Is It Okay To Keep One Horse Alone?

As a permanant arrangement, I wouldn't reccomend keeping a horse alone.

However, since as of right now my horse Ice starts fights/bully's other horses, he is in a pasture all by himself, and he doesn't seem to mind. He can still stick his head over the fence to say hi if he wants to, but he can't chase after them or anything like that.

There are places here in Europe where it is illegal to keep an equine alone. They must be able to see, hear and interact with another equine species such as another horse, pony, donkey or mule.

Some horses are fine being kept by themselves because they either don't get along with other horses as in a herd setting, or they just don't seem to care and do fine with other company. My neighbor and friend has an old Arab mare that is in her late twenties and she does fine by herself. She used to have a POA that kept her company but he got sold and she seems to to be indifferent to it. Of course, she has attention from my friend and the three sheep and two goats that are in with her so that makes it a little easier, I suspect.

If your two geldings are excessively clingy and seem to really depend on one another, I would say that it wouldnt be a great idea to seperate them. You could also think about getting another companion for him, like a donkey, sheep or goat that would just be there to keep him company so he wouldnt have to be completly alone.

Wow, that's really interesting. Europe really does look out for the wellbeing of animals, don't they?

I have had several horses throughout the years. Most of them did fine by themselves. However when I got back into horses the mare I bought was in a huge herd of recip mares. She did NOT do well alone. She would pace up and down the fenceline all day calling out to the 3 paints 2 houses down. It was so sad. So we bought Hank and they are best buds. Of course now we have a pony and her baby so she has lots of friends. But she is one horse that could never be alone.

Yeah charli is paddocked next to other horses but is in his own paddock, that way he can get his feed and stuff

I just got a friend's donkey to keep my horse company. I haven't had him very long but he was with 2 other horses. I haven't been able to spend much time with him and winter is coming. My friend asked if I would take care of him and I just figured perfect.

Yeah but the only reason he did that is BECAUSE he's kept with other horses.

It really depends on the horse. I personally prefer my mare out of a herd setting. She turns into a raving lunatic when she's in a herd. I don't like cutting out all socialization, she actually does fantactic as long as she's in her OWN paddock/pasture even with horses surrounding her on all sides of the fence.

Now that she's in a herd setting, seperating her is like pulling teeth. It's actually ironic, because she has zero issues leaving them if I ride her off the property, but if I try to take her into a barn or a show, she turns borderline dangerous. She spent the better part of Morris Stampede SCREAMING in her stall and trying to trample me everytime I opened the door. And Cinder was right beside her! She just couldn't see her.

If she's not in a herd, I can do all those things with her just fine. Luckily I don't show enough for it to be an issue, but I can definitely understand keeping some horses out of a herd setting. Some develop deep emotional attachments that training just can't resolve.

Horses get really close to their paddock mates as they are their only herd and taking one away can be confusing and upsetting for both of you. If you have to take one away however, try to get him a cow or donkey for company, they should become friends.

I had an 8yro gelding that I kept alone for 8yrs. He seemed fine with it. My friend would bring her lg pony to my house to pony sit when she went out of town. He didn't act any different when she was there or gone. He also was fine when trail riding or going to my friends farm...Never acted up at all , just took everything in stride....Even with the 2 I have now If I pull one out to go ride the other one is ok with it. I have even left one or the other alone for a few days as I went out of town camping.... They know thier buddy will be back....when the rig comes home...LOL