EQUUS CONSULTANTS
Help for a lonely mare
Q:We adopted our Morgan mare from a rescue. She’s a show horse who was kept in a stall most of her life, but because of an injury she was up for adoption. She is now a pleasure mount and lives on pasture 24/7 with access to a stall to get out of the weather or away from flies. We have tried to adopt another horse so she would have a pasturemate but have had trouble finding one who gets along with her. The first mare we tried was fine but ended up being pregnant, and we had neither the experience nor the facilities to raise a foal so we let her go back to rescue. We have since tried three other mares and three geldings of different breeds, ages and temperaments, and none of them will be kind to this wonderful mare. She has ended up with scrapes on her hindquarters from being bitten, flare-ups of her past injury, and bumps and cuts caused when she tried to get away after being trapped in a stall. We have received all kinds of advice from our veterinarian and the rescue about geldings vs. mares vs. former brood-
mares, pecking orders, etc. But we still have not found a suitable companion.
Our mare has spent several months alone while we looked for a pasturemate, and she does OK, although it’s clear she gets bored and lonely. Right now, we have another mare that deferred to her at first but is now dominating her to the point of trying to keep her from coming to the barn at feeding time and trying to keep her from the hay feeder. So we cross-fenced the pasture to keep them separated, but this is not the way we want to keep the two horses.
Is our mare better off alone than living with an aggressive companion? Are we doing something wrong when we introduce them or handle them that makes things worse? Should we look for a low-pecking order horse or one who simply doesn’t care about herd hierarchy? Any advice you can offer would be most helpful.
Name withheld upon request
A:First, thank you so much for adopting a rescue horse! I am always grateful to those who open their hearts and farms to a horse in need.
You have a somewhat unique challenge in your mare. As founder of Bluebonnet Equine Humane Society, I’ve encountered many horses who were raised and kept in stalls and never allowed to interact with a herd. Some of them learn to fit into a herd setting just fine. Others, like your mare, struggle.
The problem is that horses kept in stalls all their lives often lack social skills. Normally foals learn from watching their dams interact with other horses and then by interacting with other foals when they’re young. Horses raised in the isolation of stalls don’t get these early lessons, so they don’t know what it means when another horse pins his ears or cocks a hind leg. They just don’t understand how to read the body language of other horses or how to communicate well with them.
That said, I also think that some of the problems you mentioned are pretty common whenever two new horses are introduced. It isn’t unusual for horses to get bumps and bruises from each other. Horses are rough: Sometimes they kick out in play, but they also kick and bite to get others to leave them alone. And it can take several weeks for new pasturemates to get used to each other, learn to communicate and figure out when to leave the other horse alone.
I know it can be hard to see your beloved horse with scrapes and bruises. But if your horses are kicking and biting at each other only occasionally, you need to let them work through their social situation and establish their hierarchy. On the other hand, if the aggressive behavior does not subside after a few weeks or if the more dominant horse is constantly chasing, cornering or attacking the more submissive horse, then it is time to separate them.
In your situation, I would look for either an older horse who is low in his or her current herd hierarchy or a horse who doesn’t tend to interact much with other horses in his or her current herd. Young horses who are submissive may become more dominant as they grow up, but older, lower ranking horses are less likely to change.
I would also suggest keeping your pasture divided, and when you bring a new horse home, put him in the separate space. That way, the horses will be able to get to know each other by interacting over the fence, but they will have a limited opportunity to hurt each other. If the two horses are doing well over the fence after three or four weeks, open the gate and let them interact directly.
I would not leave the stalls open so the horses can come and go at will. It is too easy for a horse to get trapped with no means of escape. A better way to provide shelter for pastured horses is a run-in shed large enough so that a horse can retreat and escape from an aggressor. I would also use two hay feeders---that way, a horse who gets chased away from one feeder can always go to the other one.
If you implement these management changes and your horse still doesn’t do well, you might try bringing in a submissive pony or Miniature Horse. And if those companions don’t work out, your best option may be to simply keep the second horse in a separate but adjacent pasture so your mare can have companionship on her terms. Jennifer Williams, PhD Bluebonnet Equine Humane Society College Station, Texas