NEW YEARLING TOO BIG FOR HIS BOOTS!

[surreyhorsechick]

I have just purchased a yearling gelding. I took my 21 yr old boy up to where I bought him from so that they could get aquainted before travelling home together (it was too long a journey for the yearling to travel on his own for the first time). My old boy is normally near the top of the heirarchy in the herd and can be quite a bully and I was worried how he would treat my new youngster. When they went in together for the first time they got on great, with my older boy laying down the rules etc without being too agressive. However after 5 days of coming home to my own field my normally placid youngster has turned into a complete bully and pushes my old boy round the field, tries to steal his dinner and can get quite agressive towards him if he tries to come to the gate for a pat etc!! I always feed my old boy first (I was told to do this by old owner) so youngster (hopefully) knows his place, so where am I going wrong????

My boys ARE next door to a mare and gelding (the mare is 24 but does still come into season and the gelding is very protective of her and runs at the dividing fence to shoo my boys away from 'his' mare. Could this be the reason for my yearling's behaviour??? I believe he was gelded about 4-5 months ago.

Please help!!!

 

[air78]

I'd be tempted to put the gelding that chases him off in the same field to put him in his place.... you don't want him getting too big for his boots, but like everything, it's a fine line

I'd bring him in to feed him though to avoid conflict

 

[surreyhorsechick]

Yes, I had thought of that, but I'm worried that it won't make any difference to how my youngster treats my older horse - it's the older one who needs to stand his ground more. It's totally unlike the older one, as a three year old was in his field a few months ago and he was horrible to him all the time, pushing him away and biting him etc, but he's just become completely submissive towards my new one! (it's now just my new one and my older one in the field)

 

[flyingfeet]

My herd boss, is was being chased to play (usually a game of bite face) with our 2 year old.

I have since removed him and stuck him in with my grumpy mare, he has since not had an opportunity to play bite face and is very much behaving himself!