Horses with cattle

[Crabapple Farm]

We’ve been thinking recently about getting a single horse, and our houseing is such that in the winter they would have to be turned out into a paddock with our cattle when not in their stall or working. We’ve got just over a dozen cattle – beef, dairy, and a team of steers. Does anyone have experience with keeping horses and cattle together, and what are the social dynamics that result?
-Tevis

[Does’ Leap]

My limited experience with horses and cattle in relatively small paddocks is that horses dominate over cattle and they quickly work out the pecking order. No bad experiences on this end. Again, this experience is limited and I suggest getting input from others before penning them together.

George

[TBigLug]

We run all of our horses with our entire cattle herd year round. Never had a problem.

[Theloggerswife]

We run our draft horses with our highland cattle. No problems. Horses are top in the pecking order. We did have to separate our quarter horse from the highland cattle though. Apparently the quarter horse thought he needed to keep the herd of cattle all herded up and away from the hay feeders.

[OldKat]

At one time we lived on a 350 acre place that I leased for cattle pasture. I generally left the horses with the cattle with no problems, except in the winter. When I fed hay the horses would try to push the cattle away from the hay rings. Also, I generally fed some grain to the horses in the winter months I so wanted them to get the grain without the cattle bugging them.

Currently, when I am not using him on the cows I keep a Red Angus bull that weighs in at about 2,500 pounds with three horses in a dry lot. I divided off part of it, so he can be fed a lower quality hay than I feed to them. About every other day I turn him in with them for a day & then back into his smaller pen. They generally ignore him, but if they get to pestering him too bad he will stand his ground.

I would not suggest running any cattle with horns with horses, a horse hooked in the gut is not a pretty sight … usually fatal. Probably few Longhorn cattle where most of you live, but if you ever do run upon any WATCH OUT. It seems to me that they will go out of their way to hook a horse. Other than that no problems.

[J-L]

My horses live with the cattle off and on all year. No problem. I did have one mule that was getting too rough on the calves at calving so I sent him down the road and he’s now in a pack string in the Wind River’s. Other than that, no problem.
It’s interesting to see what different feed they utilize. When the horses have a pasture used up, I can put cows in and they get whatever is left and love it. The reverse is also true.

[Rod]

I noticed a lot less weeds on my paddocks after running the horses and donkeys with the cows.

[becorson]

I’ll chime in too>
i have kept horses with cattle at times over the past 40 odd years with mixed results. had a standardbred gelding that thought he was a cutting horse and pestered the cattle (especially the milk cow) too much. He also herded the sheep to the point that they overheated one day.
another time i had a jersey heifer aroung 5-6 months old that i kept with a mare to keep her from sucking on the milk cow. the heifer pestered the mare until the mare knocked off one of the heifer’s horns… the heifer lived but it was a mess for a while. i suppose it would have been a mess if the kick had connected with her skull, too.
another time, I kept two mares in a farmer’s field with about 30 dry Holstein dairy cows for a summer, and they all got along fine but the horses gained about 300 pounds each by eating free choice silage! a wonder they didn’t colic.
personally I never had a cow, steer or bull hurt a horse , but have heard of it happening and can easily imagine it. off topic, but i also know of a case where a big Tamworth boar killed a horse that he was pastured with…
summary: i think it would depend a lot on the individual animals and what kind of set up you have.
final thought: remember that horses and cattle have different body language and don’t always understand each other’s warning signs well enough to stay out of trouble.

[Git-Up-Doc]

When my horse was home and not here with me where I am attending university he would be with my uncle’s young steers and heifers. He would get along well with them. He would have his days that he would want to be away from them but most days they were inseparable. When I would take him out of the pasture to take the wagon out the heifer he became buds with would run the fence-line looking for him trying to get out and se where he was.
On hot days the heifer would also stand with it’s head on Doc’s rump standing in the shade.

[Gulo]

We run a mixed herd. The horses are dominant over everything but our Yak bull, who now seems to pretty much call the shots. I’m debating sawing his horns down a little to blunt them off.

[lowbrowscruffy]

I have beef cattle and I would never let my team eat the hay that I am some years forced to give my cattle. Moldy, dusty hay doesn’t seem to make much difference to my hereford cows. It never stopped raining here this year and good dust free hay is a scarce commodity. I saved 64 round bales of top quality hay for the “workers”. I didn’t much worry about the aged old pony and she and the cows seem to just ignore each other but she is sometimes a wee bit pushie.

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