OP, I’m sorry to hear about your horses’ injuries. If MA is like CT then hunting of coyote is allowed nearly year round, you may be able to find someone local who is willing to sit out at night & shoot any that approach. and of course, if it’s dogs harassing your livestock, generally they can be shot too.
I agree with some others who posted earlier that hot wire run on the outside at predator level may help.
I’ve encountered coyote on more than one occasion with my 90 lb Labradors. The coyote were sometimes as tall as my dogs, but nowhere near as heavy. However, a couple of years ago I did see one killed in the road that was very large, probably 70 lbs
Is there any possibility that a bear was your attacker?
Much more likely to be wild dogs.
I’ve been chased on horseback by coyotes and it is NOT fun. They were very definitely coyotes, not large but there were a lot of them. My horse was faster and we definitely winded them, they chased us from one side of the main jump course to the other at Wayne. They gave up just as we ran past the starting box area.
Where I live there’s coyote season and there’s a guy who will pay $60 a pelt. We’re thinking of collecting some bounty money because the coyotes are way too plentiful here too and my geldings start patrolling the fence line when they start yipping, hoping to get a piece of them. The older gelding will attack any canine dumb enough to come into his area. They’ve made him stir crazy enough that he’ll charge after my barn cats out in the paddock now and I’d really like to get rid of the coyotes. The horses need their beauty sleep, not to be blowing and barking at coyotes all night.
The coyote in the video that appears large in CA looks small to me. The ones I have trail ridden with and been surrounded by are far bigger. Regardless, I agree, being chased, followed, and surrounded by a group, is especially scary.
Ugh, I can’t believe they all chased you that far. So glad you were ok!
I’m really sorry to hear what happened 
Generally, “pure” coyotes will not attack horses unless you have a very large pack and / or they are extremely desperate. Keep in mind the average coyote weighs around 35 pounds and mostly preys on rabbit sized animals. My experience has generally been that horses will chase coyotes away. I have one mare who I have no doubt would kill a coyote if she ever caught it, and that she could easily do so. I’ve seen her charge them before and I have no doubt she intended to kill them if she actually caught them.
As others have said, coydogs are another story. They are larger, often much more aggressive, etc.
That said, coyotes attacking horses is not unheard of it. It does happen sometimes. And because of that, if I see them around here, I shoot them (assuming I can do so before my horses chase them off). I don’t like killing them. But I do it because my horses are more important to me. And sometimes you just have to do what you have to do.
I’m going to guess it was a big cat or mountain lion. Here in Florida we just had a pony eaten by a Florida panther. The pony was partially blind so might not have realized the danger. But in general, i think dog attacks are far more common.
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Not in West Boston, which is the Blue Hills area. There have been coyotes about the farm where I board and they seem to go after the cattle but not the horses.
West “of” Boston - further west, but still no wild cats.
Someone saw whats been running around all the farms and yep! coydogs/dogs/some hybrid soemthing. Said they look coyote like, but are way to large to be, and they are running in a pack. They live in back of the farm where my horses are, in and about some rock formations that make for perfect dens. - that I learned from the farmer who owns the woods behind the farm. I’m not planning to go check it out lol. The farmer said he has a trail camera somewhere he would look for, so we could see whats happening at night. He also told me that a horse was bitten badly a couple years ago where my horses are kept. In addition, about 6 months ago, a horse was chased through the fence and it ran a few miles before someone caught it. So my horse was not the first.
The canine beasts continue to wake up people in the neighborhood with their vocals in the middle of the night. With windows closed, it has to be pretty close and pretty darn loud. Yikes!
Since the multiple strands of electric fence, and additional mesh fence went up, and miss fiesty mare arrived, all has been quiet with the horses on the farm.
My injured mare can go out in small turnout now, so fingers crossed it doesnt make anything worse!
Why hasn’t anybody done anything about this pack, if they’ve known about it, they should have been shot or trapped or something…
The pelts aren’t worth enough to make it worth most people’s time to go after them, so except for farmers and ranchers who have another vested reason to want to get rid of them, a lot of people don’t bother with coyote hunting, even if they will shoot them on the rare chance they happen to just see one and they have a firearm available at the time.
Also, there tends to be a fair amount of public opposition to shooting coyotes because people think they are “cute and too much like dogs.” Because of that, even if you do want to hunt them, it’s sometimes hard to get permission from landowners to shoot coyotes on their land unless those land owners themselves are farmers and have dealt with livestock loss because of predation from coyotes.
Coyote attacks on horses are pretty rare. Rare enough that I don’t actively hunt coyotes myself, although I will shoot them if I see them in my pasture. That’s assuming the horses don’t drive them off before I get the chance. One of my mares goes after them when she sees them and tries to attack them. Since usually I just have one or two coyotes out there at any given time, they invariably run away from a charging horse. But if I had a pack around here that I knew was actively preying on horses, I would definitely start actively hunting them.
Wow. That’s an awesomely interesting article. Thanks for sharing!
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Yes, it is, and it makes sense EXCEPT that the OP states these are hybrids - and hybrids are known to not be “the same as” their wild or domesticated kin.
My parents have a sheep rancher next door, and he shoots all dogs that get onto his property - because they do go after his sheep. Coyotes haven’t been a problem.
