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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 974
  
Location: USA | whats the best way to go about this? |
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 Buttered Noodles Snacker
Posts: 4377
Location: NC | I usually put mine in a round pen that's inside the pasture. that way they can see each other but can also get away from each other. Then usually after about a week I hand walk the new horse around the perimeter of the pasture, and then try to find a spot with a lot of grass or I put out hay to distract them and turn them lose. and pray....
ORRRRR I go to work and come home to the newbie turned out with everyone within the first two days of getting her.... Husbands..... 
Good luck its always a stressful thing introducing a new horse. |
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 639
Location: God's country...aka TEXAS | I put them in side by side pastures/pens, and let them get to know each other over the fence. Sniffing noses etc. I do this for a few days before actually turning them out together. Then once I turn them out, I watch them like a hawk for a few hours to make sure no one does anything stupid...lol |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 974
Location: USA | Yeah I've in the past just kind of threw them together, but my new horse cost me a small fortune so I don't want her ran in the fence or anything. I was going to do separate pens but wanted everyone's opinion on it also. Thanks and wish me luck!! |
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| Put new horse in a nose touching pen so the others get used to seeing and smelling it ...
Now pen up your other horses and walk new horse around fence line if not too big and turn loose for an hour or two to just wander around.
Then turnout one of your other horses to go meet new horse ... when settled and grazing ... then the next horse etc etc ... Usually the meanest acting horses are the ones that are last or bottom of the pecking order ... no one wants to be on the bottom of the pecking order. I do this while working around the barn doing chores since it takes awhile ...
When you turn the new horse out into a pasture with all the other horses, they consider it an invasion and the stampede is on chasing the new horse .... and this is when bad things usually happen..
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Miss Southern Sunshine
Posts: 7427
Location: South Central Florida | I am lucky enough to have 2 pastures that are seperated by a road. They can see each other and scream and run up and down, but they can't touch or kick through any thing. Then I usually take them somewhere in the trailer....they stand at the same trailer tied up but not kicking distance and in no time they are friends. By accident I have found that when I haul them off together somewhere even for a short time, they prefer a familiar to a stranger. But I have been fortunate I know. |
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 Tried and True
Posts: 21185
Location: Where I am happiest | BARRELHORSE USA - 2015-06-29 6:46 PM Put new horse in a nose touching pen so the others get used to seeing and smelling it ... Now pen up your other horses and walk new horse around fence line if not too big and turn loose for an hour or two to just wander around. Then turnout one of your other horses to go meet new horse ... when settled and grazing ... then the next horse etc etc ... Usually the meanest acting horses are the ones that are last or bottom of the pecking order ... no one wants to be on the bottom of the pecking order. I do this while working around the barn doing chores since it takes awhile ... When you turn the new horse out into a pasture with all the other horses, they consider it an invasion and the stampede is on chasing the new horse .... and this is when bad things usually happen..
This is what I do. Our round pen is adjacent to the pasture. So I always put the new one in the round pen. Our barn has paddocks all with a common pipe fence to each other as well. After a week or so of them getting used to each other and familier with each other, I move the origional horses into the smaller pasture with again a common fence line and give the new horse the main pasture alone for 2 days. Then I put ONE horse in with the new one. The next day I let in a second, then the next day a third. That way, the new horse is not over whelmed and the existing herd cant gang up on the new one. I have been doing it this way for years and it always goes smooth and no kicking, biting, ect.
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 Expert
Posts: 2276
Location: ohio-in my own little world with pretty ponies :) | When I had my horses at my parents we only had one pasture and it wasn't huge so I put them in stalls where they could get to know each other in there and I would rotate the new horse around so they got to all meet and then put new horse out in the pasture and let one out...once things settled, I let in another. Never had a problem. |
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 The Color Specialist
Posts: 7530
Location: Washington. (The DRY side.) | I throw them together. I have had and seen MUCH worse injuries to horses that were across fences from each other. (Including broken off legs from catching them in the gap between a metal gate and the post.)
They also tend to STILL try to run the new horse off when it is put with them ANYWAY. Even if the new one has been across a fence or driveway from them for a while.
Edited by RacingQH 2015-06-30 3:34 PM
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 Regular
Posts: 76
Location: North Carolina | I throw them in together as well. My horses aren't super agressive with new ones though, they put them in their place & that's the end of it. But your pasture does need to be big enough so the new one can get away if needed. |
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 Chicken Chick
Posts: 3562
Location: Texas | We always penned the new horse for a while. Just so they could get to know each other without running one another through the fence. Unless my grandpa came by, he just starts turning horses out like he owns the place lol. Sometimes he even mows the yard then gripes cause your grass was getting too tall lol.
Once we had a family member's horse at our house. Their horse hadn't been there 24 hours and was penned. Grandpa came over and turned him out. He called my mom and said "Well I let that yella horse out and I think him and that brown horse of yours has just about killed each other. I'm getting the golf cart, gonna round 'em up if I can." lol True story. My grandpa isn't a city boy either, he was a ranch foreman for years and years and years. Grew up with horses yada yada, just thinks he runs the show every now and then lol. |
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