Looking at having three mares together and am dreading it. I’m worried there will be an odd man out who will get picked on or be lonely. Do any of you have good experiences with odd numbers of horses kept together?
In my opinion 3 is better. Depending on what you do and your situation, for me having 3 in a paddock is more ideal. I can take one out to ride and fuss over in the cross ties, while the other two don’t care and hang out. I can go on trail rides or to shows, while the other 2 stay home. If I only had 2, one is always left in the paddock and if they’re herdbound it becomes really irritating to work with. As for the group, it truly depends on the dynamics, I had 1 mare and 2 geldings, the one gelding was rather rough… but the mare and other gelding got along well, they just stayed away from the more pushy gelding. Worked out well.
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Thanks, LadyB. Good to hear and I didn’t think about the benefit of leaving two together if I take one out for a while.
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It’s all about the individuals, rather than the number. I had 3 for a long time, and it worked very well. Bringing in #3 finally allowed me to take my gelding off to shows and whatnot without my mare having a meltdown lol.
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Three has always worked well for me, while two was a disaster. As Lady B said, you can take one out to work with, with the leftover not running the fenceline and screaming since they have a friend still. Honestly, I like 4 best as it’s the most flexible number, but as others have said, it all depends on the personalities of the horses in question. My mares never buddy-buddy up like the geldings do, and they go between BFFs and Frenemies and back several times over the course of a day. 
So there will be squealing and ear-pinning even in a happy group that gets along well.
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I have 3 mares and a gelding. At any point in time,they are “paired up” in all the different combinations. They do not care much when I take one (or two) away, though they always greet them when they come back.
Same here. I have my mare with two geldings. I am the only one who does anything with my horse, so it works great to have two buddies left behind. If you wanted to ride in pairs, guess that’s a good excuse to get another horse 
They kind of rotate the pecking order, but their pasture is maybe 3-4 acres and we always toss a lot of hay during winter so no one gets pushed off food. One of the geldings is a loner by nature so the mare and the other gelding pair up a little more when all three are out, but when I take her in the two boys get along fine. I really enjoy having three.
I have also had 3 mares together and it was great. Now I have only 2 together and when the older one is being ridden the other has to come in or she becomes frantic. Thank goodness the old girl is quite happy being left by herself.
Two was also a disaster for me. Three improved things considerably.
