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Introducing a new horse to an established herd

Introducing a new horse to an established herd

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Okay, so Jazzy is a mule and not a horse but the process and experience was the same when we introduced Cash and Romeo. Well, almost the same. Jazzy only weighs about 500 pounds, half the weight of most of our horses. We knew she was more vulnerable to the bullying that comes with herd introduction. Her body couldn’t take as many kicks and she wouldn’t be able to outrun any of our horses. And she didn’t yet know the pasture.

Jazzy the mule looking at her new horse family
Jazzy looks to the barn as Moonshine is turned out.

This is the approach we took:

  1. Barn Intro – First we put her in the barn. The horses knew immediately that another equine had just arrived and were waiting by the barn to see what was going on. Jazzy lived with horses so this wasn’t new for her. Through the barn gate everyone met (wish I snapped a picture of this). We kept Jazzy in the barn for a few days so the horses got used to her being there. Normally we would have put a new equine in a round pen in the pasture so everyone could sniff and run around in circles in the early days but we’re using the round pen sections as a temporary fence.
  2. Pasture Intro – Time to switch. We wanted Jazzy to explore her new home beyond the barn. She’d need to know the boundaries, where the natural food supply was and where she could go to get away. We also have a run-in barn for inclement weather. So the horses went into the main barn and the mule went into the pasture. We were surprised that she didn’t leave the barn area. Over the next few weeks we discovered she’s a follower and has no interest in being alone. To this day I don’t think she’s seen all of the pasture.
  3. First Horse (Valentine) – After a few days of keeping them apart, it was time to let them mingle. We started by letting out the lowest ranking horse, which is Valentine. He’s docile, not caring much about his position in the herd. He’s never started a fight. Valentine immediately went to Jazzy to smell her. Although at first she was nervous, it wasn’t long before they were eating near each other.
  4. Second Horse (Romeo) – A few hours later, it was Romeo’s turn. We thought he was our next least aggressive horse but this turned out to not be true. Romeo, an Appaloosa, is our smallest horse. It wasn’t many years ago when he was the new guy and the other horses ran him hard around the pasture. I felt sorry for him at the time but he ended up second in command. I guess he wanted to make sure Jazzy knew this because he immediately bullied her. Horses are smart. He toned it down when we were around but the minute we were out of sight he let her have it. It took Jazzy a little time to figure out she should not run into corners. Eventually Romeo settled down to eat from the hay ring but he wasn’t letting Jazzy near it.
  5. Third Horse (Cash) – A few hours went by and it was time to turn out Cash. I worry about him around other horses. He’s insecure in his position in the herd (second from the bottom) and I was afraid of what that would mean for Jazzy. Cash surprised me and mostly ignored Jazzy.
  6. Last Horse (Moonshine) – When I saw Cash wasn’t going to be trouble, I turned out Moonshine as well. I left her for last because she’s the herd boss and demands the utmost in obedience from her subjects. But she too gave Jazzy little more than a sniff and headed for the hay.
 
Lessons learned

It seems clear now that Romeo is the herd enforcer. He’s the right hand man for the queen, handling her dirty work. Over the next few days, the horses all ran Jazzy around the pasture briefly and it started with her running from Romeo. With horses, when one runs, they all want to run. But Jazzy’s submissive nature allowed her to integrate quicker. Within three days of sharing a pasture together, Jazzy was grazing near her new herd. They won’t allow her to eat with them when all four are at the hay ring but if one or two are there, she’s allowed to join in. She did have to endure some kicking and biting. In fact, during those first few days, she ended up with several bite marks on her back, one of which needed wound dressing. But things are good now.

Lastly, having two round bale hay feeders (or hay rings) makes a big difference when you have more than two equines or if some of them don’t get a long. We added the second one as an experiment last year. We’re able to keep round bales in two locations, far enough apart that no one horse can dominate both food sources. This has worked out very well at our place and the cost was minimal.

Horses Are Herd Animals

Horses Are Herd Animals

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Horse herd
Photo by Vladimir Vujeva on Unsplash

When we bought Valentine in February 2006, I was pretty sure it would be a while before we’d consider buying another horse. Let’s get comfortable with learning about one horse before we go getting more, I thought. When I picked him up that frigid Valentine’s eve this year he was in a pasture with two or three other horses. When he arrived at our place, we had another gelding in the pasture from someone who was boarding here. Valentine and Blaze got along very well and everyone was happy. Several weeks later, the Blaze’s owner moved and took Blaze with him leaving Valentine all alone in the pasture. As Blaze was rolling away in a horse trailer, Valentine looked sad. I know we try to humanize horses and guess what they’re thinking and feeling but over the next few days, it seemed obvious Valentine was lonely. We’ve since learned that horses are herd animals, a hold-over from the days when they ran wild.

Some quick Internet research proved this point. According to Wikipedia, wild horse herds are really groups of small bands of three to twelve or more horses. Being a part of a group is an instinctive survival technique which provides safety in numbers and breeding opportunities. Our Valentine may not have been emotionally sad about Blaze leaving but it’s likely he was nervous about being in our pasture alone.

The way to remedy this situation? Well first off, we could have just lived with it. There are plenty of horse owners out there with only one horse. But as I said, we wanted another horse anyway. Short of buying another horse, I’ve heard of other herd animals being introduced into the pasture. Goats, llamas, cows, and mules, for instance. We have our reasons for not wanting to go that route so the next logical choice was to start looking for another horse…which we found. If you’ve been reading for a while, you’ve already suspected this, I’m sure.

I’ll tell the story of my new horse, my first horse actually, in a separate post.

Wikipedia source info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horse_behavior