Had a bit of a move around here yesterday, which resulted in Wilma and Chaz moving barns along with Asset and AbFab, two 2yo heifers. Anyway, somebody (not me!) didn't do the chain up on their new abode last night and I thought the cattle were making a lot of noise just before I got out there this morning.
In the equine yard I found AbFab busily investigating the buckets of horse feed waiting to go into the mares' boxes, which from bitter experience are always in lidded buckets now but no sign of the others. I found then behind one of the barns in a nice area with some grass so I went back to halter up AbFab and put her with them while I sorted out a race to get them back in their barn. As AbFab and I went around the corner , there was Wilma up to her neck in the slurry pit..... At this time of the year, the pit's nearly full and level with the concrete ramp, so the surface looks solid.
Halter off AbFab in a nanosecond and on to Wilma, who was fortunately level with the concrete ramp facing me (f she'd been facing into the middle of the pit I do not know what I could have done!). This is where I am truly grateful for mobile phones, as I am hanging on to the halter for dear life (hers!) and trying to dial for help at the same time. If I'd had to go to the phone in the house, not only might she have gone under but her calf was also loose and might have gone in too. As it was, AbFab decided to see what the fuss was all about, put her two front feet into the slurry but fortunately - probably because I was screaming "No!" at her, decided against it and was able to pull herself out.
As luck would have it, with me heaving on the halter and Wils making a good effort, she was able to get one knee onto the concrete ledge and, just as the Merlo appeared, she scrabbled out. It was not a pretty sight.
Pressure washer out and Wilma cleaned up and all four of them back into their barn. Slurry pits are dangerous places at the end of the winter and ours isn't well enough fenced, so my first tel call tomorrow is to our fencing contractor...
