God sends a curst cow short horns.

George Herbert, Jacula Prudentum (1651) | Often lacke of myght asswagyth cruelnes To a wylde cowe god doth short hornys sende Wrath is great foly, where myght may nat extende | Alexander Barclay (1509), Ship of Fools, i, 182; adapted in English from Sebastian Brant's German book of the same title (1494)

"A curst cow hath short horns." Note: "Curst" here refers to being ill-tempered, and "short horns" to being ineffectual, as illustrated by this earliest known example