Metathesiophobia is the fear of change. Our mix of Highland and Red Angus cattle have it in spades. However, it is only specific to their 13 acres or so of pasture. They care very little about the happenings on Capitol Hill, tensions in the South China Sea, or whether corporate hedging activity will increase due to the market’s shifting expectations of where the Fed will take rates later this year.

However, if one was to leave a wheelbarrow unattended with them while one went to go grab a shovel out of the barn, that would assuredly set off all kinds of alarms amongst the herd. It would initiate an overwhelming show of force resulting in the destruction of the wheelbarrow. They would all stand around the wheelbarrow studying it. Someone would eventually taste it. In the end it would be trampled, tossed by horns, pooped on, or all three. All perceived threats to their way of life (i.e. anything at all) must in the end, be eliminated. It must be said though, that they are pleasant with humans. Humans bring them apples.