Henry is our Shetland bullock. As he's destined for the freezer, I wouldn't have named him but he came with the moniker. He was very good to transport down from Aberdeen, but because he's been outside all the time (unlike our two heifers who were inside for six months after we got them), he hasn't had much handling. Almost none in fact.
But we did need to worm and fluke the three of them. The flukicide was easy - in some Buttercup calf crunch and that was that. They didn't fancy the wormer though. Blizzard ate hers but Breeze wouldn't and Henry won't even eat undoctored food. So, what to do? We have a Heath Robinson "crush" in the byre but Dan said it was time he was halter trained anyway
Breeze was wormed by haltering her and squirting the wormer over her throat. Same for Henry, but we had to get a halter on him first. The heifers looked on and moo'd encouragingly as Dan held Henry by his little horns and I slipped the halter on. We tied him up for 10 minutes, gave him a good scratch, gave him the wormer and fed him some hay, which he munched quite happily. Then we untied him and I walked him (not very tidily to be fair) around the pen.
Not bad for a first attempt, we thought. He's a wee star - we'll have to keep practicing now, if he hasn't taken the huff completely.
Henry's halter training