Re:dangerous animals

["ckellerfarm" <ckellerfarm@stellarnet.com>]

It was posted  yesterday, that dairy bulls are the most dangerous animal,
on farms. More dangerous then horse.
This has been a topic many times at our dinner table, being a horse lover
and a dairy farmer/ranchers wife, along with what is smarter a horse or a
cow!
 Last winter we had the local vets Shana and Troy Jones, my now son-in-law
(who was born and raised in South Africa), and many friends who are rancher
,farmers and their wives over for supper it came up in conversation and
after many good hours of  wonderful conversation we all  came to this
point....
As Hen (my son-in-law)  and Shana pointed out we must first remember what
they are. Horses being Equine, cattle being Bovine.  In Henk's home counrty
(and Tracey's) they would be water buffalo and zebras!Now what are they?
They are  prey animals. How do they react to being prey? Equine RUN they
PANIC they don't give up they keep running, even with loins on their backs
even, when all seems lost! Bovine STAND and FIGHT and when they see they are
going to be today's meal they lay down, give up and die! Now being we are
talking about domestic horses and cattle lets put it this way.
If you push a bull or cow, they will fight you , put their head down try to
put you in the ground. If you can control their heads they give up ( so we
use head gates!), and  they don' fight long. They don't panic much. If  you
push a  (untrained)horse they will panic , they don't lay down and die they
continue to panic until they can't any more. They don't think they just
panic. Cows don't think either they just give up . So we as cattlemen or
horsemen control them in this way. We push cattle until they give up , so
they are controlled. We do not push horse , we don't what them to panic. We
train horses little by little to do our will, cattle we just push around.
Put it this way.  If a horse gets his leg in wire,  what does a horse do?
Panic , he starts trying to run a way, he can't he just keeps trying to run.
He'll get more tangled, will cut himself to ribbons but will still continue
to try to get away. No hope or reason, just try to get away! A cow  in the
same wire will just stand there, she doesn't panic. She just puts her weight
into it and pulls. If she can't get off  after a few tugs,she will lay down
and start to bellow ,she knows she today's meal .And if this happens and we
don't get her out  and up in  a few hours she may not live. She  will just
lay down and because of her weight will die.  We in the cattle business call
this a downer, chances are she will die unless you can get her up. And
believe me you must get them up!
So what  is more dangerous? I think horses!

A cow or bull if pushed, will fight you but if you stay out of the way of
his head, you'll portly not get hurt  bad or killed. If you  push a horse,
you could get them into a panic situation (like spooking, tangled up in a
rope ,ect) chances are you could get hurt maybe killed, the horse will
continue to panic until all is lost or we get them to stop and think
(training). Many more people are around horses then cattle so that being,
more people would be hurt or killed by horses then cattle or any other
animals so they would be more dangerous!
Also most people look at horses as pets not as livestock (which they are) so
as it has been pointed out by others we put our gaurd down around them,
where most people don't around cattle or other large animals.  As far as
dairy bulls go, they would be more dangerous because they are around people
more then the bulls of beef breeds! They aren't any meaner most likely
tamer, because when they were calves they were cared for  daily by people!
This also makes training a dairy calf easier for 4-H, then  beef breed!
I just got in  a 1/2  hour ago from milking 55 cows , I was kicked once,
stepped on twice and was challenged by a bull (who backed off when I hit him
on the head) and think my horse is more dangerous! Because I think of my
horse as a friend, a pet. I often forget that if she is pushed she doesn't
think she panics and if I'm in her way on the way out of Dodge, I'm just
another thing to run over on the way out. I try not to put my guard down
around the cows, but often do because again I'm around them so much.
As for what is smarter a bovine or equine, we(but a few of the husbands:))
all decided that horses are smarter! Because for millions of years people
have been breeding for faster, smarter horses and slower, dumber cows! But
it the wild in Africa they are most likely about the same in that
department!
Tami ( see I didn't say anything about toddlers:))