Introducing a new horse to a herd

RichZ · May 1, 2002

My Belgian fillie will be a year old in a few weeks, and I'd like to be able to let her in the pasture with the three horses that live at our place that belong to my friend. The three adults are a 10 year old Arabian gelding, a 10 year old Morgan mix mare, and a 24 year old Thoroughbred mare. The horses all know each other through the fence in the paddock. The Arabian is very interested in her, and the thoroughbred is very mellow. The Morgan mix, however is an agressive horse and acts very jealous when the Arabian pays attention to the fillie through the fence.

My friend that owns the other three is afraid that the Morgan mix will hurt my fillie. At this point the fillie is the same size as the thoroughbred (although the Belgian is more robust), the other two are bigger than her. Of course in a year, she will be the biggest of the four.

How do I start to associate them?

Thanks!!

paulw · May 1, 2002

We currently have a mixture of horses (5) and mules (2) kept mainly for trail riding. When introducing a new equine to the group we usually keep the new animal separate in an adjoining paddock for a few days to week or so then introduce the less dominate ones in with the new animal one at a time moving up the hierarchy. This still does completely stop the action when they are finally placed together but allows us to observe the interaction between the different animals to judge when it may be safe to try them together.

Our horses are geldings and mules are mares. The mules usually don’t get involved in the fighting although the one mule will let others know to keep their distance if she doesn’t want them around. We avoid horse mares for a variety of reasons including the prolonged fighting of the geldings over the mare.

cowboydoc · May 1, 2002

Rich,
At a year old you should have no problem introducing her to the herd, especially if you've already had her by them for this long. Just take her out and turn her loose with them. They will fight and mill around for 10-15 minutes and then settle into their pecking order. I wouldn't hold her because you never know how these things will go. Sometimes the least aggressive horse will suddenly become aggressive. If you've got ahold of her you may get kicked, bit, etc. somewhere.

hess · May 2, 2002

The neat thing about horses is that they quickly learn their place in the social hierarchy. The young filly may get pushed around and she'll soon start playing her part.

Outside the confines of horse farms, wild horses do fight, play (which can look like a fight), challenge each other, etc.

My wife is usually reluctant to put new horses in with the others, sometimes for months - but she competes on these horses, and she is a bit paranoid.

I prefer to let the horses figure things out after a few days or weeks of getting to know one another through the fence.

Put the filly into the field with the others, preferably while they are at the other end of the pasture. They will come up and check her out. And all will be fine.

P.S. - A lot of horse owners will tell you that size does not always matter when it comes to dominant behavior. Case in point, we had a small pony (15 yr. old mare) who absolutely ruled our big Shire/Morgan mix, and 2 competitive Qhorses.

Good Luck, Mark.

cowboydoc · May 2, 2002

P.S. - A lot of horse owners will tell you that size does not always matter when it comes to dominant behavior. Case in point, we had a small pony (15 yr. old mare) who absolutely ruled our big Shire/Morgan mix, and 2 competitive Qhorses.

You're exactly right. I had to move my daughters pony because he would boss the mares around and eat all the grain. He would just run from one grain pile to the next chasing them. They got to where they wouldn't even come for their grain. That was enough of that so now the pony is by himself in a pen.

RichZ · May 2, 2002

Thanks for the info guys! Now I have to convince my friend that my Belgian and her Morgan mix aren't going to kill each other. I'd really like to see them all together!

MikePA · May 2, 2002

Rich, you've received much good advice and I'll just echo what others have said. With all our horses, we let them get to know each other across a fence first, i.e., new horse on one side, existing horses on the other. Sometimes we introduce the new horse into the existing herd, but more often than not, we move one of the existing horses in with the new horse. After a few days, we'll move another existing horse over. We continue this introduction process until they are all together. This prevents the existing herd from 'ganging up' on the new one. This happened at a neighbors farm and it wasn't pretty. And as doc said, there's no way I'd get out there with the horses as they are getting to know one another. That could be a prescription for injury...for the two legged being!