# Pasture safety during hunting season



## NBEventer (Sep 15, 2012)

So I have never had my horses anywhere where I really needed to worry about hunters. However this year we bought a farm and while its great, its in prime hunting territory. So I need to make sure the ponies are safe in the pasture.

What do you do to make sure your horse is protected? I was thinking of hunter orange blankets but September is still warm for blanketing, especially since my horses live outside 24/7, I don't want to be blanketing so early and prevent winter coat growth.

Halters are something I thought about but I don't like leaving halters on outside and they only work for the head, not the rest of the body. So i'm looking to see what others do, that won't break the wallet(trying to keep it under $50 as I have 4 horses to dress).


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## Shropshirerosie (Jan 24, 2012)

How big is the pasture? Is it possible to put fluorescent ribbons on the perimeter fences?

What colour are your ponies?

What are people hunting in your area?


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## NBEventer (Sep 15, 2012)

2 acre pasture. I am going to do tape on the fence line for sure.

I have two bays, a chestnut and a paint.

Moose and deer are the big things here.


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## waresbear (Jun 18, 2011)

Believe it or not, a farmer had several of his cattle shot every year during hunting season, so he came up with a solution. He spray painted "COW" across each of his animals in bright orange paint.


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## NBEventer (Sep 15, 2012)

waresbear said:


> Believe it or not, a farmer had several of his cattle shot every year during hunting season, so he came up with a solution. He spray painted "COW" across each of his animals in bright orange paint.


I am almost tempted to do this lol.

I can't believe someone was shooting COWS! What the heck is wrong with people? A cow looks nothing like a moose or deer... I could see people mistaking my big ol standie mare as a moose given her big head and moose ears :lol:


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## thesilverspear (Aug 20, 2009)

Maybe order something from these people:

The Original Equine PROTECTAVEST - Protect your horses from hunting accidents with our blaze orange equine clothing!

I bought the vest to protect my horse's chest and shoulders from these horrid biting flies so I could continue to trail ride through the summer without getting bucked off (the flies are that bad). The West of Scotland, for all its social problems, isn't the sort of place where people get hammered and wander around with guns, shooting anything that moves. But that is the intended purpose of the vest.


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## SueNH (Nov 7, 2011)

You could get some of that fluorescent surveyors tape and weave it into manes and tails.

I live next door to state lands where they release pheasants for hunting. I hate it with a passion. I've had fences cut. I've had a goat shot. I had one old mare so badly frightened by people hunting in my pasture she died of a heart attack. I have to boot strange men with guns out of my field regularly. Fish and game just ***** foots around with them because they want the license fees. I've made them post my land, the entire perimeter and the hunters still tear down the signs and hunt my fields. I've watched people stop their cars in the road and blow a bird away in my front yard. I've had people pointing guns from the road down into my pasture. I've got bird shot marks in the attached barn right near my front door.
The old goat that was shot wasn't killed. She had a wound across her hind end. She was really old and never wandered far from the barn. She would browse a little brush near the barn and then nap. Didn't see her when I went to feed one afternoon. Panicked thinking she had passed somewhere. Found her in the corner of the horse barn covered in blood and shaking. It was pheasant season and opening day of the moose hunt. An aging dairy goat doesn't look much like either.
The birds themselves are sad. Raised in a pen and fed by people they are little more than nervous chickens. Fish and Game stocks the opening morning of the hunt and they have to have a couple officers there telling people to hold their fire until the people and stock truck get clear. I have never seen anything so barbaric in my life. By the next day I will have a host of semi tame birds following me around the barn screaming for food and I'd like to think sanctuary. Then the coyotes come in. Every coyote for miles and miles not just the family that lives here. I've given up keeping chickens because once the pheasants have been snapped up they turn to my birds.
I'm dreading it once again. 
I have one cock pheasant that survived last years massacre left. I feel bad for him. He calls and calls and nobody answers. Wish there was some way I could coax him into the old chicken pen for the duration of hunting season but I'd get in trouble for caging wildlife. He isn't wild. Follows me around talking constantly.

I hate it! My blood pressure probably went right up just thinking about it.

Hunting Pheasant in New Hampshire


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## PaintHorseMares (Apr 19, 2008)

Make sure you know your local hunting/property laws and insure that all your neighbors know that you have livestock. Bullets go a long way and only an irresponsible hunter will shoot towards a property with livestock.
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## walkinthewalk (Jul 23, 2008)

Shooting cows is not that unusual --- just as long as one is dealing with someone that knows how to hold a gun, shoot something, yet has no idea how to hunt.

1) When I moved here, I heard the story of some dumb8888 up near Nashville who shot a black and white yearling calf AND the idiot took it to the weigh station. 

His comment was something to the effect that he though it looked funny for a deer:shock::shock:

2) Then there's the "I am frustrated I don't have a deer in my truck to brag about, so I think I'll just shoot something." Those are the Losers one has to hold your breath and pray they aren't near your horses when they're thinking that.

