[Jacob-list] (no subject)

[Susan J Martin]

Saturday morning found Rich and I doing some work with the sheep and in
the process a yearling ewe escaped her pasture.....aided by our
"apprentice" herding dog who has the chasing part perfected but not the
part about where to chase to!!  Anyway, Ava, the wild yearling headed
totally in the wrong direction and the shortest route to head her off was
through one of our meadows where we have 9 ewes and a ram.   This ram is
a perfect gentleman, never aggressive, and allows me to halter him and
lead him to and from pastures.  However, as I ran through his meadow
toward a ewe, he interpreted my behavior as aggressive toward one of his
girls.....and I instantly knew I was in trouble!!  He did the little
dance, backed up a bit and headed for me......and I suddenly was pouring
on the steam and thinking about whether a 50-something woman would be
able to vault the four-foot high fence.  He hit me hard in the thigh,
backed up again as I scrambled up the fence, hit me again in the
thigh.....and I managed to tumble down the down side.  And for good
measure this ram proceeded to give the fence a few good thumps!!!   

The only reason I repeat this story is to illustrate how dangerous a ram
can be......I know some of the folks on the list are fairly new to sheep.
 My aggressive behavior (at least that's how the ram interpreted it)
created his response...........i.e. my stupidity could have been fatal. 
Because we were trying to hurry, and it was a very cold day..........I
neglected to go into the meadow with my shepherd's cane, and I neglected
to behave normally.   I prefer not to think about what could have
happened.  

I spent the rest of Saturday packing ice around my leg.........it's
rather stiff but nothing is broken and all is well.  My thumb is twice
it's normal size, a delightful shade of purple that matches one of my
sweaters,  but not broken, and really with no pain.......I was very
fortunate and thank God I was not hurt more seriously.
This morning when I fed the sheep this ram was his usual docile
self..........not one flicker of animosity out of his eyes. 

Sue Martin
Stonecroft
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://www.pairlist.net/pipermail/jacob-list/attachments/20040126/0b0a36a5/attachment.htm