The Herds

       A number of animals of one kind kept together under human control is one definition of herd. Now what if there were more than one type of animal all together sharing the same spaces?  Sheep and goats have been the focus of my last number of posts, starting with Inigo Jones 15 December 2021. The following shows some of the critters that would have occupied the same grazing lands that the sheep of my Celtic ancestors herded, i.e., horses and cows.

       This figure is titled "ponies", but you get the idea. It is taken from the "Walkers Handbook" contained in the wonderful travel guide No Through Road published 1975. [Walker's Handbook #3, p.64] You can see that the size and color vary by breed. The next figure shows cows taken from the same reference p.62.

      This figure is titled "Cattle", and again shows the variation in size and colors. Group all these animals together in the highlands of Wales in fairly large numbers. How would you drive the animals to the winter resting flat lands on the Shropshire plans? All the herding would be through a fairly narrow land bridge shown in the last post.  Considering separating, checking health, milking, shearing, and all the usual activities to care for the family's very livelihood. Wow, what a deal!