I’m relatively new to having young horses around. I have a homebred coming 2 y/o gelding, and am entertaining a coming yearling filly. If I were to go that route, I’d really like to put them out together, and ideally with my mare (bred; dam of the 2 y/o). Thoughts on youngstock out with bred mares? From there, what about the yearling / 2 y/o out with the mare & foal (after roughly 6-8 weeks, during which I’d do solo turnout for mare & baby)? My thoughts there are that it’d ultimately be nice to wean baby into the group with the other younger horses, but I know most people try to just have their mare/foals out with other mare/foal pairs (I only have the one mare to foal out in 2020).
My mares and foals are with a mixed age herd. What you are describing to me would be fine with my herd!
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It really depends on the individuals. Most will be fine-- probably my main concern would be that the two year old is not too rough/ obnoxious especially if there is a big size difference. Assuming he was gelded a while ago and has been out with a mixed group he should be fine, if he was gelded in the last six months and has only lived with other young colts he might be kind of bratty and it will take some monitoring. (Also it probably goes without saying but you’ll need to feed separately and make sure they’re in a large enough field/ have enough room in the shed that they don’t crowd a mare and foal etc.)
