Post by BooksAreNerdy on Nov 1, 2013 19:17:04 GMT -5
We have had Maybelle for 5 months now. She is/was the sweetest most docile cow! I could milk her in the field, we could go pet her while she laid down, etc. however in the last month she has gotten a little aggressive a few times. Maybe 3 or 4 times I have been petting her head and she will start to head butt me a little. I kick her nose or use a piece of lumber to whack her until she runs off and I chase her a bit.
Well, today my dad was holding my 2 year old daughter and Maybelle head butted me and I pushed her away and she started to try head butting my dad and daughter. DH and I went after her and whacked her in the head with a 2x4 and she ran off bucking. That seriously terrified me. She could have put any of us on the ground.
My thoughts are thus- we have been invading her space lately while building the shed in her pasture. Then other thought I had was that she is getting hormonal as she gets closer to calving. She is due around Christmas. I feel like I have always come out dominant, and I have horse training experience, but part of me worries that she knows she is big and she is taking me for a ride. I've had horses that scared me and I was so thrilled to have a sweet cow that I wasn't afraid of.
Please tell me that she is hormonal and this will pass!!!
She is a dream to milk, lets my toddler milk her and play noisily around her. She doesn't kick, shift, move. She is just the perfect cow. Except the last few weeks she has done just a bit of head shaking and posturing. Tonight was really the first actual head butting. Oddly, she starts out so sweet, wanting poll scratches and just chews her cud. But after a minute, she tells me to back off.
This behavior has never happened at milking time. Only when we were out working on or looking at the shed we are building.
Well, today my dad was holding my 2 year old daughter and Maybelle head butted me and I pushed her away and she started to try head butting my dad and daughter. DH and I went after her and whacked her in the head with a 2x4 and she ran off bucking. That seriously terrified me. She could have put any of us on the ground.
My thoughts are thus- we have been invading her space lately while building the shed in her pasture. Then other thought I had was that she is getting hormonal as she gets closer to calving. She is due around Christmas. I feel like I have always come out dominant, and I have horse training experience, but part of me worries that she knows she is big and she is taking me for a ride. I've had horses that scared me and I was so thrilled to have a sweet cow that I wasn't afraid of.
Please tell me that she is hormonal and this will pass!!!
She is a dream to milk, lets my toddler milk her and play noisily around her. She doesn't kick, shift, move. She is just the perfect cow. Except the last few weeks she has done just a bit of head shaking and posturing. Tonight was really the first actual head butting. Oddly, she starts out so sweet, wanting poll scratches and just chews her cud. But after a minute, she tells me to back off.
This behavior has never happened at milking time. Only when we were out working on or looking at the shed we are building.