People that keep horses with cattle

Fii

Fii

Well-Known Member
Joined
28 July 2009
Messages
5,735
Location
Dorset
Visit site
Have you ever grazed your horses with cattle and seen the horses chasing, biting or kicking at them? The reason i am asking this is a farmer grazes some of his cows on common land that is also grazed by ponies, the other day he found a dead cow and is saying that it was killed by the ponies, he is saying they chased it antil it had a heart attack
frown.gif
. my ponies are grazing with his cattle near by to were this happened and i see them sometimes in one group all together, they seem to ignore each other . Oh also he did'nt actualy see the ponies going for the cow this is just what he thinks
frown.gif

What do you think?
 
The cows and beef bull that shared my mares field were found wandering down the road, my mare had chased them and they'd climbed out over the hedge!! (she was happily grazing in the field) OH wasn't very amused to sasy the least. She had to be kept on her own from then on.
 
What he is saying is possible, however the cow could have died for numerous reasons. If a cow dies suddenly, you have to inform your vet who will test it for anthrax, its the law, the vet sometimes will give you an idea of the cause, but obviously a post mortem would have to be carried out to know for sure. Even if it was a heart attack, there it could still have nothing to do with your horse. We had a young stirk drop down dead during the summer, it was young fit, and we thought healthy. Just like humans, or anything else for that matter, cattle can just drop down dead
frown.gif
 
Horses will chase cows, yes. But my horse would rather graze with the bovines than the equines (strange animal....)


.
 
QR He's apparently getting it tested, but we are talking about a bloke who phoned the police a few weeks ago because one of his cows had been "stolen" he had looked everywhere for it, yer right, how come i found it straight away looking at me over the gate, just a few feet from were it should have been then. (sorry small rant). He is the sort of bloke who blames every problem on someone else.
He had a go at me because the ponies nearly trampled his wife, but she was putting feed out for the cattle in the middle of about fifteen ponies, what did she think they would do , stand in a orderly cue?
 

My cob as a two year old was turned out with the Highland cattle on the farm. Although he could talk to the other horses over the fence if he wanted to he never bothered and seemed very content with the moos. The field is alongside the drive so I always looked out for him drivng in or out and somedays he was content grazing on his own but other days he would be right in the middle of the herd or just standing with them. Never once saw him chasing them, sometimes he would have a hooley round the field but never bothered them.

Years back I had a Highland pony that I kept on the farm in a barn and yard next to the yard where the heifers over-wintered. He used to stand right up alongside the rails so the cows could lick him!
 
My boys especially my horse have been known to chase my dads cattle, if they are by the gate and my boys come up or are going back into the field Sty will generally run straight through the middle of them and scatter them.
crazy.gif
 
One of my mares (and other horses) used to be in with cows and their calves.

My girl used to babysit the calves!! Only reason for doing this was because she would manage to get her hulk of a body (16HH ID) into the calf feeders!!!! We used to see 3 little white bums and her massive black bum sticking out the back of it!
crazy.gif


Seriously greedy horse!
 
Our neighbours horse will happily round up, snap rear at and and chase their prize winning Charlois cattle(who are at least twice her size...
Thankfully after i mentioned seeing her drive a cow through a fence using all the above they decided against keeping her with the cattle for company...

I would wonder about the farmers story though unless he had a Post Mortum done on that cow there is no way in hell he can be sure it was a heart attack there are other ways a cow can drop dead suddenly!!though the stress of being harassed by ponys isnt very nice is shouldnt kill a healthy cow...

Like mulled wine said that animal should have been tested for anthrax if it suddenly droped dead like that(though anthrax is very rare and unlikely to be a cause of death unless there happens to be hugh earthworks going on near by)
If he seen his animal being harried by ponys on common land why didnt he do anything about it?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top