Other Animals

Washington D.C Zoo

Kristian BeverlyLeave a comment
On Thursday, my friend Erin and I went to the Washington D.C Zoo. She came back from Japan a couple of weeks ago, so the two of us decided to do something adult-y. Of course we set our sights on the zoo. 
I’m pretty sure we saw more squirrels than people, which is my type of trip. 🙂
We saw a range of animals spanning from the tiny Meerkat, 

to big cats like African Lions,

to the Przewalski Wild Horse. These two were adorable. So fluffy!

Puppies The Size Of Bunnies

Kristian BeverlyLeave a comment

I love pretty much any baby animal that’s cute. Especially puppies since they are so squirmy, klutzy, and just overly excited about everything.

 My mom’s friend got a new French Bulldog puppy, named Roux and brought her over to my house yesterday. My sister and I took plenty of pictures, while playing with the adorable puppy.
She met new types of animals. Rue the cat (pronounced the same way as Roux) was not thrilled one bit about the tiny puppy.

Look how small she is compared to Bullet the Bunny!

Bullet the Bunny enjoyed the puppy though. He smelled her and allowed her to lick and love on him. Normally he is the bully, but he let Roux do her puppy antics around him.

And after tons of playing, rest.

Young animals are a ton of fun! 🙂

A New Performance Idea

Kristian Beverly1 Comment

One of my favorite things to have seen at the Farm Show this year was the Ox Demo. It was the first time it had ever happened at the Farm Show.

An ox is a castrated bull (I didn’t know that), and there were numerous types of cattle showcased. 
The oxen were paired up, with a yoke, and were led by their teamster (handler). This pair loved to strike a pose and were fast moving Jersey Cattle. They had gorgeous coloring, and knew it!
The teamster used verbal signals that reminded me of sled dog signals. Back-back up. Gee-turn right. Get up- go. Haw-turn left. Whoa-Stop. The whip was held at different angles to give the cows commands.

Oxen are visual animals, so more often than not they just followed their teamster around the arena.

These guys were only a little bit older than a year, and this was the first time they had ever pulled something around!
The showcase had numerous obstacles for the pairs to maneuver through.
Then the oldest pair, two Holstein mixes that are three years old, were hitched to a two wheeled ox cart and were led around the arena. 
Some of the horns were covered, so no accidents happened. 
The Jersey pair had on halters, similar to horse ones.
Close up of the yoke.
Most of the oxen were hitched up together to do an Oregon Trail blast from the past. It was the second time the group had ever been hitched together and it took like 5-10 minutes for them to be hitched up together. The announcer gave reasons for oxen being better for the Oregon Trail, than horses. One of the big reasons was that they were less likely to be stolen, and they were more nourishing to eat. Also, oxen were cheaper to buy and could eat the sparse grass that was further along the journey. 
This would be a really cool set up. You’d only need two oxen and a teamster, plus cones or some type of obstacle. I really want some breyer cows and calves now since I only have this guy, who is a bull and who is not getting customized!. 🙂