Attacked by What...A Bobcat?

It was Friday night. I was riding in the arena by the house and Robin had just finished giving me a mini lesson on balance and rythm. I was still working with maintaining rythm on the downhill slope of our arena, when I heard a squeal from paddock area. Its normal for horses to argue and a mare to squeal, so I didn't think anything of it. It did seem a bit unusal because I saw JJ running up to the gate, and it sounded worse than an "argument" between the heard. But, within a minute or so everything was peaceful, and I just let it go.

A few minutes later, I heard an odd sounding cat in the distance. It seemed like a big growl/wine of a barn cat, but I knew we didn't have any barn cats currently. So that was strange. Again, I ignored it and continued to ride.

When I was finished riding I walked back to the barn and noticed Maja standing right by the gate. She had an odd expression. I figured she was the one who squealled and was caught in an argument with Nova or Jack. The rest of the herd was standing in a big group near a fence about twenty feet from Maja. Nova had his ears perked, watching everything intently. I saw that Maja had a lot of hair missing from her back, but again she is the lowest in the herd.

It wasn't until the second time that I looked at her, when I noticed that her missing chunks of hair were bleeding. They were scratches and bite marks. She had been attacked by something other than a horse. Immediately I brought her inside and took a good look. She was limping horribly on her right hind and had various claw marks and a good bite in the shoulder. I ran up to the house and got Robin. She knew this wasn't a horse who had done this to her. It was a cat of some sort and I had heard it.

Robin and I put Maja in a stall and feed her some antibiotics and grain and hay to make her comfortable.

The next day the DDR came to take a look. The guy identified the cut on her shoulder as the point of attack, where the cat jumped on her back and bit her. On her neck and side of her back were claw marks where the cat started to slide off and was clawing to stay on. The DDR guy took pictures of Maja to present to his management.

It was quite the event. I warned the neighboors and Robin is super cautious about the herd now.