Horses fighting each other

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Upthecreek

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Opinions please..............

Horse is at a large yard. Turned out in a group of 5 geldings including him, very settled group who all got on pretty well (or at least tolerated each other). One left a few weeks ago and last week they put a new horse in. No introductions in field next door or anything. I turned mine out one evening and new horse was already in the field. The new horse and mine have been fighting ever since. Both of them have superficial cuts each day, but fortunately nothing serious so far. I think the problem is my horse is the dominant horse in the group, but new horse won’t back down. I keep being told they need to sort their pecking order out between themselves, but surely a week should be long enough for them to do that? Obviously I am worried about them seriously injuring each other, but I’m not sure if this is normal settling in behaviour or not. Will they ever accept each other?
 
The YO has done completely the wrong thing by letting the new horse get out before the rest of the herd especially the boss of the group, not to mention the other risks involved for all of the horses, of not doing a gradual introduction and thinking they will sort it out, yes they might but there is no guarantee they will now the new horse has taken his place out there.

No real answer as it is too late to do it properly and I guess there are no other options , if you had him here it would not have happened in the first place but if two really do not get on I will find a way round it so they are not in together. I don't care if it is play fighting as that can still have devastating consequences if a kick lands in the wrong place.
 
A week is no time at all, takes at least 2-3 for my dominant mare to accept a new horse into the field. Personally I prefer a staged right out to the field job, mine is kept in for the first couple days and the new horse goes out with the more easy going ones, then mine gets added back into the mix. I hate over the fences as I worry about legs getting caught up and even more damage being done.
 
We introduce many new horses but would never just drop one in unannounced to the herd unless it was in the 40acre field. Even then i don't think its been done.

It's been a week now so just go with it, if you disrupt progression now, it might get worse.
 
I wouldn't want to keep my horse on that yard.

Our horses are at home and when I bought my cob, aged 2, she and the Draft mare never did learn to tolerate each other. The day they were actually fighting was the last one they were in a field together, which was a complete pain because we had always had a herd of 4 altogether but safety came first.
Mine were both unshod but could have damaged each other seriously, if the 2 you are talking about are shod, I would be making strong representations to the YO that the herd be split up, or moving my horse, asap.
 
be positive said:
The YO has done completely the wrong thing by letting the new horse get out before the rest of the herd especially the boss of the group, not to mention the other risks involved for all of the horses, of not doing a gradual introduction and thinking they will sort it out, yes they might but there is no guarantee they will now the new horse has taken his place out there.

No real answer as it is too late to do it properly and I guess there are no other options , if you had him here it would not have happened in the first place but if two really do not get on I will find a way round it so they are not in together. I don't care if it is play fighting as that can still have devastating consequences if a kick lands in the wrong place.
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I completely agree and I feel really disappointed at how this has been handled. They were a very settled group until last week. Tomorrow I am going to say I either want my horse or the new horse taken out. Perhaps they can put them next to each other to see if they will just get bored of each other. Something has to change because my nerves are shredded through fear of something really bad happening. I’ve kept my boy in tonight as didn’t want to turn him out and have another sleepless night 😩
 
Pinkvboots said:
That's just bad management and personally I wouldn't want my horse coming in every day covered in cuts, playing or not it's not ideal it's only superficial up to now I would ask the yo if the horse can be moved.
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That’s my plan, one of them has to be moved. I know I won’t be popular but it was their choice to do the introduction so badly and it’s my choice to not risk injury to these horses. I think I’ve given them a fair chance to “sort out their pecking order” as I keep being fobbed off with. Obviously I would be heartbroken if my boy got injured, but I would also feel absolutely terrible if he caused injury to the other horse, yet ironically it wouldn’t be my fault!
 
Upthecreek said:
I completely agree and I feel really disappointed at how this has been handled. They were a very settled group until last week. Tomorrow I am going to say I either want my horse or the new horse taken out. Perhaps they can put them next to each other to see if they will just get bored of each other. Something has to change because my nerves are shredded through fear of something really bad happening. I’ve kept my boy in tonight as didn’t want to turn him out and have another sleepless night 😩
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Quite agree with your course of action.

