Help with introducing

HanFloss

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28 January 2017
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Hi
Yesterday I moved my mare to a new yard and brought my new gelding over.
The yard has two other horses living there.
The horses are all currently separate with a gate and fence between them but they can all 'talk' to each other over the top.
My mare is very unsettled and will not leave the gate. If the other horses leave she panicks and when they come back she squeals and kicks at the gate. She's doing this with big front and back legs. She ate hardly anything yesterday and I'm panicking because she's had stomach ulcers in the past.
She's usually ok and I've never seen her being this aggressive the plan was to put her and my new gelding in together in the future.
He seems to have settled better and is grazing at least.
She's also in season which isn't helping and she's the only mare on the yard.
Any tips on introducing and on how to calm my mare would be gratefullly received.
 
She is probably stressed due to being alone, having horses within touching distance is not the same as having one in with them, I would think her behaviour will be far less aggressive once she has your gelding in with her but you may then have an issue when separating them, very small yards don't suit all horses as they tend to become clingy to each other but see how it goes once they get together.
 
Please before they all go in together, take all back shoes off, if these horses are shod, or there could be serious injuries caused. I don't understand what YO was thinking of, considering putting one mare in with 3 geldings!
 
Thanks all.
When I got there this morning two of the horses had got into the same paddock as my mare and they were all cuddled up together.
Bit the bullet and put the gelding in because he was getting really stressed on his own.
After 15mins of bombing around the field they seemed to settle down and started grazing. Fingers crossed all stays that way.
I've had a bad experience with introducing horse before and it's made me really nervous. Thanks for your advice.
 
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