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)