Tony, I am so terribly sorry about your horses! I sure hope you get those dogs soon!
What I am going to tell you is so frightening...and very long.....
When we first moved here (a subdivision of mini farms) 16 years ago, there were wild dogs living in the woods behind us. We didn't know it until the kids came running in saying that they were playing football in the yard, and this pack of dogs came running at them! After that, whenever they were playing, the dogs would come running , barking, growling...there were 6-7 of them that we saw.
Our friends to the South of us had a 14 yr. old black and tan Dobe x Husky, Dobie, that was the sweetest dog..he was also very arthritic and had a hard time walking. One day a neighbor out on the highway, Mr. R., went to their house and had a gun belt strapped on and said he was there to shot the big black dog as he had been killing his calves. He said he caught him jumping the fence after he had killed one. My friend told him that Dobie had been in the house all morning, and couldn't jump a fence if he had to...she even let Mr. R. check Dobie for blood.
Then the attacks on the neighborhood dogs started...They were a bunch of bullies that beat up all the dogs in the neighborhood for fun. Dobie was one of their victims..twice he had to spend 3 days at the vets for the bites and bruises he had been given.
Then the neighbor to the North had gotten home from work and his kenneled Golden Retreiver was down. He went to sit with her, and she had had a heart attack from those dogs harassing her through the kennel fencing. She was still alive, but couldn't get up. Suddenly, she stiffened and tried to sit up and growled. He turned around to find a huge! black dog crouched and creeping up on him in a catlike fashion. He jumped up, waved his arms and scared it off.
By now, the whole neighborhood was so sick of these dogs! The leader seemed to be this big black and looked to be a Lab x G. Dane. We called the dog warden and he did finally show up. But, wouldn't do anything. He told US to take care of it! The sherriff said it wasn't their job, and the game warden only takes care of the game...
But, no one was able to get these dogs. The dog warden finally gave us tranquilizers and said to put them in meat for them...they wouldn't touch it. They would walk up and sniff and take off like they were shot! A very clever bunch of dogs.
It turned out that my friend's hubby and mine (they worked together)found out that they had a co-worker who was a bounty hunter for the state for wild dogs. So, he came and found them living in the woods...and they had pups..and there were a lot more than the 6-7 we usually saw. He got 3 of them, but then Mr. R. came up on his 3 wheeler wanting to help and scared them. The bounty hunter said not to worry, they would be back because they had pups there.
Well, he never did get to come back. So, Mr. R. ...a Viet Nam vet...went back there and got them ALL!!! Now...this is going to scare the dickens out of you (it sure did all of us!)..but when the smoke cleared...there were 33!!!!!!!!!! of them dead!! plus the 3 the bounty hunter got. It is hard to tell how long those dogs had been living and breeding back there. Some of them probably had owners at one time..and many of them didn't ...they were born wild.
We are all so grateful to Mr. R. for getting all of them!
Tony, I hope you find a Mr. R. to help you too! Thank God we didn't have any stock at that time. We were so lucky they didn't get our kids!