By ROB ANDERSEN

randersen@timesobserver.com

Big as an ox is a phrase most people can relate to, but not all oxen are the size of Paul Bunyan’s ox “Babe the Blue Ox.”

Most of Pete Westover’s oxen are Dexters, cattle with a dwarf gene, and they are the perfect size for the Pine Grove Pioneers 4-H club.

The club is for general farm animals, Westover said, but they primarily work with working cattle, and then mostly Dexters.

Club member Bailey Brucker works with “Ewok,” a two-year-old Dexter steer, that earned the title of Grand Champion at the Warren County Fair last year for Best Trained in Working Cattle, although he won’t technically be considered an ox until he is four years old.

Westover said, “He is still rough around the edges, as he doesn’t get as much work as Edelweiss, but he tows logs and a small cart.”

Samantha Hensley works with Edelweiss, or “Eddy” who is a Lineback. “Eddy” is five foot, five inches at the shoulder and weighs 1,900 pounds, and was Reserve Champion at the fair last year. When Eddy is not helping with Hensley’s 4-H, he tows manure out to the fields, according to Westover.

“But he will pull anything.” Hensley added, “He’s still learning. Sometimes he seems to enjoy it, because it gives him something to do. But he definitely takes his time.”

Westover said the 4-H members are also learning, along with the cattle.

“They are usually trained from the time they are little calves, by the time they are big and scary, they are very tame, so it is something a person can do on their own,” Westover said. “There would probably be far more of these useful animals at work if the training did not take constant, steady hours (and) most adults do not have the spare time. The trick is for the animal to be doing some daily task you need done which is where it learns, without adding to the trainer’s workload.”

“Oxen or Working Cattle have always been part of human history.” Jennifer Grooms, Penn State Extension 4-H extension educator, said. “Cattle breeds like Chianina, which is taller than a man, were bred to work on Italian farms and it was mostly oxen, not horses, which pulled the covered wagons across the American West.”

“With their importance as part of our past, the Warren County Fair will offer a Working Cattle or Ox Show this year. Entries may be a cow, a heifer, or a steer any age, as long as they were born before April 15, 2015. Entries can be a single animal or a team of two. The equipment is minimal for basic classes,” she added. “The animal needs only a yoke or three-pad collar, chains and single tree. The biggest investment is in teaching the animal to perform quietly through an obstacle course.”

Classes include: Fitting and Showmanship how well you groom and show off your animal; Best Trained harnessed animal/team complete a course of cones and rails; Best Hitched the animal is shown pulling equipment like a cart or stone boat; and Log Pull the animal pulls a log through an obstacle course.

For more information, contact Westover of Pine Grove Pioneers 4-H Club at 757-5779.

“If there is enough interest, we may be able to form a Warren County 4-H Ox Club,” Grooms said.