Stuck in the mud! Lucky escape for prize-winning Thornborough ram

Inspectors Jaime Godfrey and Lauren Bailey were called to the farm in Thornborough on Tuesday afternoon after a dog walker spotted the sheep in distress.

They rushed to the 2 ft muddy hole and found the prize-winning New Zealand Sussex ram, shattered from battling to free himself.

But after a muddy struggle and plenty of heaving, the pair managed to free the £1,000 sheep without him suffering any injuries.

Mr Godfrey said: “He was exhausted and couldn’t stand up. But he was lucky to have been spotted and saved without any major injuries. If he’d been stuck out there much longer he could well have died.

“His legs were stuck deep in the mud and he’d clearly been struggling for a while.”

He added: “I managed to get hold of the farmer who immediately came out to the field.

“It took all of our strength, heaving together to prize him out. We had to lift him straight up to ensure we didn’t hurt him and, in doing so, the mud came over our boots.

“We then had to pull each other out of the mud as we each became stuck ourselves.”

The sheep, which had recently been purchased for breeding, was released and given a clean bill of health.

He was taken back to the farm to be cleaned and warmed up, where he was kept him inside to recovered from the ordeal.