Dominant horse in field

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malibu211211

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We have recently introduced a friends mare back into our herd of horses which consist of 1 mare, 1 filly, a gelding and a shetland pony gelding.
We tried putting her in just over a month ago and she was very dominant, and has lived on her own for the past 2 years, but she was chasing away the mare who is usually very dominant herself, her ears were flat back at everything that came near her, but she was particularly agressive to the mare and it resulted in the mare becoming depressed and outside the herd.
Well, we fenced her off in a section of the field in our field and they seemed fine, standing next to each other on each side of the tape, grazing and sleeping together.
We thought as they seemed to be ok we would try to put them back in together, but this morning we saw the dominant mare seriously going for the mare again, not just telling her off but really flying for her. I don't think we are going to be able to keep them all together as im worried the mare will get hurt or depressed again, but why do you think she is doing this? shes not being protective towards the geldings as she is charging at them to, but why do you think she is so bad towards the mare? would you persist in keeping them together or just admit this mare needs to be kept seperate?
 
She sounds like a cow bag - bit like my darling AmyMay
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I agree - keep them separate, there is just too much danger of serious damage.
 
If i were you i'd admit defeat. if it doesnt make much difference to have her in her own patch it's probably easier to do that rather than end up with a heap of vet's bills.

It sounds like you just have two very strong minded ladies and they both want to be the boss!!
 
Think uve answered your own question....She is trying to be the dominant one in the field. There's normally only room for one of these in a herd hence why she is bullying the " dominant mare" and tring to keep all the geldings in line aswell. (Bit of a power thing im sure all the women out there know all about)
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Perhaps best to keep them seperate like piebald said, mares can be right nightmares when the fight!
Good luck.
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I've found that this only happens when the horses are so close in hierarchy/dominance that they can't sort it out without a bit of a tussle. It usually happens if the horses are similar heights, types, ages etc...closely matched in other words.
You only really have two choices - keep them together or split them up....good luck either way!
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If you find the answer to this i will be very interested to hear it!i moved my boy few years ago now and the gelding he was out with was fine to start with,huge power struggle between the two for weeks(other horse 20 odd yr old,and is so anti social with people,difficult to catch,pulls faces behind your back etc,(even went for my 3 yr old son,fortunately i was there,scary eh??the most horrible natured horse i have ever met)!20 yr old got better of my boy and the bites he was gettin were unbelievable,whole ass covered,some real deep nasty ones!new horse came year later same again???Both horses(mine 2 yrs on)still gettin VERY bad bites,watched this horse 1 day,others doing nothing wrong,just grazing,this gelding charged from 1 side of a huge field to the other and took the biggest chunk out of my boys ass it was scary!SEPERATED as after 2 years this horse was still being evil,i always thort horses had a pecking order and didnt attack each other when this was established???This guy was physchotic,had some serious issues!!MOVED YARDS and my boy now got a clear bum and finally got his confidence back with other horses(boss again)!!This horse knocked my boys confidence right out of him,if i was you i would leave them seperate,not worth the heartache!!All geldings too?????
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