My neighbor is going to build a small pole barn on a 2.5 acre field and hold about 3 horses on it. This borders a field of mine that holds several deer. The pole barn with horses will be about 100 yards from one of my stand sites. Do you think this will deter deer movement in the field? Will the horses discourage the deer at all? Anybody with experience hunting near fields with horses?

They will get used to the horses, it is all the human activity taking care of and riding the horses that might mess you up at times.

The deer will get use to the horses, but will not like the human scent that will linger from who ever works the horses. I hunt deer with cattle around all the time. They get use to cattle and horses, also dont have to worry about competition for food. They eat forbs, where horses and cows eat grass.

They will actually get used to the scent of the people who work with the horses also. I know this sounds crazy but my Dad has mules in a fenced in area just out from his house and his catfish pond is there also and he is out there feeding the fish and mules daily and constantly sees deer in the pasture and coming up to the pond to water -- where he sits to feed and watch the fish! Plus all of the attachments and equipment for the tractors is in the back of his house and we are out there all the time and still look out and see deer out there so the scent of someone who is there regularly doesn't seem to be a problem. The only drawback might be that they decide to be out there when you are wanting to hunt.

Shannon

Thats right, same Idea as the deer in a state park. The only difference is the hunting pressure. I feel that is more of the key.

I hunt at my buddies house that has 3 horses and the deer hang out near the horses and pasture all the time. I have taken a lot of deer on the edge of this pasture. It's cool because a lot of the time I know when the deer are coming as I just watch the horses. If they start looking in the woods I know deer are coming. My 12 year old boy's favorite tree to hunt is 10 yds from the horses' pole bldg. He shot 2 does there last year.Two seasons ago I was hunting this huge 180 class buck that my buddy and I had seen around his house and horse pasture. He can see my stand about 125 yds from his living room window. I went to lunch one day and left my stand. He said that 10 minutes after I had left the big boy was 15 yds from my stand. [:@]

I hunt on my brothers farm with 12 horses on 35 ac. I have not problem at all. My brother sees deer all the time as do I. You will need to pattern where the deer will be now. The horse people will feed and do chores close to the same time everyday. Learn to workwith the deers newhabits

On the other side of the coin, the horses will point out deer to you in the field. A property I once hunted had the same setup but you couldn't view the whole field while walking through it, but if you saw a horse rivited with his attention to a certain area you just knew something was a coming. I was able to ambush a very heavy 9 pt this way, saw the horses starring in one direction so I ducked behind a pond hill with some high grassafter glassing the deer and was able to put an arrow through it as it walked by. Had I notbeen checking the horses while I walked the fieldthis deer would have spoted me a few seconds later. When around horseskeep a close check on thier activity.

Great, I feel better already. Thanks for the replies.