IT rained, it was muddy – but nothing has stopped disabled Minehead man Dan Sully from taking off up the field in his new wheelchair almost every day for the last two weeks to visit his beloved cows.

The 4×4 wheelchair – bought with money raised in a £3,500 Free Press-backed crowdfunding appeal – means Dan is a major step closer to his dream of showing his miniature breed Dexter cows in the ring at Dunster Show this year.

Dan has been severely disabled from birth with athetoid cerebral palsy, and requires 24-hour care.

This week he started training for the event, after visiting his cows almost every day since the new wheelchair was delivered.

“He is one happy man,” said Dan’s carer Hayley Green, who helps look after him with his mother Chrissy Beaver. “Since he got the wheelchair he has been in the field every day except one, sometimes for six and a half hours, and we have to beg him to come home.”

Dan acquired four miniature breed Dexter cows – Honeysuckle, Fern, Jade and Violet – and used to visit them regularly with his carer.

He had started to get one of them used to walking with him on a halter, and hoped to show them at Dunster Show, but his old wheelchair broke down and he was unable to visit them in their field for six months.

Helped by a campaign in the Free Press, donations poured in and within just 28 days, it achieved the target of £3,500 to afford the 4×4 wheelchair he was able to have at cost price.

This week Dan started harness training with Jade, the youngest of his four Dexters. He is also planning to halter-train Violet and her calf North Hill Bracken, a brand new addition to the herd, so he can take them to Dunster Show too.

As well as the cows, Dan also acquired a Dexter bull, named Zac, whose owner no longer wanted him, and Dan has paid off the cost each month.

The family are planning to hire Zac out to stud, to help pay the costs of the cows’ feed and maintenance.