deer/horses/cattle

[Michaelry989]

here is a question im having a hard time coming up with a legit answer. the 200 acers i hunt in southern iowa 100 in pasture and tillable and 100 in woods is shared with deer, horses, and cattle. the cattle do not enter the woods at all but the owner has 7 horses that have 100% range of the woods. how will this effect the deer? i find it so hard to tell deer trails from horse trails, deer beds from horse beds...... am i reading to much into it? has anyone hunted in a situation like this?

[matt1336]

That's awesome. You could ride a horse to your stand not leave any ground scent that would alert the deer.....I'm only half kidding- that could be a pretty cool way to do it.
But a deer bed would be a 1/4 of the size of a horse's bed. In addition the placement of the beds should be a good indicator as well. I doubt if a horse is going to bed in a blow down or in the thermal tunnel on a hill. Watch some of the beast vids and you'll get pointed in the right direction.

[ Post made via iPhone ]

[Crazinamatese]

Private land I used to hunt a few years ago had some horses that occupied a large pasture next to some woods. Well, one early morning I decided to walk thru an overgrown field before daylight. I was trying to be stealthy. Little did I know the landowner let his horses into that pasture a few days before and literally almost soiled myself when I heard one of them making a full running charge toward me thru the CRP. I had no idea what it was but ran like crazy and made the fastest low crawl beneath a barb wire fence ever. Then it stopped and heard one of the other horses squeal a ways back. They were pretty territorial and im sure they didnt know what I was. Toward midday I walked back toward that area and there they stood watching me. Pretty funny thinking back on that. Other than that, there was a small man made pond in one of the other pasture and the deer often drank out of it in the summer, and the horses didnt seem to mind them. The neighbors were big into horses too and would horseback ride often on the logging roads on that property. That didnt seem to bother the deer too much in the long run, but deer movement shut down for pretty much rest of the day. Its kinda discouraging when i was bowhunting and they would come thru on horseback. All in all, I would safely guess if the horses have been wandering that property for a long time, the deer and other critters probably coexist just fine. Human activity could be a concern, especially if that property owner likes to horseback ride during the season.

[ Post made via Android ]

[Sweet Shot 7]

Private land I used to hunt a few years ago had some horses that occupied a large pasture next to some woods. Well, one early morning I decided to walk thru an overgrown field before daylight. I was trying to be stealthy. Little did I know the landowner let his horses into that pasture a few days before and literally almost soiled myself when I heard one of them making a full running charge toward me thru the CRP. I had no idea what it was but ran like crazy and made the fastest low crawl beneath a barb wire fence ever. Then it stopped and heard one of the other horses squeal a ways back. They were pretty territorial and im sure they didnt know what I was. Toward midday I walked back toward that area and there they stood watching me. Pretty funny thinking back on that. Other than that, there was a small man made pond in one of the other pasture and the deer often drank out of it in the summer, and the horses didnt seem to mind them. The neighbors were big into horses too and would horseback ride often on the logging roads on that property. That didnt seem to bother the deer too much in the long run, but deer movement shut down for pretty much rest of the day. Its kinda discouraging when i was bowhunting and they would come thru on horseback. All in all, I would safely guess if the horses have been wandering that property for a long time, the deer and other critters probably coexist just fine. Human activity could be a concern, especially if that property owner likes to horseback ride during the season.

[ Post made via Android ]

Thats too funny!

[MOBIGBUCKS]

I had a spot last year that had horses....I don't hunt it anymore. I went into scout and you couldn't tell deer sign from horse sign. The horses tore that property up; I had trailcameras out and captured a couple nice bucks and a lot more horses.... It seemed the deer did transition across the property but wouldn't bed on the land because of all the horses running around. It was a waste of my time. Just my .02

Cattle are a bit different...Usually, the farmer will move the cows based on food, etc. Find the times when the cows aren't in there and that is when you want to hunt. I've killed deer near cattle, but hunting bedding areas is a bit tougher when the cows are in the area.