Sunday Stills - Farm Animals

This week the Sunday Stills prompt turns our attention to animals found on a zoo or farm. Pretty much any animal might be found in a zoo, I guess, and I have always enjoyed visits to the zoo. But I'm focusing on a few farm animals today.

I've never owned a horse, and it's been years since I went riding, but in my opinion, there are few animals as beautiful as horses.

These horses and their donkey companion belonged to our neighbors in Maryland, and were pretty friendly. Usually it made me feel so fortunate to look out over my backyard and see horses or other farm animals grazing peacefully.

And when the weather was not so good, we marvelled that animals were generally okay out there! They had a nice barn to take shelter in whenever they wanted to!

This beautiful team was giving wagon rides at Christmastime and I was so glad to get this photo. I wish I'd got their names.

Sort of straddling the fence between farm and zoo animals are bison. While they once roamed freely in the wild, their numbers were greatly reduced and thanks to zoos, wildlife preserves, breeding programs and more, the American bison has been recovering. Like beef cattle, they are raised on farms and ranches for their meat. Bison are semi-wild and can't be domesticated to the same extent that cattle are, and the ranches require heavy duty corrals and equipment to safely handle these powerful animals. About 200,000 bison are raised on privately owned ranches for their meat. Many wildlife preserves also have bison roaming on open ranges, and it is breathtaking to see just a small herd of them and imagine what it was like to see a prairie covered with herds of hundreds or thousands!

I have seen bison out west but don't have photos of those. This fellow was at the Columbus Zoo . . .

. . . and these are at the Batelle Darby Creek Metro Park in Galloway, Ohio (just southwest of Columbus).

Back to somewhat more traditional farm animals . . . cattle. Where we lived in Maryland, we were surrounded by dairy farms and quite a few of our friends were farmers. Peaceful scenes like this were part of the everyday drives in the area.

They were our neighbors, and most were quite friendly.

These calves were neighbors at the other end of the road.

I don't remember whether these were neighbors or not!

These oxen were not our neighbors, but I was impressed with their patient strength when we watched them work at a farm museum in Geneseo, New York, many years ago. Very handsome!

And I leave you with this darling little guy who was at Timbuk Farms (greenhouse and garden center) this past Christmas season.

This post is shared at Second Wind Leisure Perspectives for the #SundayStills Photo Challenge.

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