Who let the cows out? Moo, moo, moo moo! Will Pip be caught out, and will Matt or Justin bowl a maiden over? Discuss The Archers here

[PseudoBadger]

'Ello pusscat!
I am eagerly anticipating Pip's downfall.

It does depend on how you approach them, and also how used they are to humans. Some ponies like this are very used to human contact, often because they do get moved around a lot, and put in areas where a lot of people will feed them.

It's more likely, sadly, that ponies get dumped when they're in need of medical attention. There have been some horrific recent stories of mares dumped while they're foaling once it's become obvious they need veterinary attention.

Fortunately, the law has recently been tightened up so that landowners can actually do something with animals dumped on their land. Time was it was hugely difficult. Wales led the way on this one and England took years to follow suit.

I was surprised that such neglected ponies were so easy to catch and box. Unless it's leg was so bad it had no energy for resistance?

Moorland ponies might be quite wild but domestic ponies used to human contact, probably not, especially if they are sick and/ or undernourished.

There were some ponies basically left to starve on industrial wasteland in Peckham

• they were so hungry they were desperate poor things

I think Ruth is sitting on a very nice nest-egg but not so nice that it can bear bailing out 2 other farms without being very severely dented.

It's over £300K! Surely they're not looking at over £100K per farm?

Leaving horses and ponies tethered on public land such as parks and verges to graze is something that goes on; and is not necessarily done as a way of abandonment. I used to work for a city authority that had to make arrangements with horse recoverers to serve notices and take them off the land. Apparently it could get nasty if the recoverers were discovered by the owners on the job. Because although the owners were happy to leave their animals unattended and vulnerable it was wrong for them to be removed to safety

Vango do you mean Ruth's inheritance is £300K or the total IBR bill?
How much are milking cows and breeding cattle? And vaccinations and vets bills?

Can I give a shout out for Redwings?

And for listeners in Scotland Redwings does now have a Scottish sanctuary too.

Home | Redwings Horse Sanctuary and Equine Veterinary Centre
www.redwings.org.uk/

Didn't Ruth spend a lot of her inheritance on changing the cows when she came back from New Zealand with her new fangled ideas (sorry that's a terrible explanation from an Archers listener who claims to love the agricultural storylines).

Ruth's inheritance was in excess of £300k Iam, which should be enough to cover most of the costs I'd have thought?

And yes Lillian, they bought a new herd but they sold the old one first.

Vaccination cost Brookfield £2k. Tony's costs there were probably lower. Don't know the size of Adam's operation.

Emma: snappy, defensive, paranoid. Unpleasant.

Brian the reluctant Agony Aunt...

Nic! She's broken her silence.
I definitely think there were more hints tonight that the IBR is going to end up costing Brookfield very dear.

How didn't this manage to turn into a 'poor Pip' situation?

Why is Rooth feeling guilty that's she's angry at her brat of a daughter?

Usha really is a rubbish lawyer. Fair enough that she said "You shouldn't have admitted liability" but she should have continued to say "now that you are offering compensation make sure that they sign to say full and final settlement."

I loved the Matt and Brine interaction.

Will you know who rise from his shed?

So now Usha, Toby and Ed know who let the cows out.
Plus Josh and Ben and Jill.

Neither Josh nor Pip are self-sufficient, so if funds are tight, the Grundys will be the first to go.
Am I missing something? Brookfield doesn't employ the Grundys, does it? Apart from maybe a couple of hours of cleaning by Emma, which hasn't been mentioned since Jill moved in and Emma got all crabby. And if she lost that, I'm sure she could pick up a few more hours at the chicken factory without difficulty.

I'm glad I'm not the only one Francis.

Both the conversations with Rooth and Jill, and Roots and Usha somehow managed to morph into some strange pity part for Pip.

I thought that our reward for sitting through all of the IBR nonsense and Toby slurping would be a least a couple of weeks of Pip not being a golden child. But no, we should all be sympathetic because she's a bit sad because she's been told off by her mother for putting their livelihood in jeopardy, creating a huge family row, and being generally feckless, stupid, and selfish.

My parents are loving, but very Presbyterian, therefore I have never really come across a family situation where parents just think that their grown up children are great no matter what they do, and tell them (and everyone else) so all the time. Is it just me? Is it normal?

It's especially strange as looking at it from the outside the child in question is rude to their grandparent, has shacked up with a waster whom they have given a load of money to which originally came from the family farm, and has a really annoying voice.

The last thing they want is to start a legal case against their own family

Is that a flag that that is exactly what is going to happen?