Herd management

[Eventer29]

We divide ours by geldings and mares now. Used to let them all run tohether with no issues. We hav ea gelding now who thinks he is god's gift to mares and will try to herd them, or single one out as HIS even if she HATES him. He does not fight the other geldings but the mares will not tolerate his antics, so now the boys go out seperate. The boys are also more playful, even the older ones and will play fight, which none of the mares will have at all. I think mares just tend not to be playful like that. We have 2 horse mares that we tend to seperate from the other mares because they are witchy nasty unsociable beasties. The rest is about 10-12 mares that we call the pony herd because that is how it started out and we added some horse mares that got along well. The ponies are actually the more agressive, and rule who gets to eat what hay, they keep the big horses in line. Best way to do things is just to figure out who gets along with who and move them around if necessary.

 

[TCF42]

I turn out according to who gets along with who, and more recently who can get pregnant and who can't. The long yearling stud colt gets turned out with the QH gelding and the preggo witch pony, and sometimes the mini stud. But like Sparks, the yearling has come in the other night with a swollen knee.. the mini no longer gets turned out with him anymore, even though it was the stinkin yearling deserving the beating. Too bad he's the most expensive thing I own, otherwise I'd let the little snot get kicked.

I only private turnout if there's a problem. I believe in letting horses be horses, and they are herd animals after all.

 

[SouthernMdRocks]

I separate mine according to personalities and of course my little mini stallion is with mini geldings. If I have a horse that is getting overly pushy with the others, I will put that one with the queen biatch mare to show them some manners. I also tend to rotate them so they don't get to buddy buddy and have separation issues with each other.