I would never stable on a yard (nor did I ever run one) where horses were just chucked in together with no introduction. It's a walking vet bill waiting to happen. I know some will say "we've always done it that way and it's always been fine ..." ... and I would say they've been very, very lucky. Especially (as BP says) allowing the new horse into the herd and then expecting your dominant lad to cope with an impossible situation.
 
Mrs B said:
Quite agree with your course of action.

I would never stable on a yard (nor did I ever run one) where horses were just chucked in together with no introduction. It's a walking vet bill waiting to happen. I know some will say "we've always done it that way and it's always been fine ..." ... and I would say they've been very, very lucky. Especially (as BP says) allowing the new horse into the herd and then expecting your dominant lad to cope with an impossible situation.
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It’s been a horrible week. My usually laidback, loveable lad has been unsettled and really quite cross! I find these group dynamics absolutely fascinating. He has never had a problem like this with another horse so I don’t know if it is because this horse was already in the field when he got there or if him and the horse just dislike each other for whatever reason.
 
Upthecreek said:
Opinions please..............

Horse is at a large yard. Turned out in a group of 5 geldings including him, very settled group who all got on pretty well (or at least tolerated each other). One left a few weeks ago and last week they put a new horse in. No introductions in field next door or anything. I turned mine out one evening and new horse was already in the field. The new horse and mine have been fighting ever since. Both of them have superficial cuts each day, but fortunately nothing serious so far. I think the problem is my horse is the dominant horse in the group, but new horse won’t back down. I keep being told they need to sort their pecking order out between themselves, but surely a week should be long enough for them to do that? Obviously I am worried about them seriously injuring each other, but I’m not sure if this is normal settling in behaviour or not. Will they ever accept each other?
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I had to put my mare into an existing group, and the result was she shattered her splint bone in 19 -pieces. I would never put a new horse into an exiting group ever as results can be devastating. We always introduce them into an adjacent field first
 
If they are really trying to hurt each other then you need not just one of them out of the field but a good, solid, safe fence between them (or even better a field and two fences).

If it is essentially play then I would think about an electric fence dividing them if all of the horses are respectful of electric fencing. I have used electric fencing to have new horse + appropriate buddy and the rest of the herd split (but in the same field) and then taken that down when they are used to each other and the excitement has gone. It worked well but I did have to judge that was a safe option for those specific horses.
 
Many, many years ago a friend of mine turned her youngster out with a mixed bunch of mares and geldings. Two of the geldings, both TB's turned violently against the youngster and chased him mercilessly. It ended with one of the geldings clipping the youngster's heels and the pair of them somersaulting. The TB gelding broke his neck. Major lesson on how not to introduce a new horse.
 
Some horses just don't get along even if introduced slowly over a fence, and some liveries don't always disclose how there horse really is with other horses which doesn't help, I don't agree with the just leave them to it method seen too many field injuries in the past.

I would be furious if a new liveries horse was just put out with my horse without my knowledge, I admit one of my geldings can be an absolute horror in the field with other horses, I have to be very careful with strange horses and would never just turn him out with anything.
 
I have a dominant mare and she will fight anything that doesn't submit to her but once it does she becomes protective of it. I cannot leave her in with a horse that won't accept her dominance - they are both going to get injured - last time they both had very nasty cuts to their back legs (the owner of the other horse and the yard insisted they stayed in together very much against my wishes). I pulled her out and put up a fence immediately.
 
Exactly what my old YO would do. No quarantine. Straight out the box and in the field, no idea where they came from. Mine had endless cuts, kick marks, bites.. he would come in every day with another mark.

So glad I moved to a yard with individual turnout. They will eventually sort it out, but it may take its time.
 
That is so irresponsible, I would be furious. My SIL's yard does a similar poor job of introducing new horses and it was nearly 6 months before she got to ride her new mare as it keeped being injured. She moved yards!
 
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