Their unfortified villages of well-scattered grass lodges and earth lodges reflected an assumption that large raiding parties would not arrive without warning; their inhabitants could not rapidly co-ordinate defense against a large party of enemies. The Pawnees, with the Wichita and Arikara, were the only Caddoan groups to survive the era of iron, firearms, and horses, and they all did so by forming compact villages on high ground and surrounding them with ditch and wall defenses. Most of the year was spent in these well-insulated homes, but many would go on communal deer hunts several days' travel from their homes. Some would even hunt buffalo, though without horses this was difficult and dangerous.