...by a herd of cattle.
I had backed into a bridlepath at the request of a guy leading the cows along a narrow lane in order to let them pass. As they walked by one of them stopped, gave me a long look and wandered towards me followed by about half a dozen of his mates. Squeezing by the car on the nearside they got a little excited when they felt trapped and the car started bouncing on it's suspension as the door mirror folded back on itself. I don't mind admitting it was a frightening experience, I thought one of them was going to rear up and bring a couple of hooves through the windscreen and I must have been as white as a ghost.
After the herdsman had sorted them out I pulled back into the road and got out expecting to find the side of the car more or less demolished and was relieved to see that there wasn't even a scratch anywhere. In fact it even looked cleaner as the dirt had been brused off.
As Mrs Robin Reliant said when I told her this evening, "Well, they are made of leather"! Blooming solid beasts though, I wouldn't like to tangle with one.
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Whole cowhide chamois sir with the hooves and horns still on, only a tenner?
I nearly shot my car once carelessly testing the defective safety on a 12 bore. That was a damn lucky Singer Vogue estate with a bit of a past as a minicab, I can tell you.
'Shoo'ers? Nah, nah, that's naugh'y that is,' the driver of one of its colleagues once remarked to me in one of the many misunderstandings that occur in the minicab world.
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You're lucky they didn't lick the paintwork as their tongues are as rough as sandpaper. Found that one out when I once parked close to a fence that had cows on the other side of it and noticed the matt paint finish in various places along the side of the car.
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Friend of mine rode his motorbike into the side of a cow.
He blamed darkness and the feeble lights on his old BSA.
We blamed pilot error, but the point of the story is the cow just walked away.
My friend suffered injury to the lower part of a leg which was crushed between the beast and the bike.
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Your beef should be with the farmer.
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That's Vauxhalls for you Dave !
;-)
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I bet you're 'over the moooooon' no damage was caused!
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I remember reading a story in the paper many years ago about a group of teenagers who managed to crash into a cow on a country lane, writing off their car (a Pug 106 I think it was). They got out thinking they'd killed the cow only for it to get back up and charge them.
They spent the next hour huddled inside the car with the angry cow patrolling around it while they waited to be rescued.
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in my moped days, living in a small village on the edge of Dartmoor, a mate lived on a farm near a main road. it was his job to milk the cow for the family's milk.
One morning they had to call the vet because the cow had blood in its' milk.
On the main road there was all sorts of debris, which with trim etc revealed itself to have been a Volvo car of some sorts.
The cow had a cut on its' back and no doubt something internal re the blood in the milk..but that was that...and had walked back into its' stall. Cow was fine after a few days.
Sturdy old things.
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Did you cower in the seat at the sight of all those big beasts?
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I bet you go the udder way next time.
Can we stop milking the cow jokes now please.
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Traversing New Forest back roads on my way to work every morning I've had several near misses with regard to wildlife, usually flippin, cows; I really don't want to hit one. At least they don't t tend 'boing ' out in front of you out of nowhere like the ponies and deer do :-/.
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They spent the next hour huddled inside the car
If they were friesian cold, why didn't they put on their jerseys?
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friesian cold why didn't they put on their jerseys?
Exactly. If you didn't, you'd look a right Charollais...
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And I note that the quote from Simon Heifer, in another thread, isn't his usual load of bullocks...
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"Did you cower in the seat at the sight of all those big beasts? "
Or did you just hide? Why didn't you beep your horn?
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... or steer round them in the first place using the veal supplied for the purpose. Only if you couldn't was it sensible to hoof it.
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Lud - that made me laugh for the first time in days.....;-0
Well not the post it ended up below but the one about you nearly shooting your car - brilliant. Thank you its been a miserable week.
Edited by Pugugly on 09/10/2008 at 23:39
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My boss once related to me a late 1950's incident which happened to him when working in local government around Cheddar in Somerset, when he and a young colleague, were detailed to go out and collect rents from local Council properties, and decided to use an ancient open topped sports car owned by the chum.
Travelling along a narrow country lane, they encountered a herd of cows and impatient as such youngsters can be (Yes! even then!) the driver embarked on furious horn honking and pushed his way through the herd.
