Best way to introduce socially inept horse to a herd?

[AdorableAlice]

Some horses either prefer to be alone or are not able to be in a herd. Horses like this that I have had have all been former stallions. I have also had stallions that were happy chaps out with geldings, and serving stallions that ran with their mares, but all of these were rare cases.

My horse, even now at rising 29 years of age, will chase a rabbit or pheasant out of his paddocks. He will also stamp on a dog. I am sure it is the stallion territorial aspect that has stayed with him. He loves his friends in adjoining paddocks and has a favourite who he will share hay through the post and rail with and snooze alongside.

I tried various friends with him who he loved for a short period of time and then decided he didn't love anymore and was very aggressive towards them. The aggression was always with the front end teeth and front legs, he has never ever offered to kick. With people he has always been a total gentleman.

 

[tristar]

what ever the gender horses have, they have personalities and preferences on top, then there is the dynamic of social structure, of which dominance is a factor, our very dominate stallion is aggressive with all other horses except a small pony mare who accidently got in with him one day, stamped her hoof screamed like a witch and subdued him, he sort says ``oh, ok then``[basically he nearly pooped himself] an shuffled off to graze quietly.

i think until you put two horses together you never know how it will work out, however carefully you intro them over the fence.

 

[Jericho]

Hi all,

I have an imported Spanish gelding who hasn't been out in a herd since he was started under saddle. He's now rising 8. We've tried turning him out with my other horse and he became obsessed with pestering him until we had to separate them again. Since then he's been out by himself.

I'd like to move yards to one closer to my house, but there aren't any private fields available. I also believe that, where possible, it's good for horses to live in a herd. But how do I figure out whether he's a good candidate for herd life? And if he is, how do I introduce him to a herd while minimising the chances of anyone getting injured?

He's got a lot of life ahead of him (fingers crossed!) so it would be great if he could enjoy normal horse life for most of it. I suspect that a group situation would be better for him than being alone with just one other horse, because he couldn't then focus all of his social angst onto one target.

Any thoughts or experiences?

So, we have an 8yr old horse who is adorable but like yours is socially inept. He isn't particularly nasty but would be annoying chasing them and just following others until they got totally narked. He never seems to understand social grooming - he just bites and his body language is all wrong although loves a bit of mutual grooming with his humans and is the softest boy around humans. I can only think as a youngster he never lived in a group environment. We kept him in the next field to our others for over a year as every time we put him in with one of the others whether it was the mare, the young gelding or the ancient gelding he just made them run. Even over a fence he never played properly it was always really over enthusiastic. We just joked that he had no social skills but it did worry me that he was a little bit mentally scarred and it was a skill he needed to learn. In the end, due to lack of grazing I put him out with the mare who put him in his place but it was never really peaceful and I felt the mare getting anxious so I put him in with the young gelding and gradually he is learning - the young gelding has a bit of play but also threatens to put him in his place if its too much and also the young gelding is brave enough to know he has learnt he can control socially inept one if he is being chased him by threatening to stand up to him. I felt sorry for the little young gelding occasionally but feel they are probably quite happy. There has never been a full out persistent fight, just a few squabbles and they even share feeds sometimes. I still have never seen them groom each other or stand too close to each other after 3 months but feel happier than socially awkward one is learning. The moral of the story - to find the right field friend, let them get to know each other over a fence then rug and boot them up initially, take hind shoes off all and tentatively let them get on with it together. Some horses just have an annoying personality I think ;- D