Although the Sheep are penned up, the Lambs are able to get through the bars of the pen, to be able to wander where ever they want. They don’t go to far from the Ewes, but far enough to be out of site from the Ewes, who call out endlessly until the Lambs return. Now that more are in the pen, Kye is not so keen to go in with them. Over the last few days she has decided that it is more fun to chase the Lambs. Kye chases the Lambs as she would Tass, when they are playing together. Unfortunately for Kye we cannot allow her to chase the Sheep even in play. If we did, for certain one day it would turn in to Kye hunting and ultimately seriously injuring or killing one of the Lambs. If she ever did chase sheep in hunting them, we would have little alternative but to have her put to sleep by the Veterinary. Not what we would want to do.
Every year a lot of Sheep are killed by Dogs. Last year two of our Sheep were killed by a single Dog, that we first noticed on camera that we have set up around the farm. If I had not seen the Dog It would have killed a lot more than the two. When Dogs attack the Sheep in packs, they get into a frenzy, and seem to get worse the more that they kill or injure. If not stopped the will kill and injure many in a flock.
We have a footpath that goes through the farm. At both end of the footpath there are gate, where I have put up signs, telling people to keep their dogs on leads. The signs are so prominent that they cannot be missed. You would be surprised how many people choose to ignore and disregard them. I regret that I have no patience with the type f people who do choose to ignore my signs, they get severely verbally abused. They would soon want me arrested, if I had a Bull in one of my fields, who chased them.
One of my Sons was chased by a Bull six years ago. I promise you it was a classic. He had decided to take a short cut across some fields, from the farm, to meet friends in a nearby village. One of the fields had Cows in it, The best part of it was that he saw the Bull, but decided that it was not a threat. You guessed it, half way across the Bull charged at him. Fortunately both of my Sons have represented the County in athletics, and did he need it. He could not get to the fence to get out of the field, his nearest refuge being a tree, that after initially going round and round it, trying to avoid the Bull had to climb up it. I cant remember how long he said that he was up the tree, but it was a good while. In running away from the Bull he had lost one of his trainers and his mobile phone. Eventually the Farmer came to his rescue. He never got his trainer or phone back. When I asked him why he had not gone back to find them, he told me that he had forgot what field it was. Of course I believed him. I must admit whilst writing about it I have been having a little laugh. Some Breed of Bulls are not allowed to be put in fields that have footpaths running through them, they should tell you something. The most obvious is the black and white Friesian, the main milking cattle.
The majority of you went for Willow for the Foals name. That is what we will name her as her stable name.
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