Soule: Which do you Love? Cattle or Horses?

Like many girls, I wanted a pony when I was growing up. That was a long time ago – in the ‘50s, when the Sears catalog was the internet of the day. When the 400-page catalog arrived, I would search for the page advertising a $200 pinto pony that, if ordered, would be shipped to my house in a crate. I wonder if Amazon would do that.
In the 50 years I’ve had cattle and horses, I’ve discovered that cows are equally fun without as much work. For instance, horses need dry, not dusty, hay to eat. With four stomach chambers, cattle can eat any hay safely. Cows tend to tolerate flies that would drive an average horse mad. I’ve also discovered that cows can be as useful as horses.
Back in the day, horses were the go-to form of transportation, pulling carts and wagons. Cattle can do the same work but are slower. It’s been said that a team of horses can do in one day what it would take an oxen team to do in three. But horses, because they’re fast, run away when spooked. Most cattle are lazy and take a gentler approach.

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Carole Soule is co-owner of Miles Smith Farm, in Loudon, N.H., where you can have an Ultimate Cow Experience and sit on gentle giant, Curious Bleu.