This message is from: Marsha Jo Hannah [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Mark and Ann Restad [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
Yesterday our new mare arrived [...] and afetr several hours apart,
we put our gelding in with her. We noticed she was in heat and
thinking he was very studly. They did a lot of charging around and he
gave he several bad bites [...] any advice? [...] He is 10, very
headstrog and poorly trained. [...] This mare is 7, very well
trained and well behaved, but was reportedly quite dominant [...] We
would like to see them get their dominance established with minimum
trauma. They have to live together.
IMHO, you're rushing it. I would put them in adjoining pens,
separated by safe fences, for a week or two, and let them work out
some of the underlying social issues with just ear talk. Then, pull
at least their hind shoes, put them in one large pen, with 3 or more
widely separated piles of hay, stand well back (I usually take
pictures from outside the pen), and separate them only if it looks
like things are really getting out of hand. Yes, geldings tend to
bite, and mares tend to kick as their preferred means of establishing
rank.
If we could vote, we would like to see her come out on top since in
harness and saddle she is the far better behaved.
Unfortunately, if you interfere, it will usually prolong the period
of adjustment. They have to work out their own social structure.
In our herd, dominance is exactly correlated with length of time in
residence here. The 11.2hh donkey owns the place; the old Fjord
mare runs the Fjord herd, and the 2 Fjord geldings say yes, ma'am a
lot. However, the elder of our geldings was apparently somewhat
dominant in his original herd---he and the donkey tested each other
for nearly 6 months, before he accepted that she was his boss (there
was never any doubt in her mind). And, after 8 years, the two
geldings are still sparring a little, seeing exactly who gets to eat
where! Usually, this only produces small bald spots, although the
dominant gelding occasionally loses small chunks off his ear rims.
(My husband was calling them Mike and Evander, for a while) The
only way to keep them perfectly blemish-free and safe would be to keep
them apart!
Best wishes, on both the introductions, and the bed-rest!
Marsha Jo HannahMurphy must have been a horseman--
[EMAIL PROTECTED] anything that can go wrong, will!
30 mi SSE of San Francisco, Calif.
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