I arrived on the heath this morning at 8:30ish to find Evan had absconded.
By the looks of it the gate near the trough had not been closed correctly, providing Evan with a chance to break into the lush green paradise of the neighboring fields.
The other two luckily remained on the heath but getting this youngster back in proved to be quite the challenge (nearly an hours worth of wrangling)
Having resisted attempts by myself to coax him and then with the help of Debbie and some passer-bys to try and get him back onto the heath failing, he charged across the woods into the bigger heath.
With some careful corraling and expert handling from a passer-by (who has looked after livestock before), we managed to get him through the gate and back to where he belongs.
The rest of the herd were not impressed and called for him continuously throughout, whilst at the same time drawing the attention of several dogs.
A pretty stressful morning for both animal and amateur looker.
On closer inspection, the gate post is not very stable and this prevents the latch from working correctly. So while today, we managed to avoid anything major happening, the risk remains that across the days when lookers or rangers are on-site, he or the others try this trick again. Some of the gates (esp near the one by the railway lines) are also showing signs of wear and tear too.
I would also like to raise a second point about training for such situations. While the basic training gives you provision to avoid harm to yourself and the cattle, I didn't think much of it was useful when you have a distressed animal on your hands. While wrangling them back onto the heath isn't a day job for any of us, a bit of guidance and tactics for how I & others might be better able to do this in the future would be useful.
Thanks to Ciara, Alex, and Debbie for the assistance (esp in helping to find my mobile which slipped out of my pocket during this rodeo)
not a-moos-ed at Evans antics.
