What. the. Water Buffalo

As Marm and Dard were helping me with things around the yard, we met a couple neighbors. Through them, we found out that the farm's previous owners had quite a few animals.

I expected the chickens, since there are four different structures built for poultry on the property. However, I learned that they also raised show pigeons and dabbled with geese, and besides birds, they had 3 horses, 2 pot bellied pigs,* and 3 water buffalo.

Let me repeat that: They had 3 water buffalo.

This is a water buffalo:

According to an article on hobbyfarms.com: "Easily trained to ride or as working livestock, American water buffalo offer producers milk--most often used in mozzerella cheese--as well as meat and hides."

The article continues on to say, "With few exceptions, water buffalo are uncommonly easygoing and they thrive on attention. It's easy to train buffalo to ride."

I clearly chose the wrong mount. Everyone and their mom has a horse; I would be the coolest kid on the block if I showed up to a trail ride on a buffalo.

Maybe they come in blonde shades....




*Apparently one of the pigs was an escape artist and would always run down the road to poop in a specific neighbor's garage.