Horses and Highland cows

[Sussexbythesea]

There are Highland cattle on the farm where I keep my horse. Horses are not afraid of them in fact my old boy always lets the calves lick his face. However I’m been allocated a paddock directly next to them with one brand new wooden fence between them. I’m not sure how safe that is with their great big horns. They’re not at all aggressive but I don’t really want to arrive to a massive laceration or eye accidentally poked out 😱.

Am I being over cautious? Thought of electrifying it but have visions of tape wrapped around their horns 🤔.

 

[Pearlsasinger]

I would put electric tape a couple of feet inside the wooden fence to keep your horse out of horns' range.

 

[Clydiegirl]

My 2, along with 8 others, share a field with 2 of them. So far the cows seem to keep to themselves and they have never been any bother.

 

[Tarragon]

I am another who has had a handful of horned cattle (Long Horns in this case) sharing a field with the ponies and they have been no bother. They tend to be quite placid. When we did have an electric fence up we found that the cattle had a tendency to chew it!

 

[Britestar]

Our cob was in with a herd of highlands from weaning until 4 yrs old. They were his only friends. He had no marks anywhere on him so I assume he never got poked by them.

 

[Sussexbythesea]

Thanks all. I think I’m going to see how they react without electric fencing, the paddock isn’t very big so putting in an extra layer of fencing will make it even smaller. Hopefully once they’ve got over initial curiosity they’ll not bother coming up to the fence.

One of the hand-reared orphans “Doodle” and my old boy a few years ago.