Mini horses and coyotes

[midnyte]

Do coyotes bother Miniature Horses? I know some dogs will, as a Miniature was killed a couple towns over by a neighboring dog some time ago. Or is it best to get a donkey to protect a mini? Thoughts?

[kellidahorsegirl]

it depends on how many rodents there are around to eat.

a coyote will kill a calf now and then (we just lost one DANGIT! I'm hunting the thing every night) and the calf was about 70-80 lbs

I'd more worry about baby minis if you have them...but full grown should be feisty enough. A donkey wouldn't be a bad idea though.

[kbell]

We have a Great Pyr in with our mini's. We hear the stupid coyotes all around us but haven't had a problem, yet. We have 4 Great Pyr's on the property so they are helping.

[horselady]

Originally Posted by kellidahorsegirl

it depends on how many rodents there are around to eat.

a coyote will kill a calf now and then (we just lost one DANGIT! I'm hunting the thing every night) and the calf was about 70-80 lbs

I'd more worry about baby minis if you have them...but full grown should be feisty enough. A donkey wouldn't be a bad idea though.

I had two born on the same night, in a small 1/4 acre lot and I looked for afterbirth and could not find either one. So I am assuming coyotes grabbed it.
thankfully did no harm tothe babies.
But I live in an area that they are well fed and leave my horses alone.
I am more worried about domestic dogs, But my dogs do a good job of protecting.

[breburtch]

depends on your area and what there is around for the wild dogs and cats to eat. If food is scarce there more likely to go after livestock.

Getting a donkey, llama, alpaca, or large dog to gaurd them would be a good idea better safe then sorry.

[arabiancowgirl]

Yep Breburtch is right, better safe than sorry

[kaykay]

We had a horrible time with them in Illinois before we moved. everytime a mare would foal coyotes would come up to the barn. I guess they can smell the hormones.

Another time we had puppies in the puppy enclosure and a coyote was trying to get in it. It was awful.

We finally got a llama and that helped some. Here in Ohio we dont have near as many

[farmergal]

I have coyote around here and haven't had a problem....yet!
I've seen seven of them hunt in a pack. Made me wonder if I was seeing true coyotes or coydogs. http://www.dogbreedinfo.com/coydog.htm

Dogotes are fairly rare in the wild, in part because female coyotes are fertile for only about 60 days out of the year. Wild coydogs and dogotes can cause problems for humans, as they allegedly have the infamous cunning of coyotes but lack their natural fear of humans.

I live in fear of town dogs gathering in a pack and going on a hunt. Even the loan black lab mastiff mix that showed up one day this spring gave me cause for concern. Thankfully I have my horses in a field fence and my dogs barked to alert me that we had a visitor. These same dogs get very quite and hide in their dog house when the coyote come around and only bark after the coyote are long gone.

Sorry I can't help with your question about guard animals as I don't use them. Personally I think they would come with their own set of problems.