Skittish steer - any suggestions??

[dlwardell]

This will be my daughter's 4th year showing a steer at fair. She also has a heifer that she takes to prospect shows. This years calf is a bit different from any others shes had. He is friendly enough and leads ok....until something spooks him. It can be most anything. Tonight he stepped on the back of her boot and she stumbled and yelped and that was enough to send him across the pen.. :devil2:

Any suggestions for calming him down? We leave a radio on LOUDLY during the day to the noisiest station we can find. I try and have visitors come to the barn. She is very worried about how he'll do at the show.

 

[Flacowman]

A end of mine had that problem and he also broke horses. He used a saddle wit milk jugs abd bells and whatever he had that was shiny, brightly colored or made noise and attached i. His son hd a spooky steer and with a little modification, the saddle trick workes. I've never seen any of their horses or show cattle spook since then. If you can, you might want to try it for a couple of days if you've got good pens.
Also, haul him around in the trailer to very public places and invite people to come and see him. Use your discretion about how many and how close. This trick worked for me once, the only timeI had to use it. Also, this depends on how violently skittish he is. The steer I used the trailer method on was as bad or worse than you described.

Good luck with him, whatever you do.