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Date Posted: 20:58:17 11/03/05 Thu
Author: Autumn
Subject: Introducing young mare to an aggressive older mare

The horses:

ZOE- 11 yr old Quarter Horse/App. VERY AGGRESSIVE! She is the alpha horse no matter where she is and IS NOT afraid to go after a horse. I have had her since she was 1 yr old and she has been like this all her life. Her 'personal space' is about 15-20'. She DOES NOT go after people.

WINDY- 22 yr old American Show Horse gelding. He has been Zoe's buddy for the past 11 years and it has only been them two on the farm. Of course, he is less dominate than she is.

BO PEEP- 2 yr old Saddlebred. I bought her in February, but have just recently brought her home.

So this is whats been going on so far...

I took Zoe with me out to Colorado for Natural Horsemanship training and we were gone for a month. Since her and Windy are such good buddies, and he gets depressed without her, we decited to bring Bo Peep home once Zoe and I left. Bo Peep was being kept at the place where she was born and raised down the street. We only have 2 stalls which is why she wasnt brought home sooner and an addition to the barn is being built right now and should be done within a week or so.

So while we were gone, Bo Peep and Windy became real good friends and almost can't be seperated. They are in one pasture and Zoe has to be kept away from her in a different pasture, which makes her even more angry. Zoe is being stalled in the barn, and Bo Peep and Windy are outside w/ a shelter until the new barn is built.

When I let Bo Peep and Zoe sniff over the fence, there was lots of squeeling and Zoe tried to kick. So then, a day or two later, my mom and I put Zoe on a lead rope and Bo Peep on one and thought we would let them graze together supervised, just so they can start to get to know eachother. Well... they were pretending to ignore eachother until Bo Peep got too close to Zoe's rear end and Zoe kicked and got Peeps real good the first time... took a chunck out of her shoulder.

So then today, we put them both on ropes again and had them in the dirt lot instead of letting them graze and just walked them around eachother, keeping their distance and a couple times when they got curious about eachother, we let them put their noses together, but only for a couple seconds- before disaster could strike. They both did well but I'm afraid of what will happen when they know we dont have the ropes on them.

When the other barn is built, our plan to help them get used to eachother was to put Bo Peep in the stall across an isle from Zoe- its a half wall and they can sniff eachother without being able to kick at eachother. Windy will have to be in a new stall, but will be able to see them both.

We try to do about 10-15 minutes a day of bringing them around eachother, but i'm scared Zoe will try to run her down once we put them in the pasture together, and loose. It also doesnt help that I know someone who had a super aggressive horse that actually killed 2 of her new, young horses. Does anyone have any other ideas of what we can do before we just put them together??!!!

Thanks!

Autumn

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