For all the country raised people, I’m sure you can answer this quickly.
I was driving with a coleague down to Cork about 3 weeks ago, early, and pretty tired.
We had left the city, and were about a half our into the countryside when I saw something quite intrigueing.
A cow, scratching behind his right ear, with his rear leg.
Am I insoane? Is this possible? the dirver didnt see this, and was amazed that this could happen.
Since then, I have asked several people if they have ever seen this.
they have all replied in the negative.
Have I seen something that humans were not meant to see? Did I just mess the cow standing erect on its rear legs having a natter with another cow?
I’ve never seen it in cows (thank you, lookout cow!), but horses bring one of their rear hooves up and scratch. It’s not a pretty site. Sort of like seeing someone on the can.
Most head itches on a cow are relieved by scratching up and down on a nearby object (ie, a post, another cow, a person, the corner of a building). They will use a hoof to scratch their head sometimes and I’ve seen cows scratch their udders as well. If they are in the woods and find a low tree branch, they will take turns standing under it and “shimmying” to get at that elusive center of the back (great when set to music).
By the way, a cow is a “she” and a bull is a “he.” (FTR, they BOTH have horns, just a generic free fact). Yeah, farmers are nitpicky when it comes to their little cowsies.
I grew up on a dairy farm, and yes cows can scratch behind their ears with their rear hooves. You don’t want to be kneeling down to put the milkers on them when they decide they need a little scratch.
I have deleted the link to the Far Side cartoon by Gary Larson. The site linked to is engaged in piracy, pure and simple. So far as I know, there is no legitimate source for copyrighted Far Side cartoons on the Internet.