OMG my fears were confirmed - horse attacked by 'big cat'

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kittykatcat

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Hi all,

Just wanted to share my experience/warn people/see if anyone else had any experience of this......

About 3 weeks ago an elderly livery of mine (30) was attacked by SOMETHING in the field, he had sweated up to such a point that he had dried completely white (he's black), lost a shoe, lost so much weight, was scared to go in the field and had the most AWFUL scratches and gauges all over his body.

He was only out with my (shoe-less) gelding at the time, so my poor horse was blamed and branded, but i knew something didnt stack up - it was so out of character for my horse to attack another, plus he has no shoes on, plus the scratches did not look like hoof/teeth at all.

Anyway, after much thinking and pondering i decided to contact the bg cat research guy in our area and sent him photos of the scratches....he sent this email back...

''Just one look at some of those photo's suggests 'big cat' attack to me. The cat has clearly struggled to get a grip at times, causing the longer slashes, but they are very clean, some deeper than others.
It's certainly not a human inflicted injury or fence wound, as there are clusters of scratches which suggests a cat. They will pounce and try to grip the underside of the horse to get a throat bite, and at times scratch marks will appear on the flanks. Thankfully your horse was too powerful to succumb,''

Scary scary stuff.

Has anyone else had experience of this. I am just outside Canterbury in Kent, just to warn anyone else. I dont know how you could prevent an attack though..

I would post pics but i dont know how to do it :S

xx
 
Would be interesting to see pics never heared of anything like it before but agree would have thought horse would beable to inflict scratches
 
Seriously, there are so many big cats in kent, ive seen 2! One in cobham woods, looked like a black leopard, ive seen that twice! Once with my pony inhand and he legged it luckily! Cat just ran off. And theres been 3 reports of a Mountain lion in Harvel! Scarey stuff isnt it. But they rarely attack people/livestock luckily. Hopefully the cat wont come back if he didnt have much luck with the pony!!
 
kittykatcat said:
Hi all,

Just wanted to share my experience/warn people/see if anyone else had any experience of this......

About 3 weeks ago an elderly livery of mine (30) was attacked by SOMETHING in the field, he had sweated up to such a point that he had dried completely white (he's black), lost a shoe, lost so much weight, was scared to go in the field and had the most AWFUL scratches and gauges all over his body.

He was only out with my (shoe-less) gelding at the time, so my poor horse was blamed and branded, but i knew something didnt stack up - it was so out of character for my horse to attack another, plus he has no shoes on, plus the scratches did not look like hoof/teeth at all.

Anyway, after much thinking and pondering i decided to contact the bg cat research guy in our area and sent him photos of the scratches....he sent this email back...

''Just one look at some of those photo's suggests 'big cat' attack to me. The cat has clearly struggled to get a grip at times, causing the longer slashes, but they are very clean, some deeper than others.
It's certainly not a human inflicted injury or fence wound, as there are clusters of scratches which suggests a cat. They will pounce and try to grip the underside of the horse to get a throat bite, and at times scratch marks will appear on the flanks. Thankfully your horse was too powerful to succumb,''

Scary scary stuff.

Has anyone else had experience of this. I am just outside Canterbury in Kent, just to warn anyone else. I dont know how you could prevent an attack though..

I would post pics but i dont know how to do it :S

xx
Click to expand...
we know there are big cats here in Wales,they have attacked sheep many times but never heard of a horse eing attacked, anything is possible mind!
 
I haven't seen or heard anything in the local press recently but not that long ago there was a lot of fuss about pumas/panthers in this area as they had been sighted in and around Ashdown Forest. In fact one was seen quiet close to the yard where our horses were at the time but luckily nothing was attacked.

Not sure what you could do to prevent it?

If the pony attacked was elderly I suppose that was easy prey for the cat?

I would have thought there is enough easier prey for them to catch without bothering with a horse unless they were very hungry or feeding young.
 
Where abouts are you based?? as thee have been reports of a 'big cat' in the wider essex area over the years, my farrier also has a couple of photos of waht appears to be a 'big cat' in the distance, but they are just not good enough quality to say for sure what it is one way or another.
 
Big cat attacks on horses are quite common on Dartmoor and surrounding areas, they mainly attack old or sick horses. My friends horse was attacked (was ill at the time) and had several scratch marks along her stomach and flanks.
 
