Introducing a new horse to the herd?

[Tremor]

This weekend I'm picking up a sweet little colt (okay...he's a bit wild but he WILL be sweet after about a week!) We haven't bought any new horses since the time we bought our herd. The only new additions we made were when our mares foaled out and we weren't worried about how they interacted. Our mares did the introductions and everything was good.

However, I have a very close knit herd of two mares and their four adult offspring (both mares have two grown foals. LMAO) The offspring are all buddies and the mares are as well. This new baby will cause some commotion.

So far my plan is to keep him in my barn lot (our barn has two stalls and a large open area) and I would like to buddy him up with my dwarf gelding who is close in size yet mild mannered enough to teach the colt some manners. I am planning on slowly introducing the two and letting them live in our barn and our other dry lot. Our mares and other gelding (who is 10" taller than the colt....thus why I am NOT putting him in with him until later) will be separated from them by cattle panels which our lots are made out of.

I don't want to put the colt in with my mares because he isn't cut. I'm not sure if he is dropped at all, but I felt the other colts with him that were being weaned (I was bathing and clipping them, that's how I got to acquire the colt) both had at least one testicle down already. I don't want or need anymore babies. I have a vet appointment made in October for teeth floatings and talked to my vet this week and added a gelding procedure as well. I'm crossing my fingers that I'll be able to gelded and then I'll be able to put him in with the herd in November/December. Otherwise, I don't know how I'm going to do the hay feeding situation. (We feed round bales and its only on the mare side. No square bales.)

Does this sound like a decent plan?

 

[bevann]

For feeding your colt pull some off the round bale and feed him alone.

 

[Riverrose28]

I may be repeating something that you already know, but please quarenteen for at least three weeks first, before any introductions. I learned the hard way, I once bought a filly from a well known show/training farm that had strangles. I had only quarenteened her for two weeks and then put her in the barn were it quickly spread to all my babies. So please keep your new colt totally away from your other horses, and feed him last, spray your shoes with a disinfection spray when done till the quarenteen is done.

As for the introductions, I usually put the new horse in a paddock or stall next to the horses they will be with for at least a week. Then I take out the other horses and put the new one in, walking him/her around the fence line, then turn lose, then I introduce the lowest in the pecking order and go up till I get to the dominate one. Since you are only going to put him in with one, it should be easy. There may be alittle running around, but it shouldn't last too long.

 

Sound advice.

I purchased a weanling colt at 3 months, and within the same week got a call from the farm (big name) that they had lost several foals in the past 3 days to Rhodococcal Pneumonia. He was immediately started on treatment (for 3+ months), but had I introduced him to others, I fear it would have spread through my pasture of new foals. It is good practice to quarantine any new animal for several weeks -- especially if you have pregnant mares or young foals that the newby would be introduced to. And that especially includes any nose touching.

Best of luck with your new boy!