Wintering on Martha's Vineyard
The calves and children sprinted through melting February ice patches at the Martha's Vineyard Agricultural Society pasture. One black steer led the charge with 10-year-old Charlotte, woolen mittens gripping his lead rope. Two matched Oreo Cookie-colored heifers followed, with 4Her's Penny and Skylar struggling to keep up. A lone Scottish Highland steer trailed behind, mooing in protest as the others sped ahead. Charlotte's black calf reached the gate first, his lead rope dragging in the wet sand with Charlotte laughing and panting close behind.
The matched black steers were born at the Grey Barn last April. The Oreo Cookie-colored heifers (Belted Galloways), small for 2-year-old bovines, and the fluffy, red Scottish Highland steer with tiny horns were born in New Hampshire. These friendly calves, the perfect size for children to train, are housed at the Martha's Vineyard Agriculture Barn, where the 4H Katama Cowpokes are training them to compete as draft animals at the August Ag Fair. I'm the Cowpokes' coach.
My husband, Bruce, and I own a cattle farm in Loudon, N.H., and since 2012, I've competed in Log Scoot classes with my team of black Scottish Highland steers. In the Log Scoot, a yoked team pulls a large sled designed to carry logs through an obstacle course. The goal is to maneuver through the cones without knocking any over.
We discovered Martha's Vineyard's magic when we brought some cattle to the 2021 Ag Fair. There is only one working team of oxen here, and we wanted to help revive the island's oxen traditions.
We commuted monthly to Martha's Vineyard for a year to work with the 4H Katama Cowpokes and calves at Slough Farm and the Grey Barn. When we retired from full-time farming last year, we decided to winter here and brought five calves, including the Belted Galloways, Venus, and Iris, for the Cowpokes to train.
Each session starts with running. A tired calf (and child?) is a well-behaved beast, and after dashing from one end of the field to the other, the calves are ready to be brushed. Mom cows lick their calves, and brushing mimics licking. Even older cows show affection by licking, so brushing is one way humans bond with cattle. Occasionally, a cow licks a human, but her sandpaper tongue hurts, so cow-licks are discouraged.
One of the reasons we decided to winter here is that the Martha's Vineyard Ag Fair has something New Hampshire fairs don't: a willingness to let heifer teams compete against the boys in the working steer class. Because they'll be allowed to compete here, the Cowpokes are training Iris and Venus to pull a cart.
The Highland steer named Owen has a special job. The Cowpokes harness him to a pony cart. Two helmeted kids sit in the cart. They tap him gently with a driving whip to get him to walk forward. They turn him left or right with a tug on the reins as if he were a pony.
Initially, the kids relied on my direction, but now they are independent little beings who have taught the calves to work as teams. They have even trained two bovines to carry a rider on their backs and taught one of the heifers to lie down on command.
Martha’s Vineyard 4H Katama Cowpokes have trained a steer named Bingo to be ridden. Bingo is a willing, calm steer who has bonded with the Cowpokes.
The island has beaches, fantastic views, and, I've been told, hides a famous person behind every boulder, but the farms and farmers keep us here. It's not easy raising crops or grazing cattle on sandy soil, but farmers like Dan Athern, Alan Healy, and Rebecca Miller help each other so their cattle and crops prosper. At the farming hub is the Agricultural Society, a hyper-local engine that helps farms and connects the community to local food. I've been farming in New Hampshire for 25 years, and this sense of community is unique in my farming world. We came to Martha's Vineyard for the fair but stayed for the farmers.
And why am I sharing my retirement with the Katama Cowpokes? Because the fountain of joy that springs from these 4H kids and calves is a fountain of youth for me. Besides, this may not be a tropical island, but it's warmer and has way less snow than New Hampshire. It's a perfect place to winter with five of our calves who are teaching and being taught by island 4H youth. I cheer these youngsters and their calves, wishing my 74-year-old body, patched with titanium hips, could race with them.
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4H Leaders Carole Soule and husband Bruce Dawson own Miles Smith Farm in Loudon, N.H., and are wintering on Martha's Vineyard. Carole’s website is www.soulecoaching.com and she can be reached at carole@soulecoaching.com
