Heifer scared of small people

Our granddaughter's show heifer is scared of children (small people).  We have just come to this realization.  Any suggestions or things to try?  She is pretty disappointed if we can't make this work.  Thanks for your help.  Our granddaughter is able to handle the heifer (she is 12) but when other children come is when the heifer decides to explode.  We will take all your suggestions and advise and get to work on this.  Thanks for the advise. 

Some just are. Maybe have some kids come over and just be around her in a controlled environment. I have a two year old son that's always here and all old show heifers for cows and if he's with me choring I have 2 cows, one being the one that went everywhere, that will not come near me and I can usually still halter her in any field.

Probably not much of a consolation but that is very normal behavior. It'll just take time for the heifer to get use to the size and there is probably a learning curve for how the smaller person approaches the cattle.

Dogs and cats roaming around the barn and lot will help. Tie the heifer up and just have some kids be near her...playing close by but not close enough that they can get hurt. Let the heifer watch them. Expose her to different people and different situations. My friend has chickens roaming in and out of the barn, the lot, the stalls, etc. Chickens aren't my thing, but we took a heifer over there one year to get bred. I was nervous about the chickens because she wasn't the most tame thing we have ever owned. Those chickens tamed her down. She got used to them roaming around real quick!

Mine used to be afraid of children and strollers a few years ago. Now I have a daughter, a niece, and a nephew. Needless to say, my cattle aren't scared of kids anymore. lol

It is very common for cattle getting used to things being one way. At our place, it is me and my kids doing most everything with the show calves. My husband usually only gets involved at show time. So, a couple of times we've had heifer that didn't like men just because she wasn't used to being around them. Now we make sure dad is around the calves even if he isn't really doing the brushing, feeding, etc.

My point is...Have the child carry the feed to the pen, even if someone else actually gets in the pen to do the feeding. It's important to keep her involved so she doesn't loose interest and so that the calf and the child get used to each other.

Take her to a State Fair.  LOL, after a few days of the daycare kids going up and down the aisle nothing will faze her.

okiegirl said:

Take her to a State Fair.  LOL, after a few days of the daycare kids going up and down the aisle nothing will faze her.

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The idea is to tame her down so her granddaughter can show. So yes, by all means, throw her in a ring with hundreds of people watching with a small child (who the animal is not accustomed to) at the end of the halter.  Sound like a good idea?  Some people...

Sheep said:

okiegirl said:

Take her to a State Fair.  LOL, after a few days of the daycare kids going up and down the aisle nothing will faze her.

Click to expand...

The idea is to tame her down so her granddaughter can show. So yes, by all means, throw her in a ring with hundreds of people watching with a small child (who the animal is not accustomed to) at the end of the halter.  Sound like a good idea?  Some people...

Click to expand...

Okiegirl probably meant take her to a show and tie her up- not necessarily show her, but have her tied there to expose her to everything.  My daughter's heifer last year was skittish.  When we had a work day for all the FFA kids, in preparation for our show, we hauled the heifer to the show barn and tied her up while the kids were cleaning and moving and setting up pens, etc,. It helped her a lot - exposed her to the actual barn, lots of activity with different people, and when things wound down that day, my daugther walked her thru the actual show ring. 

If you have the opportunity to take her to any kind of show, just to have her there, not show her, will help a lot. 

That's a great opportunity to do that. But at a state fair? Too many people, too many little kids, too many opportunities to have her get away by being spooked. ,small scale, great idea; state fair, terrible idea

Good grief, get a sense of humor and lighten up. I was in no way suggesting you take a unhandlable heifer to a State Fair.  I was just joking about the amount of "little people" that come through the barns.  And yes, if they are used to them when they get there, they will be when they leave

This is a pic of my arm after a run in with a tied up heifer. She was tied but so scared of little kids when young niece walked in the stall with me she went nuts and started pitching and kicking, managed to pen me between her body and the stall.

