Hi. I’m looking suggestions/comments on my dilemma. The back story. I owned 2 horses in NY and bought a third, Cooper. Cooper, a Morgan/Canadian gelding, was accepted into the small group without much fuss and eventually became the number two guy. Fast forward 5 years. We moved to MI and shortly after my TWH died of colic. He was the number one horse. I decided to buy another horse about a year after he died. I brought the new horse, a 9 yo Morgan gelding,Riley, home about a month ago. For about a day a separated him from the other two. Cooper, who is now 11 yo, seemed to accept him. They were doing a lot of mutual grooming over the electric tape. Since the last time I had introduced a new horse it went fairly smoothly, I assumed this new guy would fit it, too. Wrong! About a day later, Cooper attacked Riley and ran him through the gate of the barn, breaking the gate and both horse got out. Luckily the old third horse, Harley, didn’t escape. I rounded up the two escapees and separated Riley from the other two. I’ve slowly been trying to integrate Riley into the group. For the most part, Cooper has seemed ok with him. They’ve been grazing side by side and sharing a hay bag. Harley was still acting aggressive but nothing too bad. I am feeding free choice hay in a small hole hay bags and providing more than one water source. Since the barn, which is L shaped, is their only shelter, I have been hesitant to trust them all together unsupervised. I didn’t want to have Riley get trapped and go through the new gate. Last night the horses ran in from the pasture and Cooper went after Riley again. I couldn’t stop it fast enough. Riley rammed into the gate, but it held and Cooper viciously bit him several times. Has anyone else had this much trouble introducing a new horse into the herd? I don’t want to have to keep them separated forever since that will mean always keeping one horse in a stall for part of the day. Any advise or suggestions would be appreciated.
It just take some time for them to figure out who’s the herd leader. When i bring home new horse’s i keep new horse across the fence from the other’s for at least 1 week. Then turn new horse out with others,i keep run in shed closed so they can’t go into shed and corner new horse. My paint gelding offender of beating the crap out of new horses is gone makes life so much easier. I find it takes about a month before new horse’s are accepted into the herd. Yes there’s biting & kicking and chasing going on some hide missing on new horse. But they learn to stay out of the boss horse’s way.
Once i turn new horse out with others they stay out with the other horse’s,plenty of space for them to get away from others.
I own an alpha Paint gelding who is now 23 and has always been on top since I bought him at age 7. He’ s boarded out 24/7 and there are currently 9 in the herd. They have worked out their order and figured what to do when I turn him back out, for example. When a new horse comes in I know he’ll get a little nastier, like bare his teeth or nip or sometimes kick out but not strike. Most of the time all he has to do is give a look, pin the ears, snake his head, and so forth. Most horses get the message pretty quickly. I think some of those farther down the order actually give the newer/lower horses more grief. They do work it out, however, and I can’t recall the BO having to pull anyone out.
I would keep them sharing a fence for a few more days. You can try short times of " supervised" turnout and bring him back to his enclosure before feeding time. Food can be a huge motivation to any aggression that might happen.
My 2 current mares were together within 2 days. That was rare for me but everyone was so mellow I gave it a try.
My minis have always taken about three months to fully accept any newcomers. When I introduced my mini mule to the herd in December it was violent - with my wee mare even trying to go through the fence to get him in the separate paddock. They are pals now.
Often, small herds need months to integrate a new member. I would keep them separate for several weeks. Try putting new horse out with the old guy, while the dominant one if confined. I had to send my dominant horse to the neighbor’s house for a month. When he came home, he finally stopped beating up the new guy.
Thanks everyone! I’m feeling a little bit better now.
Agreed. You may have to remove your dominant gelding for a while until it’s not his pasture anymore if he’s going to cause severe injury, otherwise keep them in separate paddock areas until you notice that the herd doesn’t leave him as often or you old guy looks like he’s trying to move him in through the fence. Just watch body language. The other thing that has worked for me re-instilling in the dominant horse that I am in fact the dominant horse, he’s just the barn manager through a lot of round pen/ lunge work. It’s worked well more than one time.
