You start with leading them as singles, then you teach them to stop and stand, then you tie them together.” “So, any male bull, between three and four months old. “Traditionally, an ox is a castrated bull, of any breed of bovine-Ayrshire, Hereford, Guernsey, Holstein or cross-breeds,” says Barry Hiltz, site manager at Ross Farm, a working farm museum in New Ross, NS. As an artist’s model, the ox has proved irresistible to painters and carvers, notably Nova Scotian artist Maud Lewis whose oxen paintings are colourful and whimsical-often depicted head-on-sometimes with four legs, and other times with only three. From books and films in their praise, to the dozens of yearly ox-pulls and parades held at country exhibitions, to their active use on museum farm sites and small independent farms, many here either know of oxen or work directly with them. The gentle ox is still much loved throughout Atlantic Canada. Harnessed singly or yoked as teams, oxen gave their all, raising homesteads and towns for the newcomers. Oxen toiled in the forests and fields, and on the beaches, hauling fish and seaweed. ![]() Calm and hard-working, they worked for the Acadian settlers first, but were adopted by all following pioneers. Nova Scotia’s first oxen came to Port Royal in 1610, with French explorers. So it has been for centuries past, and so it seems sure to continue. While this is a time-honoured competition, oxen will perform any tasks given to them. Soon the big animals will follow their teamsters out into the arena to pull a 500-pound stone boat loaded with cement blocks. Most wear the traditional crimson head-yoke, along with ornately decorated forehead pads. Others weigh far less, but are still uncommonly strong. At more than 2,000 pounds, some ox are immense. The oxen teams are belled, yoked and ready to work. ![]() Quiet steady oxen have a long history in the regionĭeep in the big barn’s interior, you hear the bells first, tinkling like ice-chimes in the wind.
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