On Halter-breaking Buttercup

Donkey vs. Cow: Donkey wins!

Buttercup is our Soon-To-Be milk cow.  She is kind of a "spaz".  She is really nice, and mostly gentle, but as is often the case in animals 10 times the size and weight of me, she goes where she wants to, when she wants to.  The solution? Tie her to something more determined than her, and even if the animal (a Donkey, in this case) weighs roughly half of Buttercup, apparently determination counts for more than weight does, because they go wherever that donkey decides to go! When the donkey is hungry, they go eat.  When the donkey is thirsty, they go drink.

I left them tied together for a week and I'll be darned if old Buttercup wasn't the most halter-broke cow ever after that.  Now the kids can lead her around!

I've decided that having large animal livestock is right up my alley.  "Breaking" an animal large enough to eat me (if they were inclined) or stomp me to death gives me just enough challenge to make it fun, and really rubs that itch inside of me to be a bully.  Its okay to be "mean" to a cow if you are halter breaking her; its just never okay to tie one of your kids or someone you dislike to a 800 lb donkey.  Or, recently I wanted to get so I could approach the Jack Donkey, so I tied him to a hedge tree (the only thing more stubborn than a donkey) for a week so that he could get used to me getting close to him.  Then I tied an concrete block to his halter and turned him loose.  It was just heavy enough to slow him down because he didn't like dragging around that thing.  I didn't keep it on too long, because it was really rubbing him across his nose, and my Inner Bully is not that strong...  Anyway, my thinking is, if I have these animals to be mean to, maybe my kids, my hired help, and Herself will be able to catch a break.