Re: RC: Horses and deer

[Heidi Sowards <ribbitttreefrog@yahoo.com>]

Hi Terri,  

We live in deer country, (along with the occasional bear,
cougar and elk) in SW Washington State. I have always had
the deer bed down near the horses. Similar to your husband,
with a bit of a different slant, I think the does sleep
near the horses and bring their fawns and leave them when
they are small to go off and forage, due to both the deer
and horses being flight animals. Two horses are two extra
sets of eyes to watch for predators. I don't think the
horses scare off the predators, just help watch for them.
We have coyotes come right into the front yard and have had
bear tracks within 30 feet of our 5 acre property line, so
I know they come around. One morning, a fawn was out with
the horses, looking for mom. He must have got tired of
waiting and was doing what I am sure his mother would have
not approved of: he was wandering around, crying and trying
to nuzzle the horses, who didn't really want him near them.
He was there for most of the day. He never went too far
from the horses, and his mom came and got him later. She
may have been chased by neighborhood dogs or coyotes,
because she left him for an abnormally long period of time.
Anyway, isn't it nice to know your horses are being exposed
to "wild" animals on a daily basis? It really helps when
they see one on the trail, or one jumps out in front of
you. Our horses barely flinch anymore, even at a canter.
(Oops, better not brag though......!!)

Heidi
--- Theresa Radandt <tradandt@usa.net> wrote:
> (Still catching up on digests...)
> Still amazes me to remember back to last spring when I
> was trying to do a
> little clean up in my horse's quarter acre "mudlot".  It
> has the foundation of
> an old barn buried deep in it, just visible in places.  I
> came over one of
> these "humps" and there was a tiny fawn bedded down,
> couldn't have been more
> than a week old, not two hundred feet from our
> barn/garage/yard.  My husband
> the (mighty, he thinks) hunter theorized that the mother
> had him there because
> the coyotes that live here may be slightly scared off by
> the presence of the
> horse, goat, etc.  At any rate, my "city horse" isn't
> very scared of deer!
> Terri Radandt 
> Daggett, MI (the beautiful, deer-filled U.P.)
> 
>
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