Got accosted by a gamekeeper.
"Haven't you seen the signs?"
"What signs?"
"You've seen the signs!"
"The one about 'No Motorbikes'? I'm not riding a motorbike."
"No, the one about putting your uncontrolled dogs on a lead," he gruffly states, pointing at my perfectly behaved pair sitting by my feet, having come to call when I saw his pick-up approaching.
Thirteen years I've been walking and running my dogs at the disused airfield. Thirteen event-free years, rarely encountering anyone. But, according to him, I can't do this now because some guy's dog attacked his pheasants (because the gamekeeper placed their feeder at the side of a footpath rather than off by some publicly inaccessible part of his farm).
The Countryside Code states: "On Open Access land and at the coast, you must put your dog on a lead around livestock. Between 1 March and 31 July, you must have your dog on a lead on Open Access land, even if there is no livestock on the land."
Pheasants, once released to the wild, are considered wildlife - not livestock. There are almost no livestock farms around us and we avoid them. This is arable country.
I know I can continue to legally take my dogs there off the lead but I just can't be hacked to have the inevitable al fresco heated debate.
Given this is one of the farms that have salted verges with nails and cost me a fortune in new tyres, I reckon I did pretty well not to get arsey with him.
Fvcking farmers.