 teams alone and soon the wheat field was completely plowed up. Only Lewis and Clark weren't put up to any new tricks, but students learned how to get them to plow from behind. With a little extra encouragement, they plowed a nice strait furrow. As always, it was a great learning experience for drover and team, and we look forward to trying some new techniques next year.