Veterans turned out with 7 year old.

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showqa

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Hi chaps,

How do you feel about a 7 year old gelding being turned out with two veteran mares? Inappropriate do you think? Do you foresee problems? Does anyone do it? Also, if a horse has equine company all day, and then has to be boxed (thinking winter really), is it ok to be boxed alone but in a yard that faces the house and is full of canine, feline, sheep and human activity? All opinions welcomed!
 
Well, we have an 8 year old an 17 year old, a 21 year old and 24 year old. The 8 and 24 year old are playmates! We have had the 8 yo since he was 4and his best play buddy is the oldest of the lot. Depends on horses temperaments more than anything, I should think the 7 yo gelding will be bottom of the pecking order with 2 veteran mares anyway so won't be a probelm in that respect.

Again with the stabling depends on the horse, some horses are happy to be stabled alone provided they can see other, some horses can't cope.
 
We have a 5 year old turned out with a 26 year old with no problem. The 5 year old is a mare and the 26 year old is a very possesive gelding. They have been together for a couple of years with no incidents.
 
As LadyT says, some horses may cope alone, others will kill themselves. Way back, I made the awful mistake of calling my YO one day to ask her to leave Brandy in when she turned the others out, since I was just about to head up there for a ride. When I got there half an hour later I could hear her from the roadside, and found her shaking like a leaf, lathered in sweat and utterly traumatised. As soon as I appeared, the hysterics were over (not suggesting that I'm special - I think any human or horse would have had that effect). Needless to say I felt like a monster, riding was off and I spent the morning lavishing her with apologies and cuddles. So, long story short, you may need to experiment - put your horse in alone and then hide close by for a while to see what happens. Make sure you're right there on hand though. I dread to think what would have happened if my little tubster had tried to jump out of her stable
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i put all ages out together as long as they're not shod behind. it's good for them, the old ones teach the kids good manners. my big old lad taught one of my feisty 3-yr olds more in 5 mins than i could have in a year... took her down a peg or two with one look, made my life much easier and safer!
yes, i think boxed alone but with lots of other company around is fine, personally.
 
I turn youngsters out with my 20 & 22 year old ex-broodmares. The mares have has 16 foals between them so they don't take any c*ap from youngsters. They boss them and it does the youngsters good. I don't mean that they knock 7 shades out of the youngsters, it is the evil looks and the body language stuff. It puts the youngsters in their place and they educate them. It is one reason I have kept the mares going, last summer should have been their last.

At the end of the day it is your decision which horses you choose to keep together.
 
The only draw back with putting younger ones in with older ones is that the younger ones can tend to miss out on the oportunity to hooley around. Our 12 year old Appy is very pleased to have a 9 year old to play with as she was with old ladies and a very slow moving heavy. The only problem when we put the 9 year old in with her was that she seemed to have forgotten that any other horse could move as fast as she could. She got clobbered for not getting out of the way fast enough, but has realised now that others do move as fast as her (well nearly:) )
 
we have a 36YO and 32YO turned out with an 11YO at my yard, works absulutely fine. He hoovers up the feed they leave as they don't have many teeth, which helps him keep on weight as he is a bad doer
 
my 4 yr old is out with my 25 yr old. the old mare gets annoyed from time to time when the young mare wants to play - but they are good company for each other .
 
ps - i agree with Yorkshire Lass , my old girl lost her best mate this year and would have gone downhill without the new young horse to fire dirty looks too.
 
Thanks for that chaps. I was thinking that being with older horses can help if the gelding is a bit full of himself at times. Appreciate your time.
 
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