COSTA MESA, Calif. – The Orange County Fair’s two biggest ambassadors are 1,900 pounds each. Hoss and Howie can’t be missed at the Fair’s Centennial Farm.

“Oxen are bulls or cows that have been trained to work. You can train any cow to work or any bull to work. And once you train them, we call them an ox,” said their drover Philip Henderson.

Henderson has been volunteering with the farm’s oxen for 16 years and is now a leadership consultant. It seems like he grew up on a farm with the way he demonstrates putting on the animals’ yolk. However, he only started droving the oxen after he happened to walk to the farm while winning some fair ribbons as a cook.

What started as volunteering with his wife turned into a friendship with these gentle giants.

“They enjoy being with me because I’m a very peaceful person. I’ve learned to be even more peaceful, and when I’m coaching my clients I pass that peace on to them,” says Henderson.

As the fair ambassadors, Hoss and Howie greet over 10,000 people each day. During the rest of the year they live at the fairgrounds, educating kids on daily field trips.

The 3-acre farm in the heart of Costa Mesa houses 60 animals. The farm provides more than 1.4 million fairgoers with knowledge they probably thought they would not receive at a fair.

“The opportunity to do that, to amaze them and their teachers and parents that come with them, that’s like a bonus check,” Henderson says.

The oxen and Henderson represent what the fair is really all about. He built his yolk, which took over 500 hours of labor with tools only available from the 1800s. In a world of technology that can virtually transport us anywhere, it is a reminder that there is no replacing what the fair offers - fun, nostalgia, and larger than life ambassadors.

“Person who’s never seen me before, never seen the cattle, they yell out to me, ‘There’s a bull behind you!’ and I say, ‘Oh yes that’s true,’” says Henderson.

He is known among the fairgrounds as being as strong and as friendly as an ox.