Not accepting new horse into herd

[OdieJump]

It seems that over the years I’ve been creating my own herd. I had four horses we got along with each other very well, but today I introduced a new mare to the herd. I have three geldings and two mares, the “leader” is one of the geldings. After keeping them apart with a fence and they seemed fine with each other I put my new mare into the pasture. Of course all the horses wanted to know her and she trotted around and the other horses followed her around. The new mare seemed to put checking out the fences on her new pasture and so the other horses left her alone. I noticed
later that she was off by herself which I thought was odd because at her previous home she was often with a small group of horses and didn’t seem to be a loner. I decided to sit out and watch them for a while. Soon enough on of my other horses walked up to my new horse to say hi, she was so excited it seemed like and perked her ears and whinnyed at the other horse. However the “leader” of the herd chased her away immediately, he didn’t bite or kick, he just trotted
up and pinned his ears. She would turn and kick but in the end she was isolated from the herd.

Of course this is the last thing I want. This behavior could lead to injury easily and that’s the last thing I want. Has anyone experienced this before? I’m able to separate them but since I don’t have a whole lot of
horses I didn’t really want to put them in smaller groups. Should I immediately separate or give it a little bit and see what happens?

Any help would be appreciated!

[mmeqcenter]

You just introduced her today? Give it some time. I’ve seen it take several weeks before.

[danacat]

Do you know where in the pecking order your mare was in her previous herd? Alpha, middle or low? I’ll venture a guess that she was low or possibly middle, and is now choosing to stay off by herself until she gets a feel for where she’ll fit in. Totally normal behavior.

Order will be established in time. Just leave her alone to figure it out. In my experience only alpha horses insert themselves into the mix right away in an attempt to become the boss.

Your leader horse was doing his job by protecting your friendly mare from new mare, but contact will happen again. You just have to let nature run its course.

It’s really is facinating to watch horses being horses, and it can be scary and yes injuries can happen. Human intervention is not the answer though, unless there is a serious fight – IMO.

[CanteringCarrot]

My horse does this when a new horse is introduced to his existing herd. He’ll be quite protective, but not violent. Over time (a week or so) he’ll slowly allow the new member to get closer to the other horses, then it eventually becomes no matter. Give it some time.

I can understand the leader being skeptical of an outsider, I don’t think it’s abnormal.

[sophie]

That is totally normal and it will take a few days, sometimes a few weeks, until a New Order is settled. And sometimes the new horse that appears to have the lowest rank, ends up alpha.

[B_and_B]

Time and more time! It can easily take a week or more for things to settle down. I’ve seen behavior patterns continue to shift for more than a month before everyone is settled in the new order. And everyone in the herd is getting shuffled a bit. In the meantime, make sure there is lots of extra space.

[chestnutmarebeware]

My newest TB mare (relatively speaking, it was about 10 years ago) took half a year to stop hovering on the outskirts of the herd and relax enough to really become part of it. (But she’s still the low girl on the totem pole with my other two mares, and always will be.)

[Foxtrot_s]

I’ve seen that - up on our friend’s ranch there is a horse that always is kept outside the herd. Actually, it is rather heartbreaking to see her so lonely and un-included. That is how the herd adjusted itself…

[Sweetums_Mom]

@OdieJump

However the “leader” of the herd chased her away immediately, he didn’t bite or kick, he just trotted
up and pinned his ears.

This ^^ IMO, this is good (could have bit/kicked) and as the others have said, TIME and try not to stress to see her “isolated”. Easier said than done…:sadsmile:.