Ok... my other thread got my thinking...

I am now leaning towards holding off on purchasing my horse until we can afford two horses. Would it be better to buy two horses from the same person so the horses already know each other?

If I buy from two different people, when I get one horse should I bring that horse along to meet the other horse before I buy him/her?

How do you introduce horses? Do most horses end up getting along?

Thank you for being so open to all of my questions. While I have ridden for years, this is my first time *owning* horses. All of my experience is with dogs and cats, and I know there are certain ways of introducing them.

Everyone will have different opinions on this, but here is mine......

When you first introduce new horses to eachother, they will touch noses and probably squeel, bite, kick, etc. They need to find "their" place in the pecking order as to who is going to be alpha, etc. They might keep this activity up for a few days before settling in.

I would honestly buy one horse first, (unless you buy them as a pair that already know eachother) and get that first horse settled into the new home. The last thing you want to do, is have two stressed out horses at the same time.

Also, how big of a paddock do you have? If it is large enough, you can just introduce the new horse into the large paddock with the other horse and let them kind of work it out. Or you can introduce them to one other by having them next to eachother in stalls or seperate paddocks where they can touch noses.

Thanks for the input! We don't have any of it, yet. We are in the works to buy 25 acres with much of it cleared for home, barn and pasture. So, we are still planning all of it. I appreciate your thought on introducing the two horses. I figured that there had to be a way to work it all out.

With my cats, I know that I have one cat who is VERY alpha. Thus, if I ever introduce a new kitty, it needs to be a follower. Otherwise, I'd have a big problem.

So, I would want to be sure we introduce the two horses correctly and hope the two personalities would blend well.

Horses are going to squeal, kick, bite etc. You cannot stop that behavior and you shouldn't try to stop it because they are figuring out what one is domant. We have horses and ponies come and go and we throw one horse in the pasture and they deal it with. It in the morning they know where they each stand.

Thanks for the information! I have to remember that this truly is nature's way and they will work it out. I would think that it would be important, though, to have at least one horse who is willing to submit to the more dominant one. Two totally dominant horses going at it all the time wouldn't be good.

I don't think there is ever really a question of two dominants unless you are talking about stallions. One always establishes dominance over the other/others. It is a natural process and one that we cannot control.

Thank you so much for this insight. It sounds like this is very different than what I have seen in my cats. I have seen (and experienced) very dominant cats who refused to relent to each other and kept fighting. I have heard about it with dogs, too. So, it is good to know that horses will work it out and one will end up being dominant.

I appreciate the advice and input.

Does it usually take horses awhile to get used to one another?

We kept our new mare in the corral for a couple of days, mainly because one of the others had just foaled. When we let her out for the first time the others would have nothing to do with her at all. After a couple of days she was grazing right along with the others. So I would say yes, it does take a little while, but it is a natural thing and they work it out on their own.

Whenever I have purchased a new horse and brought it home I would put up a quick hotwire fence inbetween them and feed them there hay/feed next to eachother on opposite sides of the wire for a few days so they get use to eachother and eating together and then take the wire down after 4 or 5 days and then they usualy were okay with eachother and no or less kicking biting took place.

We usually introduce horses with a fence in between. Being a herd animal, most horses like to have company. Be careful if you have a dominate horse, however. I had one that would bite the daylights out of anyone he was turned out with.