Explorer escapes (nearly)

Explorer is the Charolais bull who went lame a couple of weeks ago. He's been recuperating in the barn since he had his hooves trimmed. We were having supper on the patio (making the most of the last of the sunshine), when Explorer's head appeared over the garden wall. Mr HCB said: Phillip (the farm manager) must have let him out. What? On Sunday evening? We'd better go and check. Sure enough the gate of the bull pen was swinging open and the bolt that fixes it to the wall was lying on the ground. Explorer probably accidently leaned on the gate (which is the biggest, heaviest, most reinforced gate you've ever seen) and broke it. When you weigh 1.5 tonnes, these things happen... All the gates to the farmyard were open. So he could have made a bid for freedom down the drive, in which case you would have heard about it on the news. Or he could have come face to face with one of the other bulls - never a good idea! But luckily, he strolled out into the field behind the house where we could see him. The only problem was that there were 30 cows and calves in the next field. When they saw him, they started bellowing. When he saw them, he turned from a grass mower into a stud, and charged off towards them. That's when I took his photo. Luckily he didn't demolish the field fence as well. Once everything had quietened down, we coaxed him back to the (swiftly repaired) bull pen. I think we can conclude that he is better!