So first, its good to say, that a baby calf is not really a ox til its at least four years old, and normally its a altered male.. but it does not have to be.. a Ox can be a female, and it can be the family milk cow depending on how much work you are asking it to do..

I want a draft animal for the farm work, the big one I really want is to be able to have a stone boat again to move larger amounts from the barn to area’s of the farm, also I want to be able to skid the tree’s around the farm. The farm came with a rake, and it could be used by a single draft once they were fully mature.

http://www.berrybrookoxsupply.com/

This photo came from Berry Brook Ox Suppy, but I am not going to buy different size’s for Girl as she grow’s so she is getting homemade makeshift gear at the moment till she is older.

So she has a homemade collar, with trace lines added, as well as a T at the back, I was so proud of her, I need to add a back strap to prevent the lines from coming down to far, but worked her without it, and she was so good about me being able to lift and fix feet, over an over as we praticed..

She is truly wonderful at backing, and really getting gee and haw down, easy is a work in process, she naturally walks alot faster then me, and I have decided that to be fair to her, at least half the time, I need to half trot so she can move at her natural pass, raither then asking her to slow down to mine..

So after we practiced a bit with me behind her working the lines, I attached the homemade T bar and we practiced that for awhile, and then finally, Girl was hitched to our 3 person snow sled that we use to move things up and down from the main yard to the Big Barn and she pulled a sled full of tools and tool box from the house to the barn. It was a remarkable day, her first job of many to come at the tender age of four months.

We also unhitched the sled and she pulled a small log around the field a couple times for me, with her bells on, and we did rights/lefts/ Woo’s and walk up..  I was so proud of her!!

She really has already gotten a solid idea of work time and free time.. and just like a horse, when we headed back to her little barn, suddenly, she was all.. prance, prance, till we got to her snub post, and I unhitched her, then she ran and bucked around the pasture.

She was moved from her red shed to the big barn this weekend as well, and now has a very large free box stall to call her own for the winter, she will have free access to the one pasture on good days and will be much more protected during our bad storms that are no doubt coming our way.