Herd dynamics

dilbert

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22 November 2008
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Hi all, I think I'm just hoping for some reassurance / wise words :)

Wednesday night my new 4 yr old cob arrived ( he's lovely) . He was stabled overnight with my cob and NF geldings and they spent a good few hours in the overgrown school together munching with very little problem.

I turned them out together yesterday lunch time, my coloured cob is the boss and was generally fine with new boy unless he came too close . Last night new boy had a graze / cut across his back from cobs teeth. This morning they were all sleeping in a group with new boy a few metres from the others.

Today new boy and cob came in to be ridden. I led them back to the field together with no issues and left them grazing very close together , NF pony st the other side of the track. Later on my friend checked them and the two cobs were lying snoozing next to each other.

I've just popped to check and new boy has a little bite on his neck ( could be from coloured cob or NF tbh) and is now grazing away from the others . The cobs have rugs on for a bit of protection but I feel sad for the new boy as he seems so sweet ( although to be fair I'm sure he is capable of pushing his luck!).

I know it's early days but does this all sound pretty normal? I've made sure they've got plenty of grass to eat spread around the track so there's no need for them to be in top of each other.
 
All sounds very normal, if anything quite easy! From what I've seen in the past it can take a few days to settle a herd into its new format. Also I've never know a herd of any decent size where they don't get the odd bite mark here and there horses can play a bit rough :)
 
Here's a photo of my grey being bossy towards the gelding that she had been recently (at the time of the photo) introduced to. They all get on fine now, infact the grey is his favourite of the mares - but he is bottom of the herd. ;) :)

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