Would adding a pasture mate cause any problems?

[Morganite]

She is asking a very small amount for her. Not sure of her color, she has two blue eyes and is very sweet and gentle but not halter broke. I have two girls now, do you think three will get along well? This one was a pasture buddy to a filly I bought in Feb. 2013.

 

[Marty]

No one can predict that answer sorry! But the herd dynamics can easily change when adding a new horse.

 

[Lindi-loo]

I would follow your heart

..they will eventually get on and find theyr place but who knows what chaos lays ahead when introducing a new herd member..let them live together separated by fencing for a while and when things settle and they seem happy go for it..they may supprise you like mine and take it all in theyr stride and carry on as if the new member has always been there..Good Luck

 

[Helicopter]

At my place any new gelding is given the rounds of the kitchen by king of the castle Lord Humphrey (gelding) just to let them know who's boss. Mares seem to be greeted with "hello darling". I have 23 and they all get on with little drama.

They should soon sort themsleves out but as Marty said...................''no one can predict"

 

[Barnmother]

I have decided that changing the herd dynamics isnt easy and when mixed sexes are involved is difficult. I gelded my stallion, after a respectable abmount of time I returned him to the group of mares that he lived with for years. He went out calmly and sniffed the colt in the next paddock. Then the alpha mare came over and proceeded to beat the living heck out of him, just for breathing! He had never approached the mares, never tried to eat with them he was visiting across the fence. She came after him with a vengance! That provoked the mob mentality and the othe mare came to join in. The two year old filly (his daughter) just wanted to meet the new guy and kept clacking her teeth to tell this handsome stranger she was a baby.

I finally had to start catching who I could and bring them one by one into the barn till I could remove him from the situation. Luckily grabbing the filly netted me the most savage mare as she followed us into the barn. The other mare is pretty cookie driven so I was able to entice her to the barn also. I then turned out the filly with the new gelding and they did famously.

The filly and two mares live with a pinto gelding everyday (I took him out to keep numbers even). They tolerate him but he is surely low horse on the totem pole.

I know that I tried three geldings and the largest of the three became the whipping post for the other two. That is when he moved in with the mares.

I think that two is company, three is a crowd and four seems to work better. I hate introducing new members I worry so about bodily damage done in the aquaintance period.

 

[2minis4us]

My experience with going from 2 to 3 minis is that one will always be left out from either being at the bottom of the pecking order or because of the three two will bond together more closely. One time one of my girls' personality changed completely, I think she was jealous, That's why I have just 2 now and it is perfect !

 

[Morganite]

Ah, many of you answered my worries. My main concern would be if three would be a crowd. I spend a lot of time as do many of you, watching my horses. I have plenty of acrage fenced and cross-fenced. I am going to go ahead and bring her home, but allow them to socialize through separate pastures before introducing her into the main pasture with the two girls.

 

[2minis4us]

Just think ! You can always get another and have four !!

 

[Riverrose28]

Here are a couple of tips, but no quarentees. Do as you plan, put the new horse into a separate area where all horses can see each other. Then this is what I do after a bout a week, take the horses all out of the pasture you are planning on using. Put the new horse in there, on lead line walk them around the fence line so they can see the new area.Turn them loose. This horse will run and explore. While you are waiting for this one to settle, go and get the less dominate horse, the lowest in the pecking order, take them to the pasture, let them smell noses, then turn lose, after these two stop running and settle down to nibble on grass or hay, usually about an hour at most, start working your way up from the lowest to the most dominate horse, usally works most of the time, as the new horse will bond a little with the lowest member then find their way into the order of the herd. Good luck.

 

[Barnmother]

@ Riverrose what a great idea!

 

[Riverrose28]

Thanks, it has always worked for me with mares, the only time it failed was with geldings. And to be honest, the boss gelding just only wants his one friend with him and no one else. Still haven't figured out how to introduce the other two geldings, but I'm sure I'll figure it out.

 

[Morganite]

@Riverrose28 GREAT IDEA! I am hoping all goes well. She was already a pasture mate with a filly I brought home in February and they got along well. My daughter is very excited. She finally found a job. She is taking a summer break from school and now she will stop trying to steal my mini's away from me..

 

[madmax]

I have found that this situation can be unpredictable. A mare I sold came back here after a couple of years and was NOT accepted by the other 10 mares, they went for her, it was bad because I took her back because she had been injured and did not want too aggravate her problem. I kept her next to them separated by a fence for 2 months and then introduced her again, it took that long. Two of my colts lived together happily for 2 years, then I took one out for gelding, and after he was healed, I put him back in and the intact colt wanted to tear him up. Who knew 10 days would matter.

I have had geldings be the best buddy of a stallion they grew up with, so go figure.

I have found 2 stallions together in the morning feeding that were escape artists and no one was bloody, others seem to have it in with a certain one!

So I guess what I am saying is that you won't know until you try, but if they are young it will likely be okay. She is very pretty!

 

[shalakominiatureshowhorses]

I have 3 geldings, one 9yr old and two 3yr olds. My 3 get along great. Bentley (the 9yr old) is of course herd leader, I guess seniority and height ruled the other 2 out of the spot. My 3yr old Devil and Jazzy are probably best friends (they have known eachother since they were foals.) I bought them both from the same breeder, Jazzy first then a year later I got Devil. They play all day! Bentley likes to play, but would rather eat anything he can find! My situation works well. 2minis4us, your right about the pecking order. Devil has really bonded with Bentley these past couple of months, and Jazzy just gets left behind. Thats why i do a lot of work with Jazzy because he is usually all alone sometimes. But Bentley eventually gets tired of Devil being right at his heels, chases him out of his "bubble", and then he is by himself, which i think he is okay with, he has usually always liked to be alone.