Really shocked by an attack on my horse...

[babymare]

My mare was in mixed herd for 7 years and no issues. in fact the herd would call to her when turned her out . not all mares are the same x

 

[SusieT]

Have you had them turned out over a fence together or have they always been split by a corridor?

 

[stencilface]

The mare has been on the yard now for over a month. So whilst I take your point and also understand that horses will sometimes just act on instinct I still don't think I should have expected it to happen.

Just to say we have a very established gelding herd (two of them have been together 18 years, they're the worst ones lol) we would never introduce a mare (personal choice, and its our own land) and our last newbie we got 3 years ago. I think we introduced him over a three month period, if not more. Introducing each horse singularly, starting with the lowest in the pack and moving up. So whilst a month is a reasonable amount of time, IMHO it's not that long. If we introduced a mare (unlikely!) it would probably take a year'

 

[fatpiggy]

My mare was in mixed herd for 7 years and no issues. in fact the herd would call to her when turned her out . not all mares are the same x

I never had any real problems with mixed herds either, partly because my girl was head honcho, and partly because they had the space to get out of the way. In the last 12 months of her life though she had slipped the middle of the pile and another mare (subsequently found it had kicked another horse at its previous yard) battered seven bells out of her. She was nearly 29 at the time, riddled with arthritis, partially sighted in one eye and her hearing wasn't so good either. The YO was a novice horse owner herself and didn't bat an eyelid about bunging a new horse in the field without any precautions. She been warned by the other liveries that the oldies should be kept together and away from anything much younger unless it was proven to be quiet. We tried to do it right by fencing the field in half for the first day or so, but once the new one gained some confidence, it pounced on my poor girl within a couple of days. The saddest thing was that my old girl would go straight up to any new horse and introduce herself nicely, show it where the water was etc and generally be kind to it. She was no threat to anyone and would no more have started a fight than grown wings and flown to the moon.

 

[pip6]

IMHO nothing to do with mixed herds or being a mare. Some horses are just downright nasty to others. Seen more aggressive geldings than mares, but having said that when you come across a mean are they are really mean. I've known both a mare & a geldng who were downright evil for no reason (histories known).