The buttero’s work is closely connected with two common animals in the Maremma: cattle and horses.
Their work consists of looking after cattle herds: they guided them at pasture and during the transhumances, i.e. when moving them according to the season from the coast to the Casentino mountain pastures. They branded the animals one by one, using an incandescent iron. They gathered them up with the “acciaia”, the Tuscan lasso.
Each buttero had his own Maremmano horse, that he took care of from when it was broken.