Re: [RC] Introducing horse to a new herd - Suzi Maiorisi
What about when introducing two new to each other horses on a new
property? WOOHOO, I?m closing in a couple of weeks on my new place - 11
acres, barns, etc, and I have Holly here with me and my new horse is currently
living at my sisters house about 30 minutes from the new house. Neither
horse has been to the new property and neither has met each other either...take
that back, maybe nose to nose over a fence months ago. It will be my first
time with 2 horses, too...and each of them are fairly dominant from what I've
seen so far. The one at my sisters house lives in a pasture with 1 or 2
other horses and a couple of cows and she rules the roost. Holly has been
a solo horse for 2.5 years now with me...
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.
