Snapshot : Oxen at Blackbird Farm
Ted Powers was in his fifties when he started raising show oxen , and the passing years have done little to dull his enthusiasm for the gentle creatures . Sugar is one of three Brown Swiss oxen he cares for at Blackbird Farm in Smithfield , where the animals live a pampered life alongside the farm ’ s cattle and hog herds . Once a year , he takes them to Fryeburg Fair in Maine to compete in skills once considered crucial for working the land in New England . “ I do the demonstrations up here to show kids this is the guy that did it all . When you see all the stone walls in the woods , it was the oxen that did it ,” he says , adding that many settlers couldn ’ t afford horses until after the Civil War . These days , visitors are more likely to find Sugar posing for selfies or getting a scratch on the nose by the fence during one of the farm ’ s summer farmers markets . At age seventeen , Sugar is officially retired , but Powers continues to train threeyear-old Apple and Cider , who already weigh more than 2,000 pounds each . “ A lot of oxen people don ’ t like the Brown Swiss because they ’ re slow . But I ’ m seventy-seven , so I ’ m slow , too ,” he says . “ They go by my pace .” — LAUREN CLEM
128 RHODE ISLAND MONTHLY l APRIL 2022