Soule: The Unusual Love Of Fantastic Scottish Highland Oxen

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.

The Sandwich Fair is a great one for oxen and working steers.

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.

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Carole Soule is co-owner of Miles Smith Farm, 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.