Anxious pacing stallion

[Coopersgirl3]

So we recently got a new little stud mini named Little Man. He is about 13 years old and for the last 10 years of his life he has lived on a dairy farm with little to no contact with other equine only cows and goats. We brought him home about four days ago, and he was ecstatic to meet our other two full sized horses which are geldings. He stayed excited all day and ran around and made a fool of himself every time he nosed them. Starting on his first night here after the horses lost interest and left the side of his paddock he began to pace back-and-forth along the fence line, he paced all night long I’m pretty sure, and fast forward to four days later he has continued to pace back-and-forth along that Fenceline until he is tired and goes and takes a little break and then goes back to his pacing until the other horses come back and stand by him if they’re interested enough. He’s eating and drinking but his incessant pacing kind of worries me what can I do to help this little guy out? I know he just wants to be by the other horses but I don’t think it would be safe to put him in with my other boys. I’m planning on probably gelding him in the future as he is quite study and I am not planning to breed, maybe this will help a little? We’ll see how it goes with more time but advice from experienced mini owners would be appreciated.

 

[chandab]

Gelding will do the most to help this behavior.
Do you have plans to find him a mini-sized friend?

 

[Coopersgirl3]

Gelding will do the most to help this behavior.
Do you have plans to find him a mini-sized friend?

OK, We were not planning on buying any other minis for him to be with. We honestly just assumed he would be pretty happy being on his own next to the horses as he’s been alone his entire life other than visual contact with cows and a few years ago goats at his previous home. But seeing horses has got him all out of sorts LOL

 

[Ryan Johnson]

I agree with Chandas suggestions. Even though he has been by himself prior to you getting him, horses are herd animals and this little guy wants to be part of yours.

Minis are like a bag of chips, cant just have one

 

[chandab]

If you have no interest in another mini, after gelding, he may settle down more and be fine with equine companionship across a fenceline and just knowing they are around. He could be one that now he that he knows about other horses, wants that all the time and wants to be close. Hopefully, with time and gelding, he'll chill out, but only time will tell.

 

[plaid mare]

Once he is gelded you could put him in with the big guys. He might be asserting dominant behavior because he is a stallion. In his mind he is the boss. Mini's don't think small.

 

[chandab]

I'm not an advocate of mixing sizes, it's just an incident waiting to happen, and it doesn't have to be a malicious act for it to be tragic for the mini. I was given a mini after his mini brother was killed in a mixed herd incident.

 

[Coopersgirl3]

I'm not an advocate of mixing sizes, it's just an incident waiting to happen, and it doesn't have to be a malicious act for it to be tragic for the mini. I was given a mini after his mini brother was killed in a mixed herd incident.

Yeah, in his case I’m probably going to be a bit hesitant to mix because one of my full-sized geldings is very dominant, always top of the herd no matter where he’s at and him and Little Man have already had quite a few spats just through the fence.. Little Man is still pretty obsessed with them even though they have their tiffs LOL I just don’t think it would be safe even after he’s gelded. One kick from Cooper and he’d be out of the count, which I don’t want to have to explain to my little girls =/ we’ll see what the future brings though maybe we will check out other minis after we start working with him a while Haha. He has settled down a bit with the pacing it’s been a full week now that we’ve had him, And we just got a bunch of snow so he started hanging out in his little barn a little bit every now and then.

 

[Maryann at MiniV]

I agree that gelding the little guy will help with the pacing.

 

[LostandFound]

I disagree that gelding is going to fix the pacing. It's still a great idea but when I had this issue the horse was already gelded, and had been since 6 months old. He will probably settle down after a while, it took my guy a full 3 months but once he settled he was fine.

 

[Willow Flats]

You mentioned he was at his last place for 10 years so he is still adjusting to a big change. I'd give him some more time to settle in and see how he does before making anymore changes and visit with him as often as you can in the meantime.

 

[Dragon Hill]

So did Little Man settle down for you? Gelding would help, and a companion (wouldn't necessarily have to be another mini) would help also. Toys, or even obstacles that he can't hurt himself on would also help. Stallions will seek out other horses more so than geldings or even mares because of their hormones. When he was by himself all those years his hormones weren't stimulated, so he was fine. But now your horses have stimulated those hormones, and since he has no experience with other horses, it doesn't even matter that your horses are geldings. That doesn't mean he won't eventually settle down, but everybody will be happier and safer if you have him gelded.

 

[Pitter Patter]

How is Little Man? Did you say you were in Michigan? I know you may not want to say exactly where for safety and I think you can privately message folks here somewhere. I live in Northern Lower Michigan (near the base of the "pinkie finger" of a left handed mitten, if that helps. I think mermaeve must be south of me. Anyway, if you are close by, maybe training "play dates" would help (or make it worse, I don't really know!)

 

[MerMaeve]

How is Little Man? Did you say you were in Michigan? I know you may not want to say exactly where for safety and I think you can privately message folks here somewhere. I live in Northern Lower Michigan (near the base of the "pinkie finger" of a left handed mitten, if that helps. I think mermaeve must be south of me. Anyway, if you are close by, maybe training "play dates" would help (or make it worse, I don't really know!)

Yup, I'm in the SW "quadrant" of the mitten. I love living in a state that you can use a body part as a map!

 

[Pitter Patter]

Yup, I'm in the SW "quadrant" of the mitten. I love living in a state that you can use a body part as a map!

Yup. We gotta have some bragging rights, eh?!