Problems integrating a new horse?

HaffiesRock

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Please can I have some of your pearls of wisdom with my current situation?

I have a 5 year old mare and a 13 year old gelding. The mare is the dominant one and they have lived together as a pair for the last 18 months. When they were first together she was awful to my gelding, but eventually after a few weeks they settled and are now well bonded.

On Saturday a new pony arrived to share the field. He is a 3 year old gelding and hasn't really been in a real herd situation before.

He was put in his own paddock and I watched them all day. There was lots of sniffing over the fence then they all lost interest and went their separate ways. By the evening my gelding was grooming him over the fence.
The next day I decided to put them all together as they seemed fine. Well, my mare took a massive dislike to him and chased him around quite aggressively, although she got close she never actually made contact with him.. I left them too it for an hour to sort it out, but she was still chasing him around and he was looking a bit stressed so I separated them again.

Left them another 24 hours and when I arrived this afternoon they were all grazing nearby so I open the gate so they could mix and my mare made a bee line for him and started chasing him again. Then my blooming push over gelding started chasing him and actually got his teeth into him. No damage done, but the newbie is now back in his separate paddock.

What should I do next?

Leave him separated? I feel bad about this as he is a lovely pony and just wants to be friends with everyone.
Leave separated for now and try and reintroduce them again next weekend?
Put my mare in the separate paddock and let the 2 geldings be together?

The paddock that is separate is about 2 acres and is in the middle of the field so my ponies can touch him over the fence and he has plenty of room.

I know it is early days but I am not sure what to do for the best? I don't want any ponies getting hurt, but feel bad for the new one on his own.

Thanks in advance.
Any advice?
 
I would remove the bully - so if that is the mare I would put the two boys together. I noticed today my PITA companion pony is coming in to season so it is a difficult time of year for mares hormones as well. I would also remove hind shoes, if they have any, I lost my horse of a lifetime to a kick and now all intros are done without hinds.
 
Leave them for a day or two then put the two geldings together once they are really well settled, at least another couple of days, move them all in together, ideally in a different field from where the mare is, so she joins them, if they could be a bit hungry and go onto some new grass or have hay it will help them think of their stomachs rather than arguing.
Two geldings and a mare is sometimes a problem but it is normally down to the boys fighting over "their" mare not the mare seeing off the gelding, she will probably accept him fairly quickly as long as he is submissive, the boys will then become buddies leaving her to quietly run things.
 
Both geldings are very submissive. the new one has done nothing more than get out of her way! I have never seen my gelding retaliate either. I really feel for the new boy, he is just gorgeous and want to be friends.

I did wonder if the mare could be in season. Could this make her attitude towards the new one worse?

Right, so you think leave them as they are for now (new one separate) then in a couple of days put the boys together and keep the mare separate. Then introduce the mare back into the geldings paddock and see what happens?

This is what I was thinking. It seems sad to split the boys up as they were making friends. The mare would be happy on her own.

They have ad lib hay spread over the field in many piles as I though food may be an issue. So it's not food they are fighting over (or so it appears) as there is more than enough.

Thanks everyone.
 
One of mine is a bit of a bully. I always introduce a new one to a new friend first, after over the fence time. So, for example, when my little new forest arrived he went into his own section where he could sniff the others over the fence, then after a week, went out with my very sweet cob mare. He quickly became the boss in that relationship, so I then introduced him to my Welshie, who he became best friends with, and finally put them all out together, with my "bully" warmblood, who was fine as he had made allegiances with the other two.
 
I imagine when mares come in season they feel like I do with PMT - so stroppy, intolerant and wanting to be nasty to someone. Yuong gelding is probably just copping it. I;m sure one day soon you will think how silly they were.
 
I imagine when mares come in season they feel like I do with PMT - so stroppy, intolerant and wanting to be nasty to someone. Yuong gelding is probably just copping it. I;m sure one day soon you will think how silly they were.

I hope so. She was a c*w to my gelding initially but got over it eventually.

I completely appreciate it is natural behaviour and so far, no harm done to anyone as no actually feet are flying (all barefoot anyway) It's just hard to watch and I feel for that poor pony too.

I will keep you posted. Thank you all for your advice.
 
I'd leave them separated for at least a fortnight so that the mare can begin to get used to the idea of another pesky gelding and the other gelding can get bored of his presence.
 
its a tough one. Sometimes they need to work it out but if the mare is constantly after him I would take her or him out.

I recently got a new mare and when I put her with my mare and gelding for the first time my gelding was pestering her and chasing her. Eventually my other mare got fed up of them flying past her and she went over and gave my gelding a good telling off and stayed In between him and the new mare until he got bored and went off grazing with a hump on his back lol
 
Hi all, just wanted to update you on my situation.

So, I put the new pony in his own paddock and he stayed there for 2 weeks. New pony and my gelding have been grooming over the fence so last Saturday I put the 2 geldings together and put my mare in the separate paddock. I gave them half an hour all together (just to see) and my mare just chased him off again.

Anyway, I've not been up this week as had a car accident and car is not driveable :( I had a call tonight from the new pony's owner to say my mare and him were grooming over the fence!!

I am going to leave them separate for now and maybe put my mare back with the geldings and see what happens.
 
sometimes these things take a long time to settle down. I've had little Kira since August and still don't put our 3 out together. She's OK with Millie - Millie chases her off if she comes too close, but it's not a sustained attack ;) and I think she'd be OK with Armas as they are starting to chat over the fence now.
Millie is the kingpin in the herd so I think both Kira & Armas will want to guard her from the other if they all go out together.
I kept them all separate for at least 6 weeks before putting M & K together. Kira is desperate for the company of other horses, so it has been hard to restrict that, but it's not worth rushing in case of accidents. I think we are nearly at the point where they can all go out together, as soon as the ground dries up. Try to remain patient :)
 
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