When almost through, however, one of the cows decided to about turn, lifted its tail and simultaneously filled the car cockpit with your know what! The car, clothing and just about everything were never the same again!!!
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I was driving along a country road when dark night, thankfully at about 20 mph as it was dark and drizzling and the drizzle was the kind that you slow down for, when a cow ran out in front of the car. I braked and was relieved to have missed it when a huge bull, which was chasing the cow, totally my car. I remember turning around to see this enormous head of the bull in the back of my car.
The bull ran off and my car was a wreck. I reported it to the Police who, seemingly without any concern, pointed out that others had been hit by cows at that same spot that night and that they had had 9 calls about cattle on the road there.
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About 7 years ago, a work colleague and I were returning from a site visit in North Wales, and due to M6 problems, decided to cut round the scenic way. Somewhere around Kidderminster we were exploring the handling of his 306 XSi, and rounded a bend at a "press on" pace to be confronted with a hundred or so tonnes of prime British beef standing across the road.
As we chirped to an oversteery and *very* ABS assisted halt, two things struck us. One was just how massive and slightly intimidating a herd of cows is up close, and the second was how on earth we managed not to hit any of them. I still remember them filing past the car, inches from the window, eyeing us suspiciously as they did so. No sign of the farmer anywhere. Called the rozzers, but not sure if anything was done.
Cheers
DP
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In the winter of 02 the boyfriend of one of my nieces (a lad I'd never met myself) was killed when he hit a cow on the way home from work one night. A friend of mine was one of the firemen who attended - having been on picket duty outside the firestation when the call came in - and he said the impact was so great that the lad had been pinned under the roof of the car with the seat collapsed under him. His impact speed had been estimated at no more than 50mph by a witness who was following, which shows the potential consequences of hitting one of these animals.
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RR
Horses are even worse. Maybe we should bring back bull-bars.....
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I remember as a callow youth (pre-Princess Lounge Lizard) having conversation with a young lady (now a very stern looking headteacher) about nature in a field one summer's evening. We were surrounded by an over friendly herd of Friesiens - to get away she threw a perfectly aimed swede (veg not a Swedish person) right between the eyes of the lead bovine - the resulting dull thud and amazed look in its eyes as it connected remain with me to this day - happy days. Courting in a car was far easier.
Edited by Pugugly on 09/10/2008 at 23:46
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PU
Did you usually have a selection of root vegetables to hand when conversing with young ladies al-fresco?
A cow's forehead is solid bone, about two inches thick - you were lucky she didn't take offence, even a mangle-worsel wouldn't have even slowed her down.....
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She was/is a country lass - the swedes she found to hand, don;t ask me how I'm a townie.
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As a country girl she should have known that cows are insanely curious - but usually completely harmless unless you have a dog with you.
Upsetting one could have been counterproductive; on the rare occasion a cow charges, it's 10 times more dangerous than a bull - it keeps it's eyes open and intends to kill you. A bull is essentially just posing.
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it's 10 times more dangerous than a bull - <<
Very true! - i am/was a certified herdsman, worked with dairy herds for many many years, (before i found a more social lifestyle) and always had my faithful collie to hand whenever i went among the herd. With Bulls, you always respected them, you knew they were dangerous, and you always isolated or restrained them before entering thier domain to clean/bed /feed etc. with cows (normally timid creatures) a good shout, wave of the stick, threat from collie, will usually keep them at bay, (never have dog near cow with calf however, as opposite effect occurs!) , but a lot of herdsmen/farmers have fallen foul to bovine lust! it is suprising how fast a "horny" cow can come up behind you, and try to mount you! - many a person has been injured by 15cwt of beef literally lifting you off the floor, then crashing down on top of you. I know, five broken ribs and severe bruising isn't funny! (hence collie dog!)
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Neither of us had experience of life required to work all this out at the time. I shall phone her for an explanation as to her rash actions and how it could have impacted on our lives. We did some other rash things as well (in hindsight).
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What ....with ...um...vegetables ?........
;-)
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We are both well respected professionals in our own (cow free) fields and I'm drawing a line right there.
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I remember lying down in a field - while the Language College Director looked on, bemused - to test the theory that cows are inquisitive beasts.
They were. And they followed us over several fields to prove it, running away every time we turned round and then running to catch us up.
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