Source: Pinterest/ Imgur

5-12-2009

Cows at the King's Palace Museum in Rukari. Sabin Abayo, 2020.

ok it’s fucked up that horns like from watusi cows are made of keratin and are permanent but antlers are made of bone and impermanent. like okay the fingernail stuff can stay but if you’re a stag you have to grow NEW BONES once a year. ?????

Minotaurs based on the Ankole Watusi.

Oh yes!! Think how stronk their neck and shoulder and back muscles would have to be to carry those horns too...

Eyesore cow eyesore cow!!!!!

I just got a spinal fusion surgery just over 2 weeks ago so it’s nice (and painful) to sit at a desk.

This is the Ankole Watusi breed!!!!

I went to a zoo once that had some really beautiful ankole-watusi cattle. I’d never seen an animal with such big horns! One of them did something that kind of blew my mind. It was standing where some branches were hanging over the fence and it just sort of -tilted it’s head- a few times to knock the leaves off with the tip of it’s horn. For some reason I had never considered they’d be so aware of where their horns are in space, and could use them to interact with things!

YEAH!! cattle are super super aware of their horns!! have u ever seen a cow with huge horns fit their head through a fence before??

(video from dairydoc on tiktok!!! i recommend her stuff shes really cool)

ANKOLE WATUSI WEDNESDAY THURSDAY

Since you like to make those big horns on your characters, have you considered doing an anthropomorphic cowgirl picture based on Ankole-Watusi cows?

oh wow, those horns are quite a unit

I'm thinking a character based on that breed of cows could have a sort of massive halo formed by the horns

I haven't really been making more OCs lately, but that's something I could consider since I like unusual animals and animal features

So we all know the Hawthorne brothers are all fine as heck Texan born-and-raised gentlemen which means other than the fancy schmancy stuff they do throughout the series, they probably know how to ride. And I don’t mean English riding, I mean down and dirty in the dusty sand, bucking bronco Western riding. Given that ole Tobias Hawthorne was loaded, not only did he make riding lessons an essential for his grandsons but he also owned a big-ass stable on his property. I know it’s never mentioned in the books, only that Vincent Blake owns a ranch, but you can’t convince me otherwise that this Texan billionaire didn’t have his own stable on the property. No chance, no way; I think he’d be considered a fraud if he didn’t. Anyways, when the boys were comfortable in the saddle and more skilled with controlling their horses and riding, only then did their grandfather start making them choose specialties. As they got older, they took part in rodeos and competitions, producing another bout of trophies for the old man to put up in his office. Like always, the boys proved Hawthornes came and conquered, being the best of the best.

Nash-Of course, this man’s the best of the bunch. He is the most experienced and rather well rounded in all disciplines. It’s part of what lets him live his cowboy fantasies but he does have practical use for what he learned. His grandfather has many prized cattle breeds, mostly the famous Texas Longhorns along with Ankole-Watusi, American  Brahman, and even water buffalo (Hawthorne cheese is where it’s at) so he often leads the cattle roundups and if he ain’t a sight to see when he’s  roping up stray calves (those muscles though; I see you Nash). As said earlier, he’s pretty good at everything in this style of riding but competitively, he’s mostly into western pleasure yet also enjoys reining just about as much. His Appaloosa-Quarter Horse mare, Chili Pepper (yes, named by the one and only Xander and no, it’s not because of Horseland; if you know,  you know) excels at these and is a bit of a showoff (Nash is pretty sure the feisty thing is self-aware whenever she prances sassily around the ring after a win). But, for them, that’s easy stuff, light work, and Nash likes a bit of an adrenaline rush now and then so on the more energetic side of things, his favorite event is  cowboy mounted shooting. In practice, he’d sometimes sneak out one of his grandfather’s Winchester rifles to get a kick out of it (lowkey this boy always tried finding small ways of rebelling against his grandfather’s wishes). However, when he was 19, he quit the rodeo shows and big competitions in another effort to show the old man he didn’t have control over him and that actions spoke louder than words. Nowadays, Nash does mostly local events for the fun of it but has attended some major ones  in the last few years, twice at the State Fair and once at the Calgary Stampede; Xander and Jameson even went with him in a show of support.