3) Then there's the Newbie so-called hunter who only sees a big brown belly moving around, on the other side of the bushes and doesn't wait for a clean shot to be sure what they're shooting at.

I like the idea of spray-painting the word HORSE with engine orange paint across the sides and tying some of that "do not cross line" tape police use, in their forelocks and manes.

You could also by "no hunting" signs or signs that say "livestock" and place them on your fence.

If you work full time, I'd also take a day's vacation on the first day of hunting season --- you will probably be worthless at work from worrying anyway


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## SueNH (Nov 7, 2011)

yep! I actually saw a jersey calf in a trunk once.

Opening day I'm home stalking the fields in blaze orange.

http://www.homedepot.com/catalog/productImages/300/39/3989aafc-e1cf-44fc-88f7-d57692153d6c_300.jpg
The surveyors tape works great. Can be broken with your fingers and ties to things easily. I use it for the horses, fence, and when I have to shut down the snowmobile trail for spring.

I actually had a guy bang on my door a few weeks ago and ask for permission to hunt in my field. Not really a problem except that I had to say no 4 different times in 4 different ways. I'm still not certain he got it.

So far, knock on wood, I haven't had this problem with deer hunters. Just the bird hunters. Fish and Game actually has a vinyl sign directed just at the pheasant hunters that they post so I know I'm not the only one with the problem.

When I was a teen I had a girlfriend who had a horse shot while she was riding. Wasn't even an area that allowed hunting.


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## VickiRose (Jul 13, 2013)

So glad Australia doesn't have hunting on that sort of scale, or so much gun ownership. We go out and get a few roos or emus for dog meat, or to keep numbers down, but ninety percent of shooters here are farmers or professionals, very few complete idiots. Here you need to either own sufficient land, or have permission to shoot on other properties in order to get a license. The average city idiot can't legally own firearms. 

I think the orange spray or tape would help. How long does the season last for?


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## walkinthewalk (Jul 23, 2008)

VickiRose said:


> How long does the season last for?


Far too long and it is guided by each state's rules.

First comes bow season, then comes muzzle loader, then comes rifle and, somewhere in there is a speshul season for the tweens to go a-huntin' with dad. Of course they have to have taken a safety course (unless they know where to hunt where they won't get caught).

Rifle season (deer) is the big one in my area. 

The real kicker in Tennessee is that you are allowed to hunt within one hundred feet of somebody's home AND Sunday public hunting is allowed down here:shock:

I spent the first 50 years of my life north of the Mason-Dixon line, on the Ohio/Pennsylvania border; neither of those states allowed Sunday public hunting.

Here I am, retired south of the Mason-Dixon in the Bible Belt and they allow Sunday public hunting. 

I literally came close to fisticuffs with some big dude when we got into a lively debate about why I thought Sunday public hunting should NOT be permitted. I told him we'd "better agree to disagree before we both drew our guns, since he wasn't the only one to have one in his vehicle" - end quote

Don't misunderstand me, I was raised in a hunting family. We didn't have much, we ate what was killed. We have areas where the real hunters down here, can take what they kill, it gets processed for free, and the meat donated to those in need within our county.

^^^Those are not the hunters I worry about - it's the DOODS from the city and the Burbs who are legends in their own minds and come dressed in all their hunting bling with the most expensive gun in the catalog and can't tell a set of bull's horns from a buck's:-(

It's like any other form of "wannabe" in this life, except wannabe hunters end up killing the wrong thing or, worse yet, somebody ends up shot in the back. That's become an at least once a season news item:shock:


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## SueNH (Nov 7, 2011)

Pheasant season goes from Oct. 1 to December 31 here. It's the first few weeks that are hell. Dies down after that with only the occasional fool. Deer season varies depending on regions F&G create, type of gun but it's fall and early winter. They usually stock twice. 

I have little bells I clip to my saddle and reins when I ride in the fall plus my orange vest and the neon tape in the tail.

I don't hunt but I really don't mind a real hunter. I do think you need to be smarter than the truck that drove you here. I even have guns but they are a tool and not something to carry grocery shopping just because you can. A real hunter isn't going to want to hunt in the same field as my ponies.


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## jaydee (May 10, 2012)

I would check on who has the rights to shoot near your property and speak to them about safe distances and horses being out because even a coloured vest isn't going to help if some idiot is blasting away into your field that can't tell the difference between a horse or a cow and a deer or moose or whatever
We've lived near shoots in the UK and were always told when they would be around our property and I would keep the horses in on those days - much safer for them and for us.


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## SueNH (Nov 7, 2011)

Wish I could keep the horses in however that means they would be in from September to January. Rights to shoot? As long as your not a convicted felon you can carry a gun here. You only need a permit if it's concealed. Obviously a hunting rifle isn't a hidden weapon.

Bear season starts Sept. 1 and the various seasons continue to the New Year. It's every day, right on through.

