Beyond that, you can expect to see mares and geldings well mixed, so you could say that the dominance status of the genders generally is similar. Many facilities will separate geldings into one group and mares into another to avoid hormonal issues. Young horses tend to rank lowest within a large group. So, instead of throwing them in with the general herd, try building a small group of young horses i. Similarly, if you have a few slower moving seniors, say in the and-up crowd, putting them together in a subgroup could also help remove them from harm's way.
Feeding needs. Are some of your horses just on grass hay, while others also get alfalfa? Consider grouping horses by feeding requirements to make things easier at breakfast and dinner.
You might also look into using feed bags as an alternative to removing a horse with special needs from the beneficial group setting, though merely taking his dinner "to go" may not allow him to relax and eat as he should.
At this point, you've mapped out how many horses will fit in your available space and which horses will work well together based on specific criteria. Now it's time to make it happen. The following case study section offers an example of how one experienced horsewoman gets a horse ready for the group, introduces him or her into the group and then monitors the transition to make sure it goes smoothly over time.
Welcome to the Gang Janice Green, owner of J Bar 4 Ranch, has devised several different methods for mixing groups of horses on her acre property in Watkins, Colo.
She runs a boarding, training and teaching facility that caters to 35 to 40 different owners and about 60 horses total. Janice explained that, over the years, she's learned several different tricks to help prepare a horse for a group-living arrangement, to introduce him or her into the group and to monitor that horse's progress. But before this process even begins, Janice evaluates the horse's potential. That's usually a gelding with stallion tendencies a "staggy" horse.
He'll move into the herd and try to steal some mares to start his own little subgroup within the herd. He'll be very aggressive with those who try to investigate. Subgroups within a herd are normal, Janice noted. However, there's no aggression in any of these groups. That's the difference with the staggy horse. This behavior is detrimental to the existing herd and can cause many problems in an otherwise well-established group. The best herd candidates are the relaxed, even-tempered horses who are willing to work their way up through the herd ranks.
At Janice's facility, her large group is a mature herd of horses living on non-grazing acreage. She begins the process of getting a horse ready for this group by placing him or her in a special pen that she built to share a fence line with her pasture area. They'll stay in this pen for a few days to give them time to interact with many of the horses in the large group. The new horse will be introduced into the group after the morning feeding has been put out on a day when the weather is calm and the footing is good and dry.
It's also one of the quietest times of the day for the herd, since everyone is busy eating. Some small chases might follow.
After these first interactions, the new horse usually has freedom to explore for a while. Throughout the day, some mild altercations may develop as herd mates check out the new horse. It's OK to leave him in the group as long as he isn't exhibiting any of those staggy tendencies described earlier. The new horse will do fine learning the area on his own.
You'll still want to keep an eye on him and the group for a while, though, to make sure the transition goes smoothly. J Bar 4 Ranch also has several two-horse pens that are approximately 50' x 50'. New horses are introduced to these pens in a slightly different manner than to the large group boarding area. Perhaps there's room in one pen to add a second horse as a buddy for the horse who lives there.
Janice tests out potential new pairs by giving them several turnouts in her large fenced arena. If the turnout sessions are congenial, then she'll flip-flop the horses for a day or two, putting the new horse into the two-horse pen by himself and the old horse into the single-horse pen.
If it's too loose, supplements can spill out and the horse can step on it and rip it. If the bag is too tight, it's harder to breathe through it, there's no room for the feed and the horse can't get his nose to the bottom of the bag to eat. On the day of introduction, she'll wait until after both horses have finished eating the morning meal to avoid food-related pecking order issues. The horses still have the entire day to get used to each other before food is introduced in the evening.
Dinner may cause some aggression to surface, so it should be monitored. As long as the horse that had been in the pen doesn't chase the new horse around all day, it's usually a successful match. Janice noted that the new horse often will be the underdog at first, but that may even change over time. Janice often recommends that new students or owners spend some time watching the herd and maybe even help feed so they can really see how horses communicate with each other.
This, in turn, helps people understand their horse better. I Want to Be Alone Some horses - because of gender, health or other ownership issues - are destined to live the solitary life. Many owners prefer their horses to be separate to avoid risk of injury. Additionally, some horses - the "easy keepers" of the world - live in single pens because they must be fed individually to avoid overeating.
You'll also note that stallions, pregnant mares and newly foaled mares with babies often are kept in single living arrangements. Lastly, an injured horse on restricted activity or a horse with a chronic health issue may have to be stabled alone in a small enclosure to allow time to heal or to protect against further degeneration.
Even though your horse may need to live separately, this doesn't mean that he or she must be denied beneficial social interaction with other horses.
A horse's natural environment includes the herd, so see what you can do to simulate this. Put your stallion in a large pen with high fencing next door to your favorite mellow gelding, where they can both have nose contact and become buddies. Create a mares-and-foals pasture where moms and babies can go after a few weeks to all hang out together until weaning time. Build a "breakfast and dinner nook" as a separate enclosure where you can feed the horse that tends to gain weight easily, then put her in pasture with the gang the rest of the time.
By respecting the various needs of horses and owners, you can always arrange living situations that make for happy and safe horses. Popcorn acts so much like my horse Bodie.
He trotted a couple steps then went back to eating. All the horses tried to figure out what was wrong with him, because he neither went after them nor responded to their threats at all.
Except one gelding, who kept biting him in the backside over and over again. After about fifteen minutes of that horse hanging off his tail, Bodie got tired of it and landed three kicks. Then went back to eating. Our three mares are all pony size. Our one pony gelding is fine with them. The other horse size geldings, all four of them, fight over the mares and mount them. We keep them in separate pastures. Without the mares around the five geldings get along fine. We have found in our experience that when we have had 2 geldings and one mare, the geldings tend to fuss between themselves over the one mare.
Yet, when we have 2 mares and 1 gelding the balance seems much better. Also, in this mix is a Molly mule, she likes everybody and bosses nobody. It is very interesting when you make a change in the herd.
The reactions and herd dynamics is so cool to observe. Our herd of 5, 3 mares and 2 geldings all run together. We ran our stallion with the broodmares and babies in the same pasture for many years with no problems. We did not run the stallion with geldings and non-breeding mares. In a matter of hours or days the group will most likely have settled into a sedate routine once again with the outsider now an accepted member of a smooth-functioning social order.
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World Series of Team Roping. In Search of Stability As commodities and competitors, horses have always been subject to relocation.
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