[Sca-cooks] Cow harness

[Anne-Marie Rousseau]

a yoke is what you fasten around any draft animals neck/shoulders so that they can pull something behind. its 
also a thing you put around a persons shoulders so they can carry two full buckets.

a halter is something that goes around an animals face (usually around the muzzle and another loop around the 
back of the ears) to give them a handle :). you can fasten a rope to it and lead them, or even direct them 
(again, if they meant to go that way anyway ;)). (when I was a kid, we'd tie a rope to the horses halter, jump 
on and ride off like the crazy kids we were :). not as effective as a full bit and bridle, but it worked. again, 
I think the horse wanted to go too which is likely why it worked ;))

to use a halter fastened to traces for pulling would put all the leverage on the critters poll and nose. a yoke 
allows the transferance of energy via the neck and shoulders, which are much stronger.

halter and yoke are both terms for specific technologies/objects. they are not dependant on the critter they're 
used on, at least not in the horse, cow (goat/sheep/llama/etc) world...

hope that helps!
--Anne-Marie

On Tue 09/11/10 15:23 , Judith Epstein judith at ipstenu.org sent:
> I thought cows and their boyfriends (oxen, bulls, same word) were on  
> yokes, and draft horses were on halters. No?
> 
> 
>