Rural Heritage December 2025/January 2026

by Anna Knapp-Peck T racy Allen is from Reading, Vt. She is the fifth generation in her family to raise and train oxen. In my opinion, she is one of the most impressive teamsters I have ever met. It’s not uncommon for her to work four to five teams of different sizes at once, with each team hooked to its own load. Tracy grew up training oxen for her grandfather, starting teams for other people, all while competing in pulling competitions. She is only one of a few women in this sport. I’ve watched the ox pulls at the Fryeburg Fair, and they are something to see. A single team of cattle moving a load that outweighs them by thousands of pounds. Watching does not mean I know anything about pulling. In talking with Tracy, I feel that I have gotten a brief education on the sport. When it comes to mentors, Tracy looks to her father, Edward Allen. They used their oxen to haul out wood in the winter and pull during the summer. Living on a dead-end road, they would drive the teams to the end and back to condition them. The problem with this was that the teams were slow going down and fast coming back because they were heading home. As an adult, Tracy conditions her cattle on a track so they maintain a steady pace. Tracy starts her training oxen when they are calves. She believes starting early – between birth and 3 months – is the key to training them correctly; anything older tends to have a feral streak. The calves are taught basic skills and eventually work up to a tire that takes a team to move. She works several teams at a time on a track. The youngest teams are in the front because they need the most guidance. The other teams, being well-trained, Tracy Allen — Ox Puller

Tracy Allen and Derrick Turnbull with two pairs of pulling cattle.

Rural Heritage

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