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I agree basically with Jonnie. I put a new horse in a small pasture next 
to where the others are. This is where I do things a little differently. 
After a few days I put in the alpha mare- the head mare - the master of 
the herd. I let them come to terms and the new horse gain her 
acceptance. While she is the head mare she is very benevolent  and is 
happy to have a new horse if they will accept her dominance. After a few 
days of this I put another horse in with them. In a few days they are 
ready to go into the herd. Once accepted by the lead mare a new horse 
has an easier time. If he tries to stir things up, the lead mare will 
take care of that - and the new horse knows it.

This has worked well for me. If I didn't have a lead mare that ran the 
show, I would use the alpha gelding in her place. IMO opinion throwing a 
new horse in the pasture to "let them sort it out" makes as much sense 
as throwing a person afraid of water into 10 foot water in a lake to 
teach them to swim.

Truman

Jonni wrote:

> 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.
>  
>  
> Jonni



--

"Problems worthy of attack prove their worth by fighting back."

- Paul Erdos (1913-1996)




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