After reading the 'do you trust your ...livestock... ?' threads below, it seemed to me that something was missing and I couldn't quite put my finger on it until yesterday when I was in extremely close quarters with a new momma that had a calf that required assistance in order to nurse on big teats. 

Yeah, she was a bit nervous, but I understood what was making her nervous, and I was only a small part of the root cause for her nervousnous.  Many things were affecting her ... 1 newly calved, 2 calf hadn't nursed, 3 human interaction with her calf, 4 noise from temporary corral, 5 close quarter penning and then loading  (this is where the real close quarters came in -- loading the her and the calf in a 6' wide alley and she turned around more than once while I was beside her) 

This cow is 10 years old and has never had a stick wailed against her.  Possibly/probably has had a stick tapping her and/or tail twisting, going up the alley in her annual trip through the chute, but has never been 'beat' on.

She never once acted as if she wanted to vent any frustration on me, but I was always aware that she was under a LOT of stress, and handled her as such.  I never forced her to do anything, but I 'requested forcefully' the things that I needed her to do in order to accomplish the task at hand.  

The way I see it, there is a huge difference between forcing an animal to do something and requesting them to do something forcefully but without 'beating' the hell out of them.  To me, it's like the difference between timidly asking the animal to do something and just hoping they will comply (and if they don't -- beat them into submission), and requesting they do something with 'authority' and having the understanding to do so in a manner that the animal 'can' understand.  Reminder, they don't think like we do. 

I suppose the thing that I'm getting at, is the folks that 'trust' their livestock, probably understand their livestock, and what causes them to act the way they do, instead of trusting them. 

Possibly the folks that don't 'trust' their livestock, have animals that don't understand what their owners want them to do at any time (what's he want this time and what am I gonna get smacked with that stick for this time?), and therefore are always just a bit more defensive around their human owners. 

Could very well make the case for "Does your livestock trust you?"

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My OPINION:  It takes a lifetime of handling cattle right in order for them to trust you.  No animal that has been repeatedly confused by humans can ever fully trust humans.

just my .02