Possessive over mini

[reignthealarm]

Okay, so I got a new horse a week ago. My current ottb is sensitive and has always been bottom of the pecking order so the only horse he’s actually gotten along with is his mini. I kept the new guy separated to make sure he wasn’t going to pick on mr. sensitive. They seemed interested in each other so I moved new guy even closer, in a round pen up on the fence line of my ottb and mini. Some squeals but no pinned ears or rearing/kicking. After 2 days of the round pen I put them in together and turns out my ottb finally decided to man up and is now being the dominant one, being VERY possessive over “his” mini! Poor new guy keeps getting run off and cornered and has a bite on his hip. The mini wants to make friends but the ottb won’t let him near the new guy. I pulled him out and they are sharing a fence line again and ottb is herding the mini to the complete opposite side of the field.

What have/would you do to calm down the possessiveness? Do they just need more time to duke it out? I don’t want it to escalate into anything dangerous.

[SuzieQNutter]

You could try taking out your horse and putting the other one in with the mini for a while.

If they are in work the day you put them in together work everyone before breakfast. Feed out hay in at least 5 completely different spots so one horse can not stop another horse from going to another 2.

You don’t say how big the paddock is. The bigger the better. Too small and you may not be able to put them in together.

The other thing to do is change you fencing and have them so that one horse can not chase another horse.

Good luck.

[reignthealarm]

They were in a 1/2 acre paddock for introductions then let out into s 5 acre field. I can’t move fences but I am going to experiment with taking the ottb out and seeing how the mini and newbie do together.

[Marla_100]

@reignthealarm

They were in a 1/2 acre paddock for introductions then let out into s 5 acre field. I can’t move fences but I am going to experiment with taking the ottb out and seeing how the mini and newbie do together.

Your problem isn’t with the mini and newbie, they will be OK. You need to separate the mini from both OTTB and newbie and see if those 2 can’t learn to get along. Remove the mini first.

[reignthealarm]

@Marla 100

Your problem isn’t with the mini and newbie, they will be OK. You need to separate the mini from both OTTB and newbie and see if those 2 can’t learn to get along. Remove the mini first.

Yes, you’re right. Mini and newbie did fine together, they just actively ignored each other. I have a feeling that ottb will be too worried about his mini being gone (extreme separation anxiety) to even think about newbie. Newbie and ottb also do fine through grates between stalls. Everybody seems to do fine one on one, its just when all 3 are together that problems start.

[SuzieQNutter]

YAY