Posted on 10/17/2020 4:47:09 PM PDT by Viking2002
(FOX NEWS) -- In the increasingly hectic and stressful year of 2020, people are seeking calm wherever they can find it — from frolicking through the fields to adopting plants. But now there’s another natural way to restore your cortisol levels: cow-hugging.
People in several parts of the world have begun to embrace the alleged wellness trend, which reportedly originated in the Netherlands, where it is known as “koe knuffelen.”
According to the BBC, the practice of cuddling cows is supposed to reduce stress in humans by releasing the bonding hormone oxytocin.
(Excerpt) Read more at wdrb.com ...
“Wait until someone tries to hug a brahma bull”
I’d pay good money to see some Soy boy/girl try it.
Cows can act like dogs and return affection to those who show it. Many American owners given the luxury to do so treat their herds with such affection. Guess they have “comfort cows” now.
A Labrador Retriever works even better.
One of the better animals for hugging are friendly female donkeys. If one takes a liking to you they will follow you around and solicit all kinds of affection, like a big dog.
They also love tasty treats, which are usually okay, in moderation, because they tend to put on weight.
It sounds like we have a lot in common. I have still got lumps in my head from falling off horses I was riding bareback and also being kicked. However I was never chased by a bovine critter or even kicked by one. But cattle like people can behave differently depending on what type and the personality of the heard. Our bulls were docile, if they were eating you could crawl all over them. Cows can be protective of the calves at times. We had to be careful when I was young all of our cattle had horns and they could poke you by accident if you were trying to lure them somewhere with a bucket of grain, or if you were in the middle of a bunch of them and they got spooked.
We had a bunch of deep mud on our property and occasionally a horse would get stuck in it. We actually lost a couple that way. But a cow could be floating in mud and still be trying to eat whatever was near it. We would get behind it and whack it with something and they could always extricate themselves.
I agree that people today have little understanding of farm animals for the most part. I have a couple very sad stories relating to this.
Some of our cows were like that. Most had names and some were 4H projects. It is the same with a lot of horses.
Yes, the. Memories make me laugh. That darn horse. I rode it “indian princess” one time. No saddle, no bridle, no shoes for me. Horse took me out to the only sticker patch in the field a reared up so I slipped off his back. and I was stuck. There. On butt and on bare feet.
Where you grow up?
It would be easier to cuddle with a sirloin from the grocery.
I’ve run across stray cattle a few times on the edge of the burbs.
The funniest time was when about a dozen got out of a pasture and into an adjoining subdivision then browsed the landscaping and grazed and fertilized the yards.
I’m currently eating about a half pound of ground comfort cow on a seeded bun with bacon made from a comfort pig, lettuce, onions, and mayo. And it tastes good.
I need to remember that the next microsoft windows call I get from India.
“Hang on Micheal I’ve got your great grandmother cooking on the grill and want to make sure I take her off while there’s still some blood in the center”.
Every truck load of young calves would include a few cull calves that our neighbor figured just weren't going to survive.
Mrs. Lucky would cart these pathetic little calves home, sing to them, pet them, hold them on her lap and genuinely mother them. Some of them didn't make it, but most of them not only survived, but thrived.
There were some weepy moments on market day, however.
Perfection.
The craziest cow I have ever had was one I bought at auction that was someones 4H/FFA animal. She took it hard going from a pampered pet to just a cow out in the field. I don’t recommend getting wiped across a barbed wire fence by a 1000 pound cow in bovine rage.
After her last calf before I sold her, I decided maybe the kids would like some fresh real milk. That turned into quite a rodeo. (^;
That's being being redundant.
We had 40 acres just outside of a city in Western Washington. My parents now in their 80s still live there. When I was a kid a suburban neighborhood was built behind us. The cows decided on many occassions that the new neighbors’ gardens and yards were better tasting than what was on our side of the fences.
We almost always had one cow that led the rest; if that cow didn’t respect fences we seemed to have trouble until we got rid of it. On the plus side if you got the lead cow moving back toward home the rest usually followed. Since our cows had horns the neighbors thought that they were all bulls and were very afraid of them despite them being hearded by a young kid.
We had a Dairy Dell about a mile and a half away and I used to put a harness on which ever horse I could catch and ride it to get an ice cream cone or hamburger. This system worked pretty well until we started heading back toward the barn and then a lot of times the horse would take off running at full speed, and quite a few times I fall off. But the horse would always come back and check to see if I was alright. The horse knew that it was not suppose to go home alone... I am not sure how they knew this; it wasn’t really something that they were trained to do... they just knew.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.