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fighting horses



K S SWIGART    katswig@earthlink.net


Having had the opporutnity to manage a pasture for the past 8
years, I will give you the wisdom of my own experience.

Geldings do okay together as long as there are no mares around,
but the instant you put one mare in the bunch, they cause nothing
but problems.

Confused souls that they are, geldings don't know quite how they
should behave, but my own epxerience is that in determining how
they are going to behave among each other when they are out at
liberty, you do best to presume that they are entire males.

They don't play as rough as entire males do in a "bachelor band"
but they do get agressive, protective, and competitive when they
are in a "mare band."

At my place, the only geldings that haven't caused problems among
my mare band are the very young (3 & under) or the very old.
Otherwise, even the three musketeers who had spent ten years of
their lives living in the same pen together, as soon as I put them
out with my mares forgot that they were lifelong companions
and started attacking each other.

I separated one, then another, and the third was just fine until 
I had two colts born to the mares, after which he appointed him-
self as lord high protector of the babies (which I didn't mind
since they were at a vulnerable age in an area that is rife with
wild preditors, including mountain lions, until he attacked my
horse shoer...and any other male, including humans, who came 
through the pasture gate). And I now have a stall at my place
that is affectionately referred to as "the bad boy pen" because
that is where all three of them ended up until their owner could
make arrangements to have them transported to a new place.

They are now living in perfect harmony...just the three of them,
but I lay you odds that if you put one mare in with them, it 
would start all over again.

So...my advice is, don't put the mare in with the geldings, or
put the two new geldings together and put the mare in with the
other gelding who has been her long time companion (because
chances are good that he will resent it otherwise).

I would not assume that they will eventually "work it out."  
Eventually working it out is not a typical male horse behaviour 
(I know, they aren't really males...and that is a little bit of
the problem).  Typical male horses constantly challenge each
other over mares with the hopes that maybe this time they will
prevail, especially if you have an adolescent (a four year old)
who is just coming into true adulthood.  An up and coming male
is unlikely to "just give up" permanently, unless he is severely
injured or dead.

kat
Orange County, Calif.




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