ours had been used to work cattle but had never seen an Angus cow until my neighbor brought one in from his ranch… our horses thought an alien had landed … it was pretty funny
Once we had a motley set of steers and one black and white stood out, probably some dairy in there.
Young horses would do a double take when they spotted it, wondering if it indeed was bovine or someone had snuck other in the herd that needed keeping an eye out for, may sneak attack little horses! 
‘28’ My grandson’s pet cow. Normally he’s climbing all over her and can ride her around the farm. She has a lifetime pardon. It’s the other set of grandparents - they have the cows, we have the horses, both have tractors and put up hay it’s a good life and a good education. He knows what hard work is, he’s helped hay and put up and fix fence, dig out a pond, cut timber, pull calves and inoculate and tag.
One of her twins
The other one.
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i’ve loved two cows and one bull and one steer. This is me and my BFC (best friend cow), Muffin. She loved scratches on her chest. And would let me ‘nap’ laying on her in the sunshine… I miss her terribly.
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That’s adorable. How sweet. 
Awe 
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Dangit! Thanks to everyone here, now I want to “have a cow!”
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Have you thought about miniature cows? They are wildly possible in my area as 4H projects.
I was new to cattle a few years ago. I bought two cows, already bred to a docile bull. One of the cows was gentle and sweet. Very easy to deal with. The other was very smart and taught me a lot about cattle. I loved them both. We still have their offspring.
Things I learned:
First, cattle are tough on barns and fences differently than horses. My barn was set up for horses and the way they abuse things. The cattle are different, they push doors and walls and whatever at about knee height with their HEADS. When motivated or bored they will push your sliding doors out and squeeze through the opening.
Second: You’ll need to keep them from pushing the bottom of your fences out. That no climb fence with the hot “wire” on top that keeps the horses in, well it will keep the cows in but they might deform it trying to get to the grass that’s always greener on the other side. Remember I mentioned they push hard with their heads.
Someone told me cattle fences can be shorter than horse fences. I laugh. My friend found one of my cows outside of the pasture. We panic. Is the fence down? Nope, the cow jumped over the 4’ fence. When we went to get her back to the barn she jumped back in. I didn’t think cows did that. She was already named Amelia Earhart for her wandering ways.
Third: All my cattle have gotten on fine with the horses. After I got them a bunch of people told me not to keep them together. Too late.
My suggestion - get a cow or steer that somebody has already loved and determined to be pet material. Just like horses, no two cattle are the same.
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Great name! There is a reason for the saying, “Any cow can jump 1 meter.” Hee. Some of them are pretty athletic. Last week I saw one jump a meter high cement wall with a 2m drop down to the maternity pen. From a standstill. On a 45 degree angle. So much for lazy milk cows. She didn’t so much as graze her udder let alone scrape a stifle. Seriously impressive.
This organization gets newborn calves that are slaughterbound and often very ill and helps them through their rough time and gives them a forever home. They have enough experience to share how they do it starting with bringing out a vet. These cows do live with horses, some become bonded.
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Wow, that is impressive! I kind of figured mine was not the only one to jump 
If we could just catch this on our cameras we’d make some serious money.
I had a steer and horse, they were great friends. However, steer ate horse’s tail. Steer also attracted 10x more flies than horse did. But was super cute and fun.
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We actually did capture it on the barn cams but not my barn, not my cows. I grabbed a video of the video on my phone for my own personal pleasure, but do not feel comfortable sharing because the Rabid Animal Rights Faction would probably find something dreadful about a curious cow jumping out of a large airy holding pen in order to make investigations of the rest of the new barn 
I will leave that to my bosses to decide if they share it publicly. Their operation, their risk. And, ain’t that a shame because it is hilarious. “No, she wouldn’t … OH!” lol
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It is nice of you to be concerned about privacy, good for you.
We had a set of heifers we were feeding and were running in several pastures, 5 wire, 4 1/2’ standard fences between them.
We fed every other day and would drive around and feed each group where we found them.
Several times we would find some on one side of a fence, some on the other.
Remember, there was an open gate between fences, right there, we just drove thru it, maybe 10’ from where heifers were standing, bawling for us to hurry.
Some would walk around the gate post and thru the gate, some just, from standing there, jump over the fence like it was 1’ only.
One neighbor had a huge pet longhorn steer, Pancho.
He went where he wanted and kept jumping the fence to visit our cattle.
We would open a gate and drive him to it.
I don’t remember him ever driving long enough to go thru the gate.
He always jumped the fence before getting to the gate.
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Oh, I never thought of that - point taken!!!
I’m a staunch supporter of animal comfort both body and spirit, but some people are just over the top. We know our cows just had someplace they wanted to be. To me that’s a sign of an active happy mind.
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LOL what a character.
I have a former roping steer as a pet & what a comedian he is! When my husband moved our roping steers to his other arena, I kept Wally. His personality took no time surfacing. He is humorous & obnoxious! He moos when he sees me, loves to follow me around, turns the water on so I have to visit more & loves to be brushed & petted. He is penned alone but has lots of horses nearby & sometimes I turn him out with a few of our retired horses. They graze peacefully & seem to enjoy each other’s company. Pets are all about bringing us pleasure. So give it a try!
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I have a pet cow with my horses. She is a Jersey milk cow. Jerseys, the highest butterfat of European breeds, are a ‘house cow’ bred on the British isle of Jersey, the oldest pure bred dairy breeds. Because of this they are quite docile. I bought her as a calf that was bought from a dairy. Because of ‘Daphne’ I have learned to make 7 kinds of cheese, ice cream and butter. I then brought her across the continent from Texas to Oregon in my horse trailer. She likes to lie down and sleep in front of the door, and she likes to stand at the window and watch TV at night. She has so far had 6 calves. I breed her to Angus bulls because that is what is around. This latest heifer calf (female calf) I will keep for a milk cow because she has her mother’s personality.
As with horses, she has always lived with my two stallions, one an arab the other a mini, with no problems. Cattle graze differently than horses. Horses will not eat around their own manure. Cattle will not eat around their own manure. But cattle will eat around horse manure and visa versa. So turning in cattle on a horse pasture works well and visa versa.
One problem is that the mini horse stallion will brutalize smaller animals and must be separated from her calf until it is a big calf. Generally, I keep Daphne and calf with the other cattle separate from the horses because it is safer and it is what they prefer.
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Now I want a couple of cows in the pasture. I can probably justify it with all my cheese making and having fresh cream.
Any particular breeds that work better for pet life and milking than others? The mini-cows seem interesting as well.
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