Grayson-Though he prefers English riding and excels in classic dressage, his Western specialty is cutting and his Arabian stallion, Onyx (known as Bandit Noir in the show ring) is a nightmare for the calves when he starts switching sides at lightning speed with his front legs. Sometimes he gets so excited after Gray has singled out a calf that he starts zipping towards it in a zigzag motion that Grayson has to restrain him a bit so that he doesn’t go overboard. When he was younger, he trained him to do this move after he watched  a documentary showing gazelles use this technique as an evasive maneuver to escape cheetahs and thought it was a cool trick. He perfected it in two months flat. His Shagya Arabian mare, Moonlight, is more calm but  her focus is unmatched when she’s cutting and she’s also his chosen horse for working equitation. Grayson was the one who inspired  Xander to also  learn this discipline and they would do training sessions together; he also let his youngest brother ride Moonlight in competition at times. Surprisingly, he also did barrel racing alongside Jameson and of course, these two got very competitive over this sport. They set several records at competitions and even a few national records at rodeo events but Jameson had more in the end.

Jameson-Barrel racing, need I say more? It’s his favorite event and discipline of choice. The faster his horse goes, the better the thrill and the dizziness to go along with it. His Nokota stallion, Rhubarb, is the speediest barrel racer of the Hawthorne horses and proudly bred by his grandfather. For fun,  he would get more barrels and see how fast he could go bareback and one time the crazy boy decided it would be a good idea to ride backwards while his steed ran the course. Of all the brothers, Jamie’s the one who loves the riskier events (because of course, not that that’s surprising) including saddle and  bareback bronc riding, calf-roping, steer wrestling, even bull riding (steer riding until he was 14). But he’s also the one who has the most bruises and scars from Western events. He was banned from doing bull riding after Nan attended two of his competitions and both times the rider before him had a nasty fall, ending up in hospital. Jameson may have never fallen in the most major competitions but he did have some close calls with being almost run over and even suffered a bad kick to the ribs during one of his practice runs. Although the old woman is weathered from her rough years and is still a badass, she still cares for her great grandsons very much and hates to see them get hurt. So as reluctant as he was to leave the sport, for his Nan, he did. Occasionally he also participated in team roping with Nash, always taking up the heeler position while his brother handled the horns because Nash didn’t want him to get hurt until he got older and insisted on trying the header part for himself. He got used to it quickly from all the times he watched Nash during practice seshes but his oldest brother always watched off to the side with pursed lips knowing his risky behavior. They were three time champions in a row from 2016-2018 with one time him being header. Being the adrenaline junkie he is, it’s no shock that he loves doing stuff at breakneck speeds and other than barrel racing, he is amazing at pole bending. Jameson enjoys a good test of agility and has a great Mustang-American Paint mixed mare named Misty who whizzes by the poles so quickly that everyone in the stands is always quoted saying they blinked and missed the entire round.

Xander-He was a bit more reluctant to even start out any events but Nash and Grayson coaxed him into them and eventually he got settled quite quickly into trail class, working cow horse, mounted drill with Jameson and Grayson, and versatility ranch riding. He dabbled in western dressage but got annoyed with it because he never felt synchronized enough with his horse and his trainer got frustrated with him many times. Trail class ended up being his major and he trained with two Quarter Horses that were bred by his grandfather, Rona and Rolo (nicknamed Roly Poly). He would switch between the two and both were extremely good at delivering but Rona, his mare was ultimately better equipped and motivated while his gelding, the mare’s full blooded younger brother served better in mounted drill. Xander conducted experiments to see as to why but it seemed like the gelding thought the routines were simpler to learn and always finished with a happy buck when they finished. But as he got older and hit his growth spurt, Xan felt like his height was becoming a negative factor to riding anymore of his horses in competitions so he stopped. His grandfather offered to buy him a ready, trained horse better suited to his stature so he could continue but Xander declined since he didn’t want to restart with training and he was awfully attached to Rona and Rolo. Instead, he continued competing but in halter and western showmanship classes where his horses shined just as brightly with shiny ribbons often being pinned to his horses’ halters as a prize.

Anyways, hope you enjoyed this! This has been sitting in my drafts way too long but @hathorneheiress has given me the push I needed to get it out here for you guys to read. It's only part one of my horse headcanons. There will be more about the Hawthorne family's current horses and their equine history in the next one.

I just found out about Ankole-Watusi cattle and I adore them. Why are there horns like That. Absolutely amazing.

big.

Ankole-Watusi

Ancient Grump headcannon: The ancients all had various horn types like an Ankole-Watusi

The Ankole-Watusi is a modern American breed of domestic cattle. It derives from the Ankole group of Sanga cattle breeds of east and central Africa. It is characterized by very large horns. The horns of Ankole cattle can reach up to 8 feet long.

"Cattle of Kings", the ancestry of these cattle dates back more than 6,000 years. They were imported from Africa by European late 19th century.

ankole-watusi cattle 🐂