It’s a conundrum, for sure.
I have read this thread with interest as we live on a small farm here in lower Michigan. We have a good number of coyotes living in the woods that are behind our property. We see them often trotting behind the pasture fence line and I’ve seen one a few times just sitting outside the pasture fence watching our two horses. I’ve been awakened at night too with their yipping and howling. This sets off our two dogs like crazy.
This morning I was in the kitchen fixing breakfast and I just glanced out my window. There was a coyote inside the pasture trotting toward my bay mare. It came up to about ten feet from her and sat down watching her. I waited to see what this mare would do as she does not like dogs in the pasture near her at all. I’ve seen her pin her ears and charge our dogs if they dare venture into her space; however, the mare ignored the coyote, not even lifting her head to take notice of its approach towards her.
The coyote then trotted on toward our other horse who is much bigger. Both of our horses are half draft (Percheron x Tb) and this mare is over 17 hands. Again, this mare totally ignored the coyote who stopped near her, sitting about ten feet from her. I then stepped out onto our back deck to watch more closely and to yell if the coyote got any closer. The coyote caught sight of me even though I had moved very slowly out onto the deck. It then trotted out of the pasture and into the woods.
I’m sure this coyote is the same one that I’ve seen sitting several times outside the pasture fence, watching the horses. I don’t know what to make of this brazen behavior. Was it sizing up the horses as possible prey? Our mares are not little in any way and hopefully, not appear to be worthy of an attack. We will keep an eye open for possible future aggression now. (Don’t own a gun, however.)
A lot of horses will ignore coyotes because they don’t see them as a threat. And most of the time, they are not a threat. Some horses (like one of my mares) will chase them away.
It’s extremely unlikely a single coyote would attack a horse. A horse could easily kill a single coyote. Keep in mind that coyotes usually prey on rabbit sized prey. That’s assuming, of course, this is a coyote and not a coydog. Coydogs are much more dangerous as a general rule.
If a coyote or coydog ever got that close to one of my horses, I would DEFINITELY shoot it. I shoot them anytime I see them in my pasture, assuming my horses don’t run them off first.
It’s possible there is something wrong with this coyote, given it is that brazen. And in that case, again, I would definitely shoot it. Since you don’t have a gun, do you know anyone who you can borrow one from? Otherwise, you might want to consider investing in a varmint rifle and putting in a little range time learning how to use it. A bolt action .223 would probably serve you well if you just want something to protect your horses. Or a .243 if you are worried about anything larger than a coyote. Both shoot very flat, and have mild recoil so they are new shooter friendly. And you can pick them up for less than $300.
Again, a single coyote is not likely to be a threat to a horse. But one as brazen as the one you are describing? Yeah, I’d definitely shoot it.
@OTTB FTW TW I am so glad the horses recovered! How scary.
Just the other day my friend and I were riding in a hunter pace north of Boston in the “green belt” and we saw 4 coyotes in a field we were skirting. The lead animal was darker than the others and so big, at first glance I thought it was a German Shepherd. There was one tall tan colored one, and 2 smaller tan ones. They were not shy, acted as if we weren’t there at all. My mare however, kept an eye on them the whole time. lol
A few years ago I boarded a mare at a place in NH with a BIG pasture and I used to see the “smaller” coyotes all the time, hunting rodents in the pasture where the horses were grazing. Horses were completely oblivious of the coyotes, but they weren’t in packs. A few "single"ones. However, the barn owner told me he’d lost some sheep to coyotes in the past (the sheep are kept in a separate, enclosed area). One evening as I was feeding the horses (all of them are brought in at night) it sounded like I was surrounded by howling coyotes. It was totally surreal! And I was glad my car was parked just outside the barn lol.
So far at the barn where I keep my horse, there are plenty of turkeys and deer and squirrels so I am assuming the horses living outside are fine…but those stories are scary.
I had read this and find it facinating, along with some other coyote information about them living in cities, adapting to changing environments, etc. So very interesting and admirable!
Just saw this article so I thought I’d bump this up:
I know we have 'yotes around here as a few years ago one of the local hunters and his buddies made a statement by hanging dead ones (about 5 or 6) from his porch. Lots of people were plenty disturbed by those carcasses but there was nothing to do, not a health hazard (they were frozen…it being winter), had no local ordinances broken and PA allows year around hunting of coyotes. He did eventually take them down. We are surrounded by PA State Gamelands so there is abundant wildlife all over but mostly we don’t see them in town. I know of at least 2 groups of hunters who hunt coyotes with dog packs during the winter. There was a story about a woman from a nearby community who had her little dog snatched one night while she had it out to potty, she witnessed it. I’ve always had at least one big dog and my dogs have a confinement area near the house to potty in so I don’t worry about them too much. All that said, the species is very adaptable and I don’t for a moment doubt the OP recounting her stories of being chased. Any wildlife that lives near humans is likely to lose at least some of the natural fear they might have in more rural areas. I also bet that if they have good sources of nutrition they might grow bigger than those who have to work a bit harder for their food, and likely (being scavengers as well as predators) they might find a bit better nutrition from cat/dog food left out or raiding garbage cans. Good luck OP, I wouldn’t want that particular issue in my backyard
