Dear WW: I found a site with a bit of information, took a couple paragraphs:
Antlers are found in most species of deer. They are made of solid bone and grow from a bony base on the skull.Antlers begin growing in the spring as skin-covered projections. The dermal covering, or "velvet," is rich in blood vessels and nerves. When the antlers reach full size, the velvet dies and is rubbed off. The antlers are used in combat by males during the breeding season, and drop off afterwards. Antlers vary from simple spikes to enormous, branched structures. In most species, only males have antlers (both sexes have antlers in caribou).
All bovids have horns, at least in males and often in females. Horns can vary from simple spikes to extremely long, curved structures - but always unbranched. Bovid horns are made up of a permanent bony core covered with a layer of keratin, which is never shed. The horn picture above shows the hollow area where the bony core would be found.

I remember having our Herefords dehorned by chemical cauterization when horn bud was first beginning.
But I bought an hermaphrodite goat to eat a big patch of mixed poison ivy, bittersweet, and barbed wire, which I could not manage with pruning shears because of the invisible barbed wire. The goat gave me one very amusing demonstration of the use of his horns. A stray dog came into the yard, and headed for the goat at top speed. The goat ran a short ways, then turned on a dime, and butted the dog unconscious. But he hurt my daughter, so the horns had to go. When the vet approached him with a huge pair of pruning shears, I asked:"Does the patient get any anaesthesia?" "Negative," said the vet, and brought the handles of the pruning shears together with a lot of muscle power. The goat jumped up six feet, and came down blowing big bloody bubbles out of the gaping hole, and through his nose because the cavity was connected to his nasal sinuses. I assure you I did not enjoy the spectacle.
One interesting thing to be seen in the woods is a tree where several bucks have scraped the velvet off their horns, which incidentally recorded which one was the biggest, and destined to defeat the smaller guys.