A horse can do a lot of hurt to coyote, not worth the risk. You’ll be fine. 
The only risk in general with dogs and that general size predator is that spooked horses might run. The damage is done from the senseless running not the killing. The fun for the dogs is getting horses running. Most horses I have will chase down a bothersome animal. One or two new horses have been at risk for running until they have been there for awhile and have learned the threats in my area. The worst is fireworks actually and my regular herd is pretty blaise about all but the first big boom. PatO
[QUOTE=Ambitious Kate;7640279]
SMF, in the northeast, the coyotes aren’t coyotes, they are coywolves, a cross between a coyote and an eastern wolf. They tend to pack up more than coyotes will, coyotes tend to be solitary or in pairs. The coywolves are larger and might take a newborn something, but still have coyotes behaviour. Their packs aren’t large, but they do pack up because of the wolf part, from what I have heard.[/QUOTE]
Not quite - the NE variation of coyotes DO typically have wolf blood%, but it is very little and does not give them many ‘wolf’ attributes. It would be almost like a HOL or HAN w TB ancestry - it is a coyote, not a wolf - despite the ancestry several generations back. Pureblood Coyotes DO band together when convenience allows - usually more often in the spring through summer. They will form pack-like institutions to also protect a cache of prey - such as a deer herd, etc to eliminate competition. For the most part they run in bands, loosely familial units that do not share rendezvous points like wolves. In the NE you have more cause for alarm for coydogs than coywolves - the coydogs are just as (if not more) prevalent and much more brazen.
I am in the NE and have had many interactions with the local ‘pack’. The coyotes here have definite wolf ancestry but are still under 65# - they run in familial units for the most part and in the spring are very rowdy with the dogs, playing with them and sometimes I would catch them trying to lure my late GSD into mating with them :eek: He was neutered, thankfully. They have never shown any interest in our horses - we are between two very large produce and livestock farms and the most they have ever done is make off with the chickens.
Coyotes by and by are very selective with what they decide to bring down - they are very clever, and will not attempt to hunt something bigger than them unless it is crippled or sickly. They do not take risks when it comes to what they eat, and you can assume if it can hurt them they will not hunt it.
Here, the predation is very little. They eat the feral cat population and scavenge the corpses of the next door farm’s dead dairy cows, pigs, etc. They are harmless but fairly bold. The farm next door has a field in which the carcasses are dragged to - not buried - and it is a buffet for anything with teeth. I have never seen the coyotes here with a large-game kill in the 10+years I’ve observed them.
[QUOTE=Manni01;7639250]
I am a little worried. It is getting warm around here and I like to keep my horses outside at night. I have a yearling, a medium riding pony and three horses. So far everything was fine, but lately some of my friends mentioned that coyotes might harm the horses… So what should I do???[/QUOTE]
Um, no.
That really is the short answer. Foals, a downed animal that can’t get up – yes, coyotes are opportunists. A healthy horse/pony that can run, kick, and bite? They didn’t succeed as well as they did by being stupid! You’re good.
Thank you for all your answers. Somebody told me that the coyotes get the calves of the big ranch nearby so I was a little worried, because I would think that Cows defend their calves too. And I did have the scary experience with two chihuahas the other day. These little horrible dogs chased the foal (then a weanling ) and the pony and they both went crazy. I do have a grown horse now with them in the pasture so I guess she would do defending…
[QUOTE=Manni01;7641151]
I do have a grown horse now with them in the pasture so I guess she would do defending…[/QUOTE]
I wouldn’t bet on it but maybe. Depends on the temperment of the horse. I’ve had dominant horses chase a strange dog out, but the horse is just as likely to respond with a spook as a foal and a weanling.
I’ve lost a lot of chickens, ducks, geese, and turkeys to coyotes (sometimes right next to the mini pen) but they’ve never bothered the horses, ponies, sheep, or goats. A neighbor lost some sheep years ago to coydogs and several local cats and dogs have gone missing over the years. The coyotes most definitely pack up at times for a kill. There have only been a few cougar attacks in my area.
I live right next to a wildlife area so they have plenty of room to roam and find food without bothering the livestock. We had a 10,000 acre wildfire out there last week though that wiped out all of the cover (and took about 10 years off me!). I wonder if that will force the coyotes closer in? Hadn’t thought about that until now.
Around here it’s loose dogs and coydogs that are a problem for livestock. The coyotes basically stay to their own prey and knock wood I’ve not had a problem with them and my mini horses, goats and sheep. I also have good fences, but these were put up because of the neighborhood dogs.
There used to be a whole pack of coyotes living in the pasture my mare lived in. I’m in IL, and coyotes are very rarely larger than a fox around here. They never bothered the horses, and there was an occasional small pony out in the herd.
I watch coyotes go through my pastures every morning. The horses don’t even raise their heads. I reckon our local coyotes are well fed and healthy, and attacking something as large as a horse would only be required if they were short of food.
Here the coyotes do run in packs. They regularly set up group howls in the open space near my house, especially in the evening or early am. Sometime they kill something and it screams horribly. Not nice.
However, they don’t bother the horses. I regularly find coyote poop in the paddocks and there is no evidence that they bother the horses, or the little alpacas which live on the property. I can’t say the same for dogs, which attacked and almost killed an alpaca a few weeks ago.
Short answer, probably not. However…
Two years ago (in summer), there was a full-grown broodmare killed by coyotes approximately 2 miles from where I board my horse. She was in a back pasture in a herd of 20 and the carcass had been partially eaten (about 10% of it). I do not know if the mare was in any way physically compromised. Officials had examined the body and did determine that the killers were coywolves and not dogs.
The area where this happened is basically “horse central” about 30 miles north of Toronto, Ontario and is not remote in any way. There is a town of over 100,000 within a mile of where the attack occurred and Toronto itself is over 2 million in population. (There are deer, coyote and many other wildlife species within the city as well.)
As others have mentioned, the “coyotes” in the the northeast are not pure coyote but a wolf-coyote hybrid - DNA tested. The “coyotes” of 30 years ago in Southern Ontario were small - perhaps 25 to 30 pounds - not much larger than a fox. Today, the average weight is 60 pounds and they do run in packs.
I will stress that this occurrence was highly unusual for this area and that the more common victims of coywolves tend to be smaller species of livestock such as sheep and goats as well as feral and domestic cats and dogs. But just last week in a suburb of Toronto, a person and dog(s) were attacked by two coywolves in a VERY urban area. As the city and suburbs keep expanding, there is more and more infringement on wild habitat, so I’m thinking this type of thing may become more common.
A very interesting piece that the show “Nature” did on PBS back in January about coywolves. http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/episodes/meet-the-coywolf/meet-the-coywolf/8605/ It’s almost as if we’re seeing a new species evolve before our very eyes.
I do agree with everyone else that a coyote, or even a coywolf, is not usually a threat to a horse.
No, the coyotes won’t be an issue.
The biggest threat this week are the asshat “absentee” landowners who come out to their rural pasture and shoot off fireworks. Ugh!!! Because whatever you can’t do in your city neighborhood is fine to do out in the country where we live. 
My small 14.3 hand horse has been fine for years. The family group that hunts in my territory has never touched him. I worry about my cats though, which is why they are never allowed out at night. The coyotes did however, kill the lovely fox family living on my acreage. They were actually friends with my cats. I drove home one day and there was Tigger sitting beside the fox!
