As I was saying in my last post, when you try to introduce a new horse to a new herd of horses, it can be quite brutal to watch and rather bothersome! But all the behavior you see is normal when it comes to herd behavior and most of the time you don't even need to worry about it. When you introduce a newbie to the herd, you are in effect making the other horses re-establish their hierarchy. So it's not only stressful for the new horse, as he or she is getting kicked at, bitten, ran at.... if you were to put this behavior into a comparable human situation, you would see some serious bullying! Your heart just hurts for that solo horse, but let me tell you, the other horses are stressed as well.
The horses in the herd prior to this newcomer coming in, were all settled in, and every horse knew their place in the herd. Now every horse is questioning themselves and fighting to maintain their hierarchy and also find a place for the new horse to fit in. This can be a good time for a spry youngster to try and be higher up on the chain, if the newcomer is more of a docile personality, they might end up towards the end of the totem poll. Typically that is all fine, and around three weeks in, your herd should know every horse's place and harmony will return.
Some things to consider to keep all the horses from getting hurt are making sure there is enough room for horses to run away from each other, sometimes you may have to remove shoes if they are on the hind hooves, as a kick can really do damage especially with a shoe on and make sure the fencing has nothing horses can get hung up on if one is cornered. With all that said, most of the time it goes okay. Seldomly, you might need to remove the new horse out with the most docile horse in the herd. They can figure out who is alpha pretty quick and become buddies in a rather short period of time. Horses don't like to be alone, so they should buddy up pretty fast. Then when you put them back with your herd, your newcomer has a buddy and all is well.
This pretty much describes our weekend, and as I type my baby girl is with my big girl learning to be friends. Our other mare is in her own area, getting an attitude adjustment and it's pretty peaceful out there tonight! I hope and pray it stays that way and only gets better!
Tip of the Day: When you think your way is the right way, maybe it's not! Open your mind to knew ideas, you can even get wiser by looking at how other species live. Humans sometimes screw everything up by overthinking. Go with your instincts, you might even find peace when you go with the flow.
The horses in the herd prior to this newcomer coming in, were all settled in, and every horse knew their place in the herd. Now every horse is questioning themselves and fighting to maintain their hierarchy and also find a place for the new horse to fit in. This can be a good time for a spry youngster to try and be higher up on the chain, if the newcomer is more of a docile personality, they might end up towards the end of the totem poll. Typically that is all fine, and around three weeks in, your herd should know every horse's place and harmony will return.
Some things to consider to keep all the horses from getting hurt are making sure there is enough room for horses to run away from each other, sometimes you may have to remove shoes if they are on the hind hooves, as a kick can really do damage especially with a shoe on and make sure the fencing has nothing horses can get hung up on if one is cornered. With all that said, most of the time it goes okay. Seldomly, you might need to remove the new horse out with the most docile horse in the herd. They can figure out who is alpha pretty quick and become buddies in a rather short period of time. Horses don't like to be alone, so they should buddy up pretty fast. Then when you put them back with your herd, your newcomer has a buddy and all is well.
This pretty much describes our weekend, and as I type my baby girl is with my big girl learning to be friends. Our other mare is in her own area, getting an attitude adjustment and it's pretty peaceful out there tonight! I hope and pray it stays that way and only gets better!
Tip of the Day: When you think your way is the right way, maybe it's not! Open your mind to knew ideas, you can even get wiser by looking at how other species live. Humans sometimes screw everything up by overthinking. Go with your instincts, you might even find peace when you go with the flow.
You are awesome!
ReplyDeleteThank you sooooo much! I love you Pip-a-roo!
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