mares and geldings???

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Lil_Breeze

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hi there, im kinda unsure whether this is the correct place to post this but hey ho, i need a bit of help :)

I have a mare and a gelding, ive had my gelding for about 5 years and i recently took on an ex race/broodmare from my friends work 9 months ago.

they seem to have a huge love/hate relationship, they hate being separated (even when working) but my gelding does bully my mare in the field (its just the 2 of them in the poddock). they are fine being led in together but my gelding becomes aggressive towards her in the paddock when she comes near and bullys her away from the trough and the gate when i go and get them in.

hes managed to put huge rips in 4 of her rugs (one i bought about a month ago) and i dont know what to do to calm him down and stop the aggression, and i cant split them up due to the yard and their love/hate relationship.

any help or advice is greatly welcomed as i cant afford to lose another rug for the winter and ive only just had the rest fixed!!
 
I have a gelding a bit like that. I am now down to one mare and one gelding too, so anticipate that I may have similar problems.

I try to make sure that they do go out alone now and again, and stand in their box alone etc. I intend taking them out in the trailer to a local school so that they can get used to standing on the trailer while the other works (hopefully to avoid dramas at shows..)

Re the rug ripping, a grazing muzzle on now and again stopped my gelding.
 
they were both turned out with another mare in the summer, but it resulted in the other mare being kicked :( again i think my gelding got jealous, he was turned out with mares when i bought him, but then he has always been with geldings, at one yard they were mixed but then they decided to split it mares and geldings.

i will try the idea of turning one out and leaving one in and see what happens, i did think about poss putting some magnesium in my geldings feed but im unsure whether it will help or not

keep the ideas comming guys :)
 
I'd leave them together if they were mine and I would invest in top quality rugs. I don't have aggressive horses but I do have some very playful horses and if I didn't buy certain types of rugs then I know mine would all end up in tatters.
 
I have mares, geldings, foals and a rig - they have a good sized field and so sort themselves out, as they would in the wild, developing a pecking order. Mine live out all year, and only one rugged (as I have previously said in other threads - after learning from my friends in the states, who have extremes of heat and cold, NO RUGS!), so rug tearing not an issue. They do get 'love bites', but as I am not showing them, it is not a big deal. Horses are herd animals and unless one became very injured or unwell because of bullying, I would leave them to it. I really think grazing space is the key.
 
We have one of each. The rug ripping is a little on the rough side, but what you describe sounds like pretty normal behaviour. Our two can have the occasional tiff, but really they are the best of friends.
 
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