Ox Pull, Hartland Fair, c. 1945

Only a farmer can fully appreciate that working oxen and horses are structurally different and not necessarily interchangeable: Oxen are strongest in their neck muscles and will pull any load to the maximum limit of their ability, whereas the strength of a team of horses comes from their chests.

It is truly a sight to see when driver handles a pair of two thousand-pound oxen with little more than his or her voice and a couple of one-syllable words. Drivers use the same commands whether the oxen are working the fields or competing.

Irwin Hoffman’s Vermont home and studio were in Cavendish; and he otherwise worked in New York City. Hoffman, who also made and played stringed instruments, came out of the Boston Museum School of Fine Arts. For time was one of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) artists. His work is in the permanent collections of a long and impressive list of major museums and institutions across the country.