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 Miss Laundry Misshap
Posts: 5271
  
| I currently have a gelding that wasn't cut until he was 5. He never bred anything, but he still has some studly tendencies towards mares. Even standing at a barrel race, the mares are not appreciative of his stares or sniffs. I also have a gelding who's fine around everyone.
I am currently looking for a new horse. I REALLY would like a mare. I currently have 2 geldings, and I just like mares better. I grew up with mares.
What do you do for introducing mares into geldings? I don't have a way to separate them unless 1 is in a stall 1/2 the time. Like swapping turnout. I don't want to deal with that, cleaning stalls all of the time, etc.
Do you just turn them out and walk away, let them sort it out? Do you build fences? Do you buy another gelding until this one passes?? Might have to happen. :( The PITA gelding is not going anywhere, so that isn't an option. |
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 I Don't Brag
Posts: 6960
 
| In our years of mixing mares and geldings, it IS the geldings that is the source of the drama. Had to separate two of hubby's dominant type geldings because their aggressive behavior was spent trying to keep the mares away from each other and my mares would get hurt in the process. That and the possibility of herdboundness goes up if attachments form.
But all in all we have mixed mares and geldings most of the time. |
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 Bulls Eye
Posts: 6443
Location: Oklahoma | The gelding in my avatar pic was a stud until May 2014. He mounted our mare and then ran her through a fence, so he's out with our donkey gelding now and my mares are separate. I would love to put them together, but it isn't going to happen. |
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 Serious Snap Trapper
Posts: 4275
Location: In The Snow, AZ | If I have the option, I let them meet over a fence. I throw new one in the round pen and let the established horses over to meet. However, when I didn't have the pen, I just walk the new one in and let them meet while "in hand" still. Let off after I'm comfortable, and just supervise. |
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 912
Location: Alabama | Try to get a dominate mare. Hopefully she will let him know real quick like where he stands. After that they should get along fine. It's all about establishing a pecking order.
I too have mixed mares and geldings over the years and never had a major issue. They usually work it out with minimal scuffs and bumps. |
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 Accident Prone
Posts: 22277
Location: 100 miles from Nowhere, AR | I've had a couple of late cut geldings that had both previously bred mares. One was fine turned out with a mare and another gelding, the other retained some stud behaviors and was not safe turned out with mares. Even early cut geldings can get a little studdish around mares, so if you're going to own a mix, you need to be prepared to keep them separate if they don't jive well. |
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 Expert
Posts: 1210
Location: Kansas | I would highly suggest NOT to just turn the mare out and see how it goes. You might end up with a horse through a fence or otherwise hurt. When I introduce a new one, I keep the new one in a stall for about a week and let the other horses come up to the stall as they please to introduce themselves. That way the new one can back away from the other horses if they are not liking each other. After that, I will put the new horse out with my 30 year old gelding and have the mares in a pasture next to them for a couple of days. After this when I turn everyone out together, they still sniff and prance around each other, but the newness has kind of worn off. I know it's a hassle to stall a horse, but it's better than thousands in vet bills if it runs through a fence. |
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 Buttered Noodles Snacker
Posts: 4377
Location: NC | ~BINGO~ - 2016-03-22 10:16 AM If I have the option, I let them meet over a fence. I throw new one in the round pen and let the established horses over to meet. However, when I didn't have the pen, I just walk the new one in and let them meet while "in hand" still. Let off after I'm comfortable, and just supervise.
What they said....  good luck |
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Miss Laundry Misshap
Posts: 5271
| We really have never just turned them out together. We worry too much! LOL, as you can see from the post.
When we got the PITA gelding, we had an old mare and my other gelding. My other gelding was out all of the time, and then we rotated the mare and the PITA. We tried once to let them out together, because she WAS dominant and she tried to knock his block off and he didn't take No for an answer. :/
I think I'm probably looking for a gelding. Anybody have bloodlines for geldings with personality?
