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I've used slight variations on your technique, Jonni, at boarding 
stables I've been at.  One is to put new horse and a mellow, non 
confrontational one from the group in stalls or paddocks next to each 
other for a day.  Then put head horse in paddock/stall next to new 
horse.  If there's room, which not all boarding stables have, putting 
the new horse in with a more established horse is great.  Also, even 
after intros  such as above, never put a new horse in a new pasture near 
feeding time.
Other than that, I'd say it takes several days minimum for a new horse 
to even begin to settle in.  Your feeders are doing the right thing by 
throwing her hay where she is.  If all seems pretty calm, they could 
start putting her hay closer to where the others are eating but there 
should always be at least one pile aways off that she can retreat to.
Laney

Jonni wrote:
> I have found that is it not in a horses best interest to just be tossed 
> out into an established herd to figure things out. The new horse is 
> entering their territory, and those horses know each other, and the 
> order of "command". The new horse is usually viewed on as an intruder, 
> and unless very aggressive itself, others will try to establish 
> dominance really quick. I have a method that works well for me, but it 
> can be time consuming, and I am not in a boarding situation. But, I'll 
> share, for you to consider.
>  
> New horse arrives, is kept in smaller corral area for a few days, then 
> turned out into a 2-3 acre pasture I have, alone. Other horses can meet 
> the new horse over the fence, but usually after a few min. of this, they 
> wander off, and have little interest. After a couple days, I introduce 
> my bottom of the pecking order horse, INTO the small field, which this 
> new horse, is feeling is his home. While my horses can come and go into 
> the field normally, the new horse is establishing it as his new home. I 
> levels the playing field a little. Then, if those tow get along fine, I 
> intro the new horse to the next horse, to is up one rung on the ladder. 
> I only have 5 horses, so when the last one came in, he had 4 others to 
> meet. But it seemed by meeting them one on one, in a smaller area that 
> the new comer was comfortable with, when he was eventually turned out in 
> the big pasture, they had all met, and I had very little problems. Also, 
> I did find the new horse is usually bottom of the pecking order for 
> awhile, until the herd dynamics start flowing again, and he figured out 
> he could maybe push around one of the others.
>  
> But I will personally never throw out a new horse to fend for itself 
> suddenly into an established herd. Even if it was only 2 others. And 
> actually, now that I found by having the new horse first establish an 
> area as his field, or living area, and then bringing in the other horse 
> into that area, I have seen much less fighting.
>  
> But again, time consuming for some....but might save some vet bills.
>  
>  
> Jonni


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