You do have to use a bit of common sense.
Daisy and I had three cut-short attempts at a walk yesterday. The first, on a bridleway, was interrupted by a very large Shire-type gelding. He seemed quite friendly over the gate, but I didn't know him and I didn't know how he would feel about us walking through his patch, so we didn't.
Then we tried the next footpath along, but as we came over a rise, there were cows with calves, so we beat a hasty retreat.
Then finally we did get a decent walk along a bridleway but we turned back when we reached a tup field (Leicesters and Rough Fells) - again, they were probably fine but I didn't know how they'd react to the dog and the Roughs are big, and horned.
We could have carried on regardless in all three cases, and added to the 'Darwin award' statistics. But we preferred being sensible and remaining undamaged to walk another day!