Moving yards

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meganjudd

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I will be moving yards soon (in the next 2 weeks) with my pony. She will be in a field on grass livery with fantastic grazing, but she is with 3 other mares...2 of which I have been told can be aggressive and like to compete with the newbie for the first few days/weeks. The yard owners (who are some of the loveliest people I've ever met!) said that one of the mares hates other horses (although needs the company) but loves humans, and the other just likes to compete with mares they don't know. I'm hoping it will all be fine, my pony is quite young but is used to bossy mares! Does anyone have any tips of how I can help settle my pony into the new yard? She is fine to travel, and the new yard is only a ten minute drive.
 
In an ideal world, a new horse to a group will have spent a week over a safe fence from her new friends. But most straight introductions - where horses are free to get out of the way - are fine. If the owners are nice people, the mare who doesn't like other horses does not attempt to kill them. All you can do is keep an eye on the situation for an hour after first introduction - if your pony is used to being bossed, she knows what to do. Relax!
 
Not a lot you can do! If the field has good grazing and space then should be OK. Ideally all back shoes will be off (knew a YO who ended up insisting new mares out in grass liveries had back shoes temporarily removed). If your mare is used to boots, then I would heavily boot up just to start with. Not a big fan of booting horses up in the field as always worry about overheating legs though I will do it if I need to. Also, just make really sure the other owners know when you are going to turn out and wait for them to come up at an arranged time or at least agree you can turn out when they are not there. Will go an awfully long way to easing your mind and helping future relations with the other owners.
 
With yours being young she will hopefully quickly take the hint and be submissive, I've only seen issues where the new mare also decides she should be top horse, with space and plenty of food they will hopefully quickly settle.
 
I would ask about making a small paddock within the field with electric fencing to pop your mare in until at least the initial 'Who are you?' session is over and everybody has settled down..
 
Thanks everyone! I would make her a small pen but she is a pro at jumping and will jump straight out as she doesn't like being away from others! (Field is v big). She doesn't wear shoes and the agressive ones have fronts/none. She isn't used to wearing boots as she's a cob and we mainly hack so she doesn't need them! But can see why that would be a good idea!
 
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