OMG :O

I read it I was like ''Please don't be in kent, please don't be in kent, Oh great it's in kent, just my luck'' HAHA!!!

Hope the horse makes a quick recovery, I have to stay my boy does come in at night (because he's a wimp and wont stay out HAHA) But I do get rather worried as his field backs on to a woods!!!

Did they say what type of cat it could be?!?!?

xxx
 
When the Dangerous animals act came into force,(must have been about 30 years ago)It is presumed that a lot of cats were released into the wild rather than be put down or put into zoos.The "surrey Puma" and the "beast of Bodmin" are two of the urban legends,but there is more truth in them than most people imagine.They are shy elusive creatures and have gone to ground long before most people are up and about. As an example,there are large areas of relative wilderness along the north downs where a big cat can avoid humans(and more especialy,Dogs)It is unusual for even a cougar to attack a horse however,(or a human for that matter). I have seen a Cougar when I was farming in Surrey (1986)on Walton heath at about 4.30 am.
 
'and 17 reports of a big cat with cubs – an increasing trend, which suggests that the animals may be breeding' (taken from the Big Cat website)

Sorry, but this made me laugh! Perhaps it is a celebrity big cat who has chosen to adopt from abroad?
 
Local farmer's son came face to face with one very early one morning. He was walking down a hedge and was aware of something the other side but thought it was one of his dogs, only to reach a gateway and see a "big cat" looking at him.

There have been unexplained sheep deaths, but I've never heard of a horse attack. Scarey.
 
Gosh those are some scratches. Poor horse, I hope it recovers and loses its fear of the field. I think or believe anyway that from the various reports that continually crop up about this there are a few big cats of different species living wild in the countryside. I guess for a horse it is a terrifying experience as it is from their ancient heritage a reminder of being brought down by a predator such an attack. Only other thing I guess could possibly be a large very aggressive huge clawed dog that got into the field.
 
We have big cats in Oxfordshire in the forested areas. Some years ago there was a big cat on a local farm that attacked sheep in a field, one of the horses out in the same paddock was so traumatised it died that night of a heart attack.
 
Maybe your horse turns into a Werehorse at full moon and grows claws and fangs, how the hell did anyone think another horse caused those injuries :(
 
Holy mother....those are some scratches. Unless it could be a person doing it (god forbid) I also agree it must be a cat. Very scary =[
 
The owner is on hol, so initially i didnt call the vet out, but he had lost so much weight and randomly started quidding, that i did call the vet out. She said she had never seen anything like it and thought it may be human caused.

However, sounds sick, but if i were to slash a horse, i would do it down the side....not fanny around doing intricate slash marks on the back and down the legs! The scratches are too random i think to be a human, unless it was a human trying to impersonate a big cat.

The horse is recovering bless him, put on weight but still quidding, which is really odd.

Sounds selfish, but im so glad my horse wasnt attacked...i guess it went for the weaker one of the two :( poor old boy
 
Poor horse! :( I must say, I've never seen scratches like that before and they wouldn't have been caused by a horse or a human. If he is quidding, is it possible he could have had a blow to the head during the attack which has damaged his teeth or jaw?
 
Well this is it - anything could have happened....going to wait until the owner comes back, didnt feel like i could authorise xrays on a 30 year old!

He's doing well on good grass and soaked high fibre cubes :)
 
OMG I just looked at your photos and shivers went down my spine. That is so frightening. It does look exactly how I would imagine a big cat would inflict injuries. The poor, poor horse. It might take him a very long time to recover mentally from something like that, so he might need lots of patience and love to help him to try and regain his confidence again.

We are'nt in Kent, we're the opposite side of the M25, but my horse is out at night and his field backs onto woods, so I feel very uncomfortable after seeing those pics :(
 
Good few years ago we had two signings of a black big cat on the hill behind the yard. The local farmer found his half eaten jack russel in his garden as well and a local guy claimed to finding half a sheep in the woods. yuck yuck yuck couldnt bring myself to hack for ages.

Am in Kent and this was round Whitfield to Coldred area
 
poor old horse! Completely terrifiying. That just HAS to be a cat doesn't it? It wouldn't make sense otherwise.
Hope the old boy recovers. Lots of fuss is needed on him, bless.
 
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