I have lived on the southeast coast for much of my life and always with horses. I have never had an alligator try to eat a horse. If they do show up on the farm, they tend to die of “lead poisoning” pretty quickly.
The Palmetto Bugs however, I can walk on water to get way from those!
My husband keeps saying “Michigan, it is not so bad”, meaning when compared to many other State’s natural hazards in weather and wildlife. Reading the details others have given, makes it a true statement!
I have lived in Charleston for my entire life. I’ve never heard of a problem between a gator and a horse. Gators and dogs, now, that’s another story entirely. I have labradors who will make a beeline to any body of water. I never let them near any pond or lake that I don’t know for a fact has been “shined” and cleared of gators.
I do have a small pond on my property, but it is outside of my fence line, so not accessible to horses and dogs. I’ve not seen a gator there, and previous owners said they only had one small one for a very short time, but I still will assume there is one there unless I know otherwise.
My husband builds very upscale houses for a living. One of his houses was located on a very upscale island with beach on one side and a river on the other. The homeowners found a very large gator in their pool one morning.
The DNR is not helpful regarding the gator issue. They will only come remove them if they are huge and even then it can be a problem. You can’t relocate them either, they will come right back. Most of them around here tend to die of lead poisoning as a result.
Just try not to have a pond that can be accessed by your horses and especially your dogs. It’s really not that big a deal, for the most part.
goodhors-An episode of Dr. Pol was called Polnado, because there was a huge tornado in the area, and they all had to shelter in the basement. I don’t know why I was surprised, since I know they occur everywhere, but I somehow didn’t expect to see a huge warning like that in the middle of the LP.
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Wildlifer, nice dodge not mentioning those palmetto bugs and stingy-tailed arachnids we have, as well. To say nothing of those non-native pythons… 
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ROFL, well, I didn’t want to make OP cry. I’ll never forget a family vacation to the Everglades when I was a kid & walking to a park cabin where literally every surface was crawling because there was a gap in the window frame. My mom had use all chewing gum to stuff in the gap while we shoo’ed things out the door, hahahahhaha (squishing that much would have been really messy!!). Ahh, the…90s.
I’ve lived in Gulf Coast TX though & that is DEFINITELY worse re: insects & arachnids. 0.0
The pythons are invasive but at least they are cool & they don’t make you itch, don’t follow you around trying to bite you, & like the gators, prefer to MYOB. So many reasons to love reptiles!
And cgn38, LMAO, my special COTH fee is very budget-friendly of $0!
And here I was, just thinking that I’m done with northern winters and ready to move south 
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And here I was, just thinking that I’m done with northern winters and ready to move south :([/QUOTE]
You really don’t ever hear about the down side to locations until AFTER you move in most cases. Lucky for us some friends are Snowbirds, take their horses South for winters. Price of hay of poor quality, sand colic, heat, insects, all has come up during conversation. One of those “Looks great from here in the snow” but they also have issues, just different issues than us in the North. I kind of like the season changes myself, you APPRECIATE summer and resting time of Winter when it comes! I don’t like being hot, 90F or more. Alligators against Woodchuck? No contest there, I choose Woodchuck!! Very unlikely to move ourselves South.
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And here I was, just thinking that I’m done with northern winters and ready to move south :([/QUOTE]
This thread is also making me feel downright chipper about ice in water buckets 
Eh, it’s all about what YOU like. I spent 10 yrs in the Ohio River valley – and I HATE ice, being freezing cold, and snow that gets in my way. Hot & humid is never pretty, but hey, life is full of compromise. It’s all a continuum.
I picked where I live specifically for the climate, landscape & activities I love (well, and someone had to give me a job, haha). I like 4 seasons, but short winter, but still lots of topography, trees, mountains to ride up, etc.
I have a crappy salary from state gov’t, but we still manage to have lovely hay & everything we need (well, what the HORSES need, LOL). And I can ride year-round without needing to build arenas. And seriously, wildlife does not devour your horses with the exception of a tiny proportion scattered across pretty much every region of the world.
Some people love snow & associated activities – it’s all good. That’s why we don’t all live in one place (omg, can you imagine the concentrated crazy?).
True, wildlifer. 
I bitch and moan about our summers, but even I have to admit that - with the exception of a couple of weeks during dead summer - if I get up early enough, it’s cool enough to ride for at least an hour or two every day. That’s about my only complaint, really.
