Bluebell digs in her heels

It was very lively at the Frome Cheese Show today - record numbers of animal entries and the Global Cheese Awards!

This little British White heifer refusing to walk on reminded me of the last time we entered some cattle into a show. We trained a bull and heifer together, grooming them, halter training them, tethering them in the farmyard next to the tractor with its radio on full blast to get them used to noise, etc., etc. The bull and heifer grew to love one another, they were inseparable, and that was our downfall.

When it was the bull's turn to go into the judging ring, John and Phillip took him, as it's a good idea to have 2 handlers with a bull. This left me with the heifer who was tethered to the railing. She was devastated that "her" bull had left her. The railing wasn't really strong enough to hold her, so I hung on to her for dear life, with several local farmers acting as ballast, as she struggled to rejoin him.

When it was the heifer's turn to go into the judging ring, we knew there was no way we could hang on to the bull, so we put him back in the trailer. When we got back from the judging, there was an empty circle round our trailer where all the other vehicles had moved away. The trailer itself was bouncing up and down as the bull bucked and tossed inside. After that experience, we decided we had better wait until we are better at cattle psychology before we show again.