Horses and Cattle together

[ShowMama: aka Pack Mule!]

I received an email from my cousin today saying that her daughter's two year old filly killed a calf. I just can't imagine it. My cousin's teen age daugher worked hard and saved money to buy this filly as a weanling. Their family doesn't have much money, but were able to keep the horse at a nearby farm in exchange for doing daily chores. This farm has a small herd of beef cattle, a few buffalo, some llamas, and I don't know what else. Originally the filly was kept with an old mare, but the mare died last summer. Since then she has been put out in the pasture with the cows and a bull. I'm sure she's not with the buffalo, but not sure about the llamas. This filly has been a very sweet, gentle horse and has never shown signs of aggresion that I'm aware of.

The following is the email from my cousin, so this is all the details I have right now.
"We had quite a tragedy last week. Freida killed a calf . We were just sick about it, but <the owner> was really upset. We paid for the cost of a new calf, but it was too late to put another calf on her. We think that Freida might have been taking out her frustration against the bull. The calf looks like the bull. The oreo bull tried to pick Freida up under the belly and would try to ride her and Freida didn't like it. We don't know, but suspicion that might be why she killed the calf. The bull is an oreo with the white belt in the middle. All the other cows are red. But the
calfs have been all oreo. We were able to get Freida moved over to the other pen and she is doing fine. She has such a gentle nature, I can't imagine her doing such a thing. "

I would really like to see my cousin keep the filly at a horse farm instead of this cattle farm, but like I said, their resources are extremely limited so they don't have many options. Their kids all love this horse dearly and she's always been very gentle around them.
Has anyone else ever heard of a horse doing this to a calf, or other experiences with keeping horses and cattle together?

[wisteriafarms]

Just curious...how do they know that it was the filly that killed the calf and not one of the cows, or the bull?

[ShowMama: aka Pack Mule!]

I was wondering that myself. I emailed that very question to my cousin, but haven't heard back yet.

[bndranch]

Have there been other calves born? If so did she leave them alone? What I am assuming is that this was the first calf of the season born. Calves are VERY curious and will want to investigate ANYTHING that comes by. I seriously doubt the mare took out her aggressions on the calf because of the bull. There are some horses that do not do well with cows (mine is one) we have to keep her seperated at all costs. All it takes is one blow to a calf's head and its gone. My mare is the sweetest mare in the world but she will go after a cow (she is a GREAT working cow horse). Also some mares, geldings, whatever can't be with anything smaller even foals, they just don't understand it. Also another simple explaination could be the filly tried to play but with her size compared to the calf her trying to play could have compromised the calf. I know as a cow owner we would be furious if someone elses horse killed one of our calf's HOWEVER we also know NOT to put in any horses with our cows except my tobiano broodmare. Just my opinion comeing from both sides!
Hope all works out and the farm owner isn't too upset in the end.
Brittany

[ShowMama: aka Pack Mule!]

I asked some more questions regarding my cousin's horse and this is her response.

"The farm hand who works there said that he saw Freida stamping her feet over the calf and the Llama spitting at Freida. The calves back legs were litterly dismantled from the body of the calf. I hate to say it, but it doesn't look good for our "innocent" Freida. And yet, we have never seen a moment of aggression on any other front."

[bndranch]

Sounds as if she took it to be a threat of some sort. I know of an incident where a mare foaled out in the pasture with some mules and the mules killed the foal. For some reason they just didn't think that foal belonged there. These mules had also been turned out with older foals with no problem but this one was born out there amoung them and it was strange and so they killed it.
Because this happened doesn't mean your horse is bad or terrible or mean. This was just something she didn't think belonged there. Another example of this is when I was teaching my mare to cross the bridge for a trail class. My mare is VERY easy going (same mare that can't be with the cows) and she didn't understand what the bridge was, so she attacked it with her front legs, she literally struck the bridge time after time. So don't blame the mare her instincts just said that that THING doesn't belong here.

[Golden Girl]

I believe bndranch has the correct explanation. Our beloved horses minds are geared to run on instinct of self preservation. They are by nature a flight animal, so they do not go looking for a fight normally.
Your cousin & family should probably resign them selves that their mare is in need of other accommodation. I do understand that money is an issue, but horses, especially full size horses ARE costly to keep up, and they should really do some soul searching about whether they can afford to keep their mare in a better situation, and sell her to someone who can. This is mean to be a helpful comment, not critical one!