We tied our calves with them facing the aisle, barn had stalls on both sides of aisle, between us moving around, dogs in and out of the barn, tractor going through aisle, they got used to just about everything.
We were also lucky to have younger neighbor kids who would come to the fence every day to talk to the calves and feed them a little volunteer oats and barley growing along the fence line, calves ran to the fence when they saw the kids.

If it is a little one that is going to show her, then she needs to be the one to feed and water her, you may have to do the tying and handling for awhile but if the animal starts associating the small person with the food, she'll get to where she is happy to see her. If it is not a little one showing then to get her used to them by having her feed bucket near the fence and and smaller children just sit there and talk to her while she eats.

It is just like bringing a green calf home they have to learn that each new thing is not there to eat them. I think there are a few things that get them with kids, they match the size of most predators more than an adult, most cattle have been handled by adults and have grown used to their presents, plus smaller kids seem to move a little quicker them us old folks.

Thanks for the advise and suggestions.  We will get to work on this.  Our granddaughter loves this heifer.  She picked her out of the pasture last summer  (heifer came up to her)so they have a bonding but this issue is making it pretty unsafe for all parties.  We know that she will be exposed to other small people at the shows so we will see what works and pull out all the stops. Thanks again.

Kids around cattle (just like kids around dogs) you need to keep in mind what the animal is seeing and hearing......in general young kids are quicker moving, jumping, darting and have a higher pitched voice (sometimes even the odd squeal).  Animals that are nervous around them are often reacting to the kids behaviour.  Teach young people to move calmly and quietly, talk to the animal in a calm/gentle/low voice until they become accustomed to the child.  Having the child be the one to bring grain to the heifer might help having her talk to the heifer as she does so.  It's difficult for kids to be aware of their behavior but sometimes its the subtle little cues of body language (and voice) that the animals are reacting to.

And sometimes they just never get over it.
We have the same situation over here. A gorgeous Montecito heifer that jumps out of her skin when ever my son, 9, even looks at her. She is fine with me or the older two girls, but is absolutely scared and dangerous when he is near her. She was going to be his show heifer, born on our place out of a skittish cow we bought as a bred two year old. I ended up trading that heifer with a very sweet, half blood Beef Maker heifer his older sister had, so he could have a show heifer that he could handle. The half blood is no where near as nice, but what matters is that my son has a good experience showing this year and next (they are fall heifers). The oldest daughter will show the Montecito heifer, we will just have to watch her closely around kids. We have worked with her for over a month now, on a daily basis, and she has mellowed out with larger people, but still is very fearful when she sees my son.... To the point she will bust through hot wire fences and run away with her tail straight in the air. 
Just keep working with her, and hopefully she will mellow out.

I had to make some hard decisions on calves for my boys when they were little.  Many, many calves are fine for older kids but not little ones.  In my experience, you are fighting a losing battle.  Some heifers also just flat dont like being messed with.  We've had two that were quite gentle starting out and then in middle of the year decided they'd had enough of baths, etc.  Both have made great gentle cows, but it was a war trying to show them.  Get the kid another animal. 

Don't give up before you give it an honest shot. As I said, other small things being around may help (dogs, cats). It is not uncommon for them to be afraid of things that they have never been exposed to. We leave a radio on in the barn at all times to get them used to noise and hang feed sacks or old towels in the barn to get them used to showrings that hang pennants...I hate that! I've shown too many heifers that got spooked by something blowing above their heads!

My brother showed an awesome heifer in the 80's that was dog tame at home but skiddish at every show she went to, and she was shown a lot! He couldn't even wear a belt buckle because she didn't like the reflection of the lights off of the buckle.

We had a steer once that we took to 3 shows but he was never shown because he was so skiddish. So, unfortunately, it doesn't always work out and the most important thing is to be safe and have fun...so you do have to know when to cut your losses, but don't give up before you start. Just my advice...for what its worth.