I have found that is it not in a horses best
interest to just be tossed out into an established herd to figure things out.
The new horse is entering their territory, and those horses know each other, and
the order of "command". The new horse is usually viewed on as an intruder, and
unless very aggressive itself, others will try to establish dominance really
quick. I have a method that works well for me, but it can be time consuming, and
I am not in a boarding situation. But, I'll share, for you to
consider.
New horse arrives, is kept in smaller corral area
for a few days, then turned out into a 2-3 acre pasture I have, alone. Other
horses can meet the new horse over the fence, but usually after a few min. of
this, they wander off, and have little interest. After a couple days, I
introduce my bottom of the pecking order horse, INTO the small field, which this
new horse, is feeling is his home. While my horses can come and go into the
field normally, the new horse is establishing it as his new home. I levels the
playing field a little. Then, if those tow get along fine, I intro the new horse
to the next horse, to is up one rung on the ladder. I only have 5 horses, so
when the last one came in, he had 4 others to meet. But it seemed by meeting
them one on one, in a smaller area that the new comer was comfortable with, when
he was eventually turned out in the big pasture, they had all met, and I had
very little problems. Also, I did find the new horse is usually bottom of the
pecking order for awhile, until the herd dynamics start flowing again, and he
figured out he could maybe push around one of the others.
But I will personally never throw out a new horse
to fend for itself suddenly into an established herd. Even if it was only 2
others. And actually, now that I found by having the new horse first establish
an area as his field, or living area, and then bringing in the other horse into
that area, I have seen much less fighting.
But again, time consuming for some....but might
save some vet bills.
