English longhorn.

Clickychick realised she needed some supplies before the Westmorland Country Fest at the weekend.  She normally gets these from the craft section at Houghton Hall and today was our only free day before Friday, so a quick dash to Carlisle.  After buying the supplies we made a slight detour to the Cumbria Wildlife Trust's Gosling Sike reserve.

The reserve is mainly farm land with some wet land areas.  Being within walking distance of Carlisle it is an important resource for the Trust.  English Longhorn cattle graze the fields and the wetland area.  The blip shows one of the cows wading through the reeds down beside one of the ponds.  Longhorns are an historic breed which originated as a a draught animal.  Perhaps it is that history of close contact with man which makes them so docile and approachable.

As a breed they are a mixture of brown and white with a white belly and spine.  Believed to have originated in the craven area in the 16th Century.  The breed standard requires no black in the horns or hooves, equally animals with on white back stripe or red hairs are considered undesirable.