Uvetta the versatile
Rita and Franz Blum’s sons with Uvetta in front of the carriage at the Weidfäscht (pasture festival) on the Pfannenstiel, in the late 90s.
Who would think of harnessing a cow to a carriage? Nowadays only a few. But if you grew up in the Lucerne hinterland, like Franz and Rita Blum, and transported logs or milk cans with cow carts as a child, then it’s really nothing special. According to Franz Blum, cows are a lot easier to handle than horses. They are calmer and not as quickly upset by pesky horseflies. Furthermore, it used to be cheaper to harness a cow that was kept for milk production anyway than to keep a horse specially for the work.
And so it happened that one day Franz and his family put a learning harness from a young horse on the Piemontese cow Uvetta. The cow was very docile. So they were actually able to harness her to a horse carriage and haul logs. So cow Uvetta was able to make her entrance to the Weidfäscht on the Pfannenstiel – the forerunner of the beef.ch event.
And at another event you could even ride Uvetta.
(Photos by family Blum)
more comments
