thinking of getting my filly a friend...

[novachick]

Hi everyone!

I posted last week about my filly jumping the stall wall into the barn and got some great advice from everyone...thank you! We haven't had any problems since then, it seems she didn't find anything too interesting over on the other side of the wall! Just about everyone suggested getting her a friend and it is something that we had already thought about doing in the future, but I have thought about speeding up our plan a little bit. My question is, which would be a better choice...a gelding, an older mare or a filly the same age as my filly? Or would there be no difference?

The breeder we got her from has an 8 year old silver dapple gelding for sale. He is unregistered and advertised as 36". He has been around and ridden by small children and is also broke to drive. I haven't called and asked any questions yet, but on paper he seems a good match for her and for us. I like the fact that he is good with kids and hubby likes that he has driving experience because he wanted to train our filly to drive. Any opinions?

I'm torn because my hubby says 2 minis and no more and I don't know if I want to get another right away (would be good for my filly) or hold off until I find one that really dazzles me!

Any advice you have would be great!

Thanks!

 

[MyBarakah]

Hi!

From my experince it I think it's easier to put the same age & *** with them. Boys play harder (even geldings) and I think it's just easier to have one thier own age...mares usually don't like to play and her being little needs a "playmate".....

 

[Reble]

Your husband is definitely wrong, two is not enough, you will be getting more, guarantee, they are like potato chips never know when to say no more, so if he likes the gelding go for it and than when something comes up for you, you can just say while I got the gelding for you dear

or start looking for a gelding that drives etc, depending on the price, I started off unregistered and did not take us long to realize we wanted registered.

Just think a little ahead and what you might want for the future? Might want to look around first.

I am sure you will get a lot of different answers...

 

[shalamara minis]

Okay, Give your hubby 2 potao chips and say thats all no more.

Get a filly that is closer to her own age.

 

[SHANA]

Yeah been there done that. I had a small pony gelding and arabians. Thought the small pony was lonely so put an advertisment to trade a arabian filly for a small pony to keep him company. Well ended up trading the arab filly for a registered mini mare, well one thing led to another and now I have 15 registered minitures plus that small pony gelding who I registered with WCMHR and 2 arabians. They are like potato chips you cannot just have one or 2. LOL

 

[novachick]

They are like potato chips you cannot just have one or 2.

Yeah, I'm quickly realizing that! Three weeks I had my filly and I already can't seem to stay off the sale boards and websites! Hopefully my lack of space will help to keep me limited. We only have about 2 acres total and can't fence a whole lot of it in because of the placement of our septic system and a creek that borders our property that we have to keep all animals 50feet away from. It's hard to explain, but I'm hoping that will keep me under control!

 

[Katiean]

Has she ever been in the same pen with the gelding. If she has I would say this would be a good match. However, I would see if you could get him on a contingency that he gets along with your filly. JMO Oh, I have a friend that has around 1/2 ac. and she has 9.

 

[Danielle_E.]

Personally, I would suggest a gelding. If you are not going to be breeding at all and your husband says "only two" then the gelding is arleady trained to drive and I find most geldings are very good babysitters. I find mares sometimes can be witchy to others of the same gender.

 

[Elsa]

I can't imagine what it's like to have only one or two horses

 

[maplegum]

I was facing the same situation as you recently. Bailey seemed awfully lonely so my hubby surprised me with his half sister!

Bailey is now 14 months old and his sister, Willow, is 3 months old. They play ALL the time! And they play hard. OH!

I would suggest another younger horse, either a filly or gelding, as they can both play like crazy together! I find the older ones don't enjoy playing as much as the babies.

Bailey and Willow have the most beautiful bond. It melts my heart to watch them run and play, then do some mutual grooming.

Good luck!

 

[Miniv]

Hmmmmmm.......That's a hard call..........If the filly you already own is familiar with the gelding, then go for it. That way you have the filly to play with and Hubby has one too!

If the filly and gelding really didn't know eachother? You might want to consider a younger horse for your's, either another filly or a young gelding. As someone else mentioned -- start thinking ahead about what you plan on doing with these little guys on down the road.......

MA

 

[novachick]

Thanks everyone!

The consensus seems to be that similar age would be the best, so I think we are going to hold off on getting another one for now.

I talked to the breeder about the gelding, she got him from someone who couldn't afford him anymore, his hooves are long and she thinks may have foundered at some time, but seem fine now. She also doesn't have much history on him and he is unregistered. That's everything that I'm worried about as a new mini owner.

I think I'll keep looking, maybe get one of my fillies siblings or a weanling in the spring to summer months!