They are supposed to be 300 feet from an occupied residence before they can discharge a weapon. They are not allowed to be shooting from the road or their car. These are all things that they do anyhow. It's a rude bunch. I'm not all that keen on approaching strange men with guns in my yard but I do regularly. Fish and Game posted my property every 15 ft themselves. They know I have a big problem here. Usually it's up to the landowner to post signs. They also know I'm inches from getting in my car and driving first the headquarters and then to the governors office if necessary. I'm done listening to the excuses. Even worse is the discarded dead birds with only the colorful back feathers removed or just the tenderloins taken out. A lot of these people don't even want the meat. They just want to kill.

I spoke to the guy who blew the bird away in my front yard. He looked at me and snarled that the state put them out there for him to shoot. He got in his car and drove off. I knew who he was and told fish and game. I got a million and one excuses about him being old and not right in the head. If he's not right in the head why is he driving around with a loaded gun?


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## Katz1411 (Jul 31, 2014)

When I rode in my 20s (way too many) years ago in KY I always dreaded hunting season - seemed like every year some weekend-warrior hunter would bang away at anything that moved and end up killing livestock/dogs/ other hunters/ hikers. In that part of the state we had equestrian right of way and could ride pretty much wherever we wanted as long as we closed gates behind us and didn't trample crops, but during hunting season I only rode close to the barn, wore a neon green jacket and still worried.


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## jaydee (May 10, 2012)

We're lucky here as there's no one around us that shoots - we did have some kids doing target practice and taking shots at 'whatever' on some land behind us (that wasn't owned by them) which was a worry to all the horse and the few livestock owners but it soon got complained about by all the locals who got sick of the noise and the State Troopers are there now in minutes if so much as a shot gets fired. All of the Forest trails we ride on have a no shooting rule.


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## Woodhaven (Jan 21, 2014)

Around our area the hunters are usually out at dawn and dusk as that's the best time for hunting, I usually ride early, but hunting season I ride in the afternoon. 
we fortunately don't have too much trouble with hunters and the horses out on pasture as most hunters are from around the area and know not to hunt near animals, lucky for us they know the difference between horses and deer. I realize that this is a bit off topic but I just bought a bright orange safety vest to wear when riding during hunting season and I also sing a lot when in the woods.

If you have a barn, I would suggest only putting your horses out for a few hours in the middle of the day until hunting season is over.


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## NBEventer (Sep 15, 2012)

If we have our stalls finished by then that might end up being the plan. I hate to do that as my girls love being outside 24/7. They are not huge on being inside(one has lived her life as a show horse in stalls all the time until recently and the other is off the track so she was stalled 23/7). Anyway they will have to suck it up. I might just end up buying really light hunter orange rain sheets to use if the stalls are not finished by then. 

Ideally we should be okay as we own all the woods around us and it is posted private property, but we just bought the place this spring and it wasn't lived in for the last 10 years as the owner died. And prior to that he let people hunt on the land and they have since he passed away. So we need to break people of old habits, plus there are always freak accidents so better safe then sorry.


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## squirrelfood (Mar 29, 2014)

I deal with trespassers by inviting the game warden in for coffee and cake a lot. Now he likes to hang around close. A woman living in the country alone gets a LOT of ******* fools trying to run over her. I like to surprise them. And since there ARE so many damfools running around with guns, I keep the horses up in the lot during deer season.


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## PaintHorseMares (Apr 19, 2008)

They had so many problems in my county with deer hunters with dogs that our county now has stricter hunting laws than the state. In my county now, a hunter must carry a written permission form from the land owner even if the property is *not posted* with no hunting signs, and the sheriff's department will respond to 911 calls about hunters instead of having to try and work through the wildlife officers.


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## NorthernMama (Mar 12, 2008)

If it is bad in your area, then painting the horses is honestly a really good idea. I second the well-marked fence lines and add "Livestock - NO HUNTING" signs all around.

Talk to your new neighbours. Ask them if they have any concerns, had any problems, if they hunt. If they do hunt, it's a great way to get the word to other local hunters that you are concerned about your horses.


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## dlady (Apr 13, 2013)

OP, I'm glad you started this thread.

In the area that I live in, there are many deer hunters. I hunt myself with a bow an a 243 rifle. 

In the fall, the horses will get a new pasture across the road in front of my house. I have 3 horses that will be going from a 1.5 acre paddock in my back yard to a 15 acre pasture. There is over 300 acres surrounding this area that many hunters sneak in and hunt. There are No Hunting signs posted, but many ignore them since deer is so plentiful in the area. This year I'm not too worried about the hunters since the loggers will be there working clearing most of the land that surrounds their pasture. But there will be many acres that will not be cleared because they're putting in a hunting lodge for their family. I'm buying the land from them and they know about my horses. I was assured not to worry about them since the lodge and hunting area will have quite a few acres between it and my pasture. But yet I still have a bit of concern for my horses safety in the back of my mind. 

The orange paint or safety vests for horses sound like a good idea and something that I will look into. If I feel the need too, I can always move them to the paddock area in my back yard during hunting season.


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