"It was literally jumping up and down on her back."

Quite:

Joanna O'Malley, 38, was driving with her husband and two children towards Tom Long's Post from Rodborough when her problems started. "We were watching as a mother cow was trying to cross the road with her calf. Every time the mother went across the cars closed the gap and the calf wouldn't cross. She kept going back to get the calf," explained Mrs O'Malley, who lives in Minchinhampton.

"I made the decision to walk in that direction to stop the traffic way back up the road. I know you must never approach a calf or get in between it and its mother but, in my opinion, I was quite a distance away. It was an error of judgment. As I walked over I was looking at the queuing cars wondering which driver to ask to wait a moment. Then the mother saw me on the same side of the road as her baby and came thundering towards me. I started to run in my flip-flops, stumbled and decided the safest thing to do was roll up in a ball and wait. I could hear her behind me and then felt her pounding on my back with her hooves."

Among the queuing drivers who witnessed the incident was Matt Turner of Hyde Garage in Minchinhampton. "The cow just dashed towards her like a rocket," he said. "It was literally jumping up and down on her back."