 

[ibquackers20]

I have a filly that was born at my place - long story short some stranger let my horses out and out of 4 minis 3 were killed by a car 2 were geldings and the fillys mom.Filly was so lonely that I bought a gelding who was 1 year older than her and they got along great. Went to the last owners site and bought another that was a registered pinto stallion who I gelded. Then went back to her site and again I bought another gelding that was trained to drive but he really is not to trusting in driving, he spooks at everything so I would not feel safe plus just before getting him he was in a cart wreck he did not get hurt just was a run away. But I really loved him so he will be my head horse in my small herd.So now I have 3 geldings and a mare. 2 geldings are slowly being trained to pull a cart one for the kids to have a ride with while he is pulling and myself leading him (he does not have the get up and go for distance but great for the kids.)

The second one is for myself so I can go with rides down our service road and take on outings with other people who drive minis.Then there is my now 2 year old girl who is also learning the basics right now - she will mature to around 34/36 inches she will be my distance mini because she has the strength and build.But since it is just myself looking after the 4 and hubby refuses to help but loves bragging about them I will not be getting any more. I want to be able to spend time with them and not having to only spend time with cleaning up and grooming only.

 

[novachick]

Oh my gosh, that is so sad!

Did you ever find who let them out?

I thought someone was messing with my new filly last week because she jumped the stall wall into the rest of the barn, which she tried to do once before when I was bugging her too much, but everyone here thought she was just bored and lonely. I was so scared at first that someone might be after her, that's terrifying!

My filly was with the other weanlings until we got her, she seems okay so far, but we will probably get one of her half siblings in the spring to keep her company. I'd really like to see her out and playing with another of her kind!

 

[Jill]

My answers sort of contradict each other.

If I had a filly and could only have one other mini, I would pick a gelding. He would keep the filly company and he'd probably also encourage her to be more active than another mare would be (in general, my "boys" are more playful than my "girls"). Plus, I love my mares, I love my stallions, but when it comes down to who I really like to spend the most time around, it's my geldings. They are so fun to show, drive, love and just be around.

From the filly's perspective, if you got both a filly / mare and a gelding, my hunch is she'd hang out more with the other filly / mare. My mares when they are in with geldings will spend most of the day gossiping lazily with each other, but the geldings will sometimes get them to play. Not that a gelding wouldn't be great company to her (and would be my pick as a compromise us both having a new playmate), but the girls seem to prefer hanging with the girls, and the boys with the boys if left the choice.

 

[Miniequine]

My fillies always seem to pair together. Too cute

The only thing I can ad.... most important, I think,

get what YOU want and I bet your filly will be happy

with what ever you pick.

Good Luck!

~Sandy

 

[Katiean]

I would NEVER consider I was BUGGING my horse too much. Your filly needs to learn that SHE is not incharge. If she doesn't want to be brushed or petted or led around Thats too bad. She needs to learn that she has to put up with it. My horses all love what ever attention they get from me or the kids. But, there is no way your filly should ever be able to say "I don't want any more attention. Go away or I will go over the fence". If she does it with out a friend she will do it with a friend because she will identify with the friend and not you. It sounds like you filly was not well socialized as a new born.

 

[novachick]

I would NEVER consider I was BUGGING my horse too much. Your filly needs to learn that SHE is not incharge. If she doesn't want to be brushed or petted or led around Thats too bad. She needs to learn that she has to put up with it. My horses all love what ever attention they get from me or the kids. But, there is no way your filly should ever be able to say "I don't want any more attention. Go away or I will go over the fence". If she does it with out a friend she will do it with a friend because she will identify with the friend and not you. It sounds like you filly was not well socialized as a new born.

Katiean:

by "bugging", I meant that we weren't very informed on how to get her to let us catch and halter her in her turnout area and before she trusted us, we followed her around for a while trying to get a halter on. This scared her and she went into the stall and turned her butt to me. I reprimanded her and she tried to jump the stall wall to get away from me. At that point I backed off and she calmed down. Since I posted that, others have given me advice on how to get her to trust and come up to us and now I have a whole different horse. She greets us at the gate to her area now! Oh and yes, she wasn't well socialized with humans as a newborn, so we have a little more work to do.

Jen

 

[Katiean]

Our mare was very afraid of people when we got her (she had been abused). To catch her we will walk to her with our arms our telling her "easy ho" in a calm voice repeating it until she yields to the pressure. At times she will turn her butt to us however she does not kick. Just because a horse turns it butt to you doesn't mean it is going to kick. If it does, the closer you are the less it hurts. We always work from her side and front when we pressure her. She is NEVER hit for anything. Also, a second thought to my original post. If you do get her a friend before she is calmed down she will depend on the friend and not you.