OTISFIELD — Peaco Hill residents are wondering what winter will bring, since coyotes killed a horse last week and the Otisfield Community School called off outdoor recess for a day, as a precaution.

And some Peaco Hill residents have been noticing the near-total absence of feral cats. There aren’t many squirrels or groundhogs, either, says Elise McAllister, who owns a small farm in that corner of Otisfield. It’s been years since she’s seen wild rabbits, which plagued her first garden when she and her husband moved there around 2002.

“We can hear (coyotes) at night, howling,” she said. “There are two distinct groups of them. It gets a little spooky at times.”

Last week, Brianna Smith rode over to ask if McAllister had seen her sister’s horse, Bandit, which had apparently wandered out of his paddock overnight and didn’t turn up for his breakfast grain.

McAllister joined Smith in searching, and McAllister found the mangled body of the 13-year-old Appaloosa gelding, lying in a muddy depression.

McAllister and Brianna Smith, aided by another horse-owner friend, Dori Curtis, also of Otisfield, backtracked and found that the coyotes had attacked at night, spooking Bandit and their five other horses. The other horses ran for the barn, but the Appaloosa, Smith said, was unable to see very well. He might have run in the wrong direction or the canines might have “cut him out” of the herd.

The frightened horse crashed through a two-strand electric fence and tried more than once to face his tormentors. From the tracks, the women concluded there were at least three animals chasing Bandit. In more than one place, tracks showed that the frightened horse spun to face his attackers.

In other places, they found where he had dented trees with his hooves as he lashed out at the canines. The pack, however, nipped at his legs until he tried to flee, then they pursued. It wasn’t clear whether Bandit fell and broke his leg, or broke his leg in the fight and fell into the mud and water.

Smith noted that the horses now are jittery around the family Labrador retriever.

Curtis said she has been keeping her horse in the barn at night for years. She also commented that small game, once common there, have disappeared. Wild turkeys are not to be seen and even deer have been scarce.

To protect her other horses, McAllister has a mule, which she says is able, and willing, to attack coyotes. Curtis favors llamas for the same reason.

Matt Peaco, the Otisfield town sexton, said he’s seen coyotes frequently.

“They’re out in the daylight, not just at night,” Peaco said. “And, they don’t fear humans — not a bit. You shout or stomp your feet and they just stand there and stare at you.” 

The Smiths called the Maine Warden Service for advice. A warden referred them to a local trapper, who, to the Smiths’ surprise and relief, was an old family friend, Oxford Police Sgt. Rickie Jack. The sergeant is a state-certified animal damage control officer.

Jack had not seen the place where the horse died, but commented that a case of coyotes attacking a horse is highly unusual.

At the Maine Warden Service in Gray, regional wildlife biologist Scott Lindsay said he would not dismiss the accounts of the incident. It would be very unlike coyotes to attack an animal as large as a horse. On the other hand, there are a lot of coyotes in Otisfield, he said.

The biologist suspected a black bear might have been involved.

“Without seeing the horse or the scene, I’d have to say that a bear is a more likely suspect,” Lindsay said. “Coyotes get blamed for a lot, and I know people say they’re pretty big, but the average around here is only about 35 pounds. A horse weighs 1,000 to 1,500 pounds.”

But Curtis and McAllister claim to know a breeder of Percherons, very large draft horses, who has had to protect his animals from coyote attacks.

The Otisfield Town Office staff informed the Otisfield Community School of the incident Monday. The school contacted the Maine Warden Service for advice, but recess time loomed before school authorities got through. They erred on the side of caution and had the children stay indoors.

SAD 17 Superintendent Mark Eastman said a warden visited the school and checked the grounds for signs of coyotes, then advised that there was no reason to keep the children from playing outdoors. Eastman said the outdoor playtime was reinstated Tuesday.

The Smiths are considering their options. For the time being, they’ll keep their horses in the barn at night, they say. A family member goes outside whenever the dogs are out and all of the Smiths have experience with firearms, which are now kept handier to the door.