FinkleyAlex
Well-Known Member
I've recently bought a rising 2yo gelding, he arrived on wednesday and unfortunately had to go straight into our field with an established herd (a bay roan welsh, a grey welsh and a coloured welsh type) due to not having the facilities to separate them. I was only expecting there to be three ponies to contend with, but a fourth bay mare is temporarily with us due to her owners loss of grazing. The bay roan is the herd leader, the grey is his second in command. The coloured pony is for the most part a total loner but can join in with the others at times.
The bay mare arrived a week before my gelding did, and settled in very quickly - wasn't bullied at all and gets on well with all the existing herd (she can stand as close as she likes, eat where she wants and stand on their toes if she wishes). She has become very close to my gelding and is really his only friend, occasionally putting her ears back at the bay roan and grey when they get too dominant towards him, but is also relatively fickle and stays out of it a lot. My gelding is the friendliest thing i've ever seen - he wants to be friends with everyone and has no concept of nastiness (not wearing rose tinted spectacles - I do have a dominant horse myself but he is kept elsewhere). The first day he was put in he was chased around a fair bit, mainly if he came too close to where the others were grazing. The second day he would only be chased if he got too close, but was allowed to graze on the outside of the herd. Since then he has been allowed to graze close to the herd but will be chased a way (at a walk usually, sometimes a trot) if the bay roan or grey feel like it. The bay roan and grey no longer try to chase and fast speed or kick/bite him as they did on the first day, but they will have bouts of generally being fairly unpleasant to him.
Today it was pouring with rain and my little one sought shelter under a tree - the bay roan, grey (and the coloured joined in) all chased him out and stayed under it themselves, allowing the relatively new bay mare to stay with them. He point blank wasn't allowed to go near them under the tree (there is other shelter but he is not confident enough to venture to other parts of the field alone yet). A public footpath runs alongside our fence and people often stop to stroke the ponies/feed them carrots (I'm going to ask the field owner if he minds me putting a sign up to stop this) and all the ponies go over intrigued. If my boy goes anywhere near that part of the field he is herded away at high speed by the two dominant ponies. At times they seem to just go for him for no visible reason.
It's been under a week since he arrived, so I know they're trying to sort their politics out but I suppose I'm worrying about drawing the line between being dominant and just plain bullying. Does anyone know how long it can take for them to establish their places in the herd (he's been waving a white flag since day one) as i'm worrying about the possible dynamics of feeding hay in summer if our grass doesn't improve - I don't want to cause more fights!
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The bay mare arrived a week before my gelding did, and settled in very quickly - wasn't bullied at all and gets on well with all the existing herd (she can stand as close as she likes, eat where she wants and stand on their toes if she wishes). She has become very close to my gelding and is really his only friend, occasionally putting her ears back at the bay roan and grey when they get too dominant towards him, but is also relatively fickle and stays out of it a lot. My gelding is the friendliest thing i've ever seen - he wants to be friends with everyone and has no concept of nastiness (not wearing rose tinted spectacles - I do have a dominant horse myself but he is kept elsewhere). The first day he was put in he was chased around a fair bit, mainly if he came too close to where the others were grazing. The second day he would only be chased if he got too close, but was allowed to graze on the outside of the herd. Since then he has been allowed to graze close to the herd but will be chased a way (at a walk usually, sometimes a trot) if the bay roan or grey feel like it. The bay roan and grey no longer try to chase and fast speed or kick/bite him as they did on the first day, but they will have bouts of generally being fairly unpleasant to him.
Today it was pouring with rain and my little one sought shelter under a tree - the bay roan, grey (and the coloured joined in) all chased him out and stayed under it themselves, allowing the relatively new bay mare to stay with them. He point blank wasn't allowed to go near them under the tree (there is other shelter but he is not confident enough to venture to other parts of the field alone yet). A public footpath runs alongside our fence and people often stop to stroke the ponies/feed them carrots (I'm going to ask the field owner if he minds me putting a sign up to stop this) and all the ponies go over intrigued. If my boy goes anywhere near that part of the field he is herded away at high speed by the two dominant ponies. At times they seem to just go for him for no visible reason.
It's been under a week since he arrived, so I know they're trying to sort their politics out but I suppose I'm worrying about drawing the line between being dominant and just plain bullying. Does anyone know how long it can take for them to establish their places in the herd (he's been waving a white flag since day one) as i'm worrying about the possible dynamics of feeding hay in summer if our grass doesn't improve - I don't want to cause more fights!
Cookies for whoever made it to the end!
Get your babba a lightweight rainsheet in the meantime. They will all settle down, once they teach him where he is in the pecking order. You are lucky your baby is responding to their direction and not challenging them - I had a mare who never learned this and constantly injured herself and others
It's difficult to watch, I know, but your lad is learning well and they are all adjusting and sorting him, with no injuries - fabulous stuff. 
but he generally accepts that he is bottom of the heap, and nothing really bad happens to him...(before I owned he was actually chased out of a herd of very dominant colts, so his lot in life has actually improved with his current lowly rank!) and anyway I pander to his special needs and position...make sure he gets his ration of hay and very firmly remind him where my own place in his herd is if and when he occasionally tries to make me take his position!! 