Ox shoes and knobs are found in every farm field in Vermont as a result of a couple hundred years of farming before the tractor. Unlike horses, oxen have cloven hooves so their shoes had to be made in two pieces. In North America, horn knobs have been fixed to cattle for over 150 years. Pictured below are some shoes and knobs found in Clarendon and other regions of VT.
An ox (plural oxen) are used for plowing, for transport (pulling carts, hauling wagons and even riding), for threshing grain by trampling, and for powering machines that grind grain or supply irrigation among other purposes. Oxen may be also used to skid logs in forests, particularly in low-impact, select-cut logging.
These photos are courtesy of Phil Mandolare in 2020.
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)