Hello all who have read this thread, and thank you in advance if you have any advice! And thank you for making it to the end, I tried to cover any possible questions!
Okay, so as the thread implies, we are looking for a bit of info regarding a previously had horse and mixing in the new one.
We currently have them with a heavy wooden paddock fencing between them, along with barbed wire pasture outside of that.
They can obviously sniff and such over and through the fencing, and only seem to do so at the wooden fence.
The new horse has a rather severe rope burn on her back right pastern (under care, no worries there), and there is still some mild swelling, which is improving. My dilemma is that they have started to get snippy and kick at each other at the paddock fence. Its the worry of injury to either horse, esp. worsening the injury to the newby.
We have noticed it worsened when we gave hay, so we are going to start giving the hay very far apart (not even in sightline) and away from any fencing. I am hoping that might fix it some.
It is not a constant thing, maybe 5-10 times out of the day we hear them snort, squeal, and see mild kicking, but it has seemed to get a bit stronger, hence my questioning how to remedy it.
The question I have is that even though newby has a bit of swelling and we are trying to limit her movements, is it safer to go ahead and put them into the biggest pasture together? Would the occasional tension over the fence be alleviated by this? I would just toss them together with supervision in the pasture, but its the foot injured newby I am worried about. We also worry that they will get a board knocked loose when we aren't home, thereby having a nail embedded board at their reach.
For any possible things I missed: newby walks with no issues, and doesn't limp heavily, even after she makes contact with the fence. We assume newby will become lead mare, as she is older, but the younger horse seems to be the one instigating the fence feed behavior.
Thank you for making it to the end and for any help you have!
I also have video of it, if anyone is interested.
Okay, so as the thread implies, we are looking for a bit of info regarding a previously had horse and mixing in the new one.
We currently have them with a heavy wooden paddock fencing between them, along with barbed wire pasture outside of that.
They can obviously sniff and such over and through the fencing, and only seem to do so at the wooden fence.
The new horse has a rather severe rope burn on her back right pastern (under care, no worries there), and there is still some mild swelling, which is improving. My dilemma is that they have started to get snippy and kick at each other at the paddock fence. Its the worry of injury to either horse, esp. worsening the injury to the newby.
We have noticed it worsened when we gave hay, so we are going to start giving the hay very far apart (not even in sightline) and away from any fencing. I am hoping that might fix it some.
It is not a constant thing, maybe 5-10 times out of the day we hear them snort, squeal, and see mild kicking, but it has seemed to get a bit stronger, hence my questioning how to remedy it.
The question I have is that even though newby has a bit of swelling and we are trying to limit her movements, is it safer to go ahead and put them into the biggest pasture together? Would the occasional tension over the fence be alleviated by this? I would just toss them together with supervision in the pasture, but its the foot injured newby I am worried about. We also worry that they will get a board knocked loose when we aren't home, thereby having a nail embedded board at their reach.
For any possible things I missed: newby walks with no issues, and doesn't limp heavily, even after she makes contact with the fence. We assume newby will become lead mare, as she is older, but the younger horse seems to be the one instigating the fence feed behavior.
Thank you for making it to the end and for any help you have!
I also have video of it, if anyone is interested.