A COUPLE and their friend had to run for their lives from a Test Valley field when a herd of bulls rampaged towards them.

Martin Gower-Smith was on a mid-morning stroll through a field in Dunbridge with his wife, Ruth, and a friend of theirs when they encountered a terrifying situation on their Sunday morning walk.

The trio had been enjoying a pleasant walk in the sunshine with Martin’s dog, Rosie, when the young bulls decided to turn their attention to them instead of the feeding station.

Martin said the five-year old Labrador had stayed close to them when the bulls decided to charge towards them from the top of the field.

Their friend managed to scale a barb-wire fence before the dog was handed to him.

“The bulls then decided to turn their attention to us but my wife and I managed to run to the gate and get out of the field as the bulls chased us we were lucky to get out alive and without serious injury,” Martin, from Awbridge, said.

Running out of the gate near to the Hatt Hill, the couple got out seconds before the bulls arrived.

“That last little bit we ran both of us to the gate before we got trampled,” adding that the bulls “collided into the gate” before they were out.

“The cows were 150 meters away at their feeding station when they started to charge and neither us or the dog were anywhere near them.”

The 55-year old fears others may be attacked when they walk through the field, which is just yards from Mottisfont and Dunbridge railway station, with their dogs.

He said: “I have walked this route most Sundays for the past three years and while there has been bulls and cows in the field before none have charge from the feeding station to chase us or the dog before.

“These bulls seem particularly aggressive and should be moved to a field without a public footpath in it before someone gets hurt. If they attack adults I would hate to think what they would do to a child.”

“If you’re walking by yourself, if you’re walking with the dog, it would be quite horrendous,” Martin added.

“We were lucky. Had my wife been out by herself or I had been out by myself it would have been a different story.”