My fence this morning looked like this. Can deer hit the fence that hard? Horses don’t have a mark on them. No one was in the paddock I was standing in, so there would be no reason to fight over the fence. I could see that happening if a horse kicked it. The gate (opening on left) was closed.
The board is a good 6ft back where I was standing.
Maybe the deer didn’t see the board and ran straight into it?
If the board was a 1X4, yup, deer could have done that easy.
Ever see the damage done by deer just glancing off a car? 
Do you see any tracks? That would give you an indication. I’d say they could break it if something was after them and they were in a panic, but the ones that frequent here are really agile and I’ve seen them go over, under, or between the rails.
Of course they can, they weigh several hundred pounds and can run almost as fast a horse. Physics says that’s a lot of force if they hit something.
Did you look for fresh tracks?
Saying that, I’d put my money on a horse kicking it.
Absolutely they could break a 1x4. This time of year is heavy rut season, and a buck intent on chasing down a doe, or chasing off another buck, who thought he could go under this instead of over, could easily have broken this due to misjudging how much room his antlers had.
Deer are so much harder on my fence than the horses are, but they’ve never broken a board like that. That 100% looks like a horse kicked it. I had very similar looking damage from a horse nailing the board.
Yes a deer could have done that, especially if the board had a weak spot. Also a horse could have kicked it. A third possibility is a bear, if you have those where you live.
I had a deer run into my car and destroy my passenger door. So a fence, yeah.
My guess as well - something (probably a deer) tried to get under and came up and broke it.
It looks like this to me too, do you have wildboars in your area? Here there are many and they destroy the lower part of fences
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