[Gill Catton]

I'd be interested to know what the breed of cow was, I remember reading that charolais can be quite nasty.

I grew up in the countryside and so since childhood I have been walking through fields of animals, I have never had trouble with horses, not ever, they just want to follow you and investigate to see if you have polos in your pocket, I just keep walking and they soon lose interest once they realise I'm not stopping. Aggresive horses are so much in the minority that I have never come across one - at least not one that was aggressive towards me in a field. Perhaps because my sister was a groom and I learnt from her how to behave around them.

With regard to cows, I always walk near to an escape route and generally won't go into a field of cows with calves or bull unless I can walk right next to a fence and again I have never had any trouble - again the cows just seem to want to follow you - curiosity not aggression.

I have had trouble with a friend's sheep but they were hand raised with no fear of humans just an association with food and lambs but their mother very hard to get food from her and transfer this behaviour to humans! I walked very quickly through that field sometimes with said sheep in hot pursuit.

I find it suprising that a farmer had a problem with you smacking a cow to get past Sven I have help move cows in the past and the farmer dealt out massive thwacks with a bit of hose to keep them moving and often they still defiantly remained in situ munching on their choice bit of greenery - these are not soft animals!