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I just read the headlines
Posts: 4483
| All of my geldings have had personality, lol. Their sires are all old now, though. Their grand sires were Firewater Flit, Easily Smashed and Bugs Alive In 75 on the sire's side. I think you just have to mess with a gelding for him to show his personality. It seems like my mares want you to know their personalities right away.  |
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 Total Germophobe
Posts: 6437
Location: Montana | I tried something similar, but I had a mare 14 y/o and a 33 y/o gelding together, and they got along fine. I bought a 2 coming 3 y/o gelding, and I tried to introduce them. The 33 y/o gelding would not let the 3 y/o gelding come near my mare and would try to kick at my mare or the 3 y/o gelding. I could put the mare and the 3 y/o together in a pasture, or the 33 y/o gelding and 3 y/o in the pasture, but never the 3 of them together, somebody WOULD have gotten hurt. The 33 y/o passed away the next spring at 34, and made things a lot easier with pastures. So moral of the story, I don't think I'd introduce a mare, but that is just my opinion from my experience. And the funny thing is the problem wasn't with the mare, it was with the 33/34 y/o gelding! |
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  The Color Specialist
Posts: 7530
Location: Washington. (The DRY side.) | Besides being jerks, MANY geldings (no matter what age they were gelded.) are more than happy to try to breed a mare in heat. If your existing gelding is that obnoxious, I wouldn't mix him with a mare. |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 1131
| I have a gelding who is proud cut, was a backyard breeding stallion til he was 10 and will mount any mare in a ten mile radius. haha He's a little brat. However, He's fine turned out with mares, ESPECIALLY ones who will kick his little butt when he messes with them - the hussy mares just encourage him, it's mares like the one in my profile picture who will kick his teeth in that he does best with. He can't be turned out in a mixed herd though, because he will fight with the other geldings over the mares. He has to be the only gelding, or with all submissive geldings - can't have both. |
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 Neat Freak
Posts: 11216
Location: Wonderful Wyoming | rodeoveteran - 2016-03-22 9:11 AM In our years of mixing mares and geldings, it IS the geldings that is the source of the drama. Had to separate two of hubby's dominant type geldings because their aggressive behavior was spent trying to keep the mares away from each other and my mares would get hurt in the process. That and the possibility of herdboundness goes up if attachments form. But all in all we have mixed mares and geldings most of the time.
I agree. Usually the mares just do their thing and a gelding tries and lays claim to them. Chasing off and fighting with the other geldings. We never mix our herd except for 2 and under fillies sometimes go out with the old retired ranch geldings. |
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 Hog Tie My Mojo
Posts: 4847
Location: Opelousas, LA | RacingQH - 2016-03-22 2:51 PM Besides being jerks, MANY geldings (no matter what age they were gelded.) are more than happy to try to breed a mare in heat. If your existing gelding is that obnoxious, I wouldn't mix him with a mare.
We have a gelding like that and he is fine with mares as long as we have a bred mare in the bunch to "chaperone" the party. As soon as she comes in to foal, everyone goes in seperate turnouts. |
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 Warmblood with Wings
Posts: 27846
Location: Florida.. | My stud was cut late at 7... he couldnt be with geldings until 8 months later then turned my 2 mares out and the stud tried to kill the gelding.. after about a year or more they could all be out together fine.. its a process |
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Miss Southern Sunshine
Posts: 7427
Location: South Central Florida | I have seen geldings cut very late, and still very well behaved. Are you sure he is not proud cut? Our neighbor had a proud cut, and he was the only gelding my mares ever reacted to. They treated him just like a stud.
My 27 year old gelding, was cut before we owned him at age 5. Now he is not proud cut, and my mares do not have a problem with him, but he actually gets erections and beats his belly :) Has done it all his life. The mares don't seem to be bothered at all.
I have 2 geldings and 4 mares. But one gelding is not quite 2 and was born here. ALL my horses are pastured seperate at first, on the other side of a road from each other. Then I haul them together...seems to bond them. Then I put them in the stall like one at a time, they can smell, touch scream, what ever they want to do, but one of them is stalled, the other out. This is usually only a day or two, then I turn them out. The pasture they go into is 10 acres, so somethims they run and chase for a little bit, but usually only a few min. Then unless they have a problem, I can rotate them in and out when ever I want.
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 805
Location: Montana | Sockittoemred - 2016-03-23 8:26 AM
Try to get a dominate mare. Hopefully she will let him know real quick like where he stands. After that they should get along fine. It's all about establishing a pecking order.
I too have mixed mares and geldings over the years and never had a major issue. They usually work it out with minimal scuffs and bumps.
This doesn't always work. My mare is/was a definite alpha mare. And when I introduced my gelding to her it took about two weeks before he was "in charge" in his mind. I have to separate them. I tried a couple weeks ago to turn out together while I cleaned stalls and he chased her all over the place biting and kicking her. He's lucky I didn't shoot his a$$! When I haul them together the herd bound screams are horrible. He will buck, kick and scream his bloody head off, when I ride off on her. I have dents in the bars on the head Windows in my trailer from him trying to tear the trailer apart. He even would run through Hot Hot Hotwire fence to get to her. He has ripped his swinging door off its hinges to get out with her. And has ran through a sliding door on his stall. |
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