Introducing New Horses to Your Herd Written by David Selman, Tracker-Outdoors.com
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Remember to stay safe. Don't insert yourself in middle of action. If you have to get "big" to keep horses from running over you then do it. This is where you are establishing your leadership role with herd. If horses are moving you out of way, you probably shouldn't be one doing this exercise. And just in case, I always carry a rope or progress string that I can use to send energy to a horse that isn't playing by rules. You may have more than one horse to integrate and that can be done with these techniques. After a while "new guy" will be integrated into herd because he's been working with other horses to problem solve. You may have too many horses to do this in a round pen. It's important to know that more horses you work with harder this is to do. It's not a good idea to work more than 5-6 at a time with this technique in a confined area. Any more than that and it's hard to keep up with all action. You can use an arena, small fenced area, and even a small pasture. A round pen is not important, what's important is that you control interaction of horses. The Buddy System -- The Slow and Easy Technique Assuming that you have separately fenced areas to keep horses safely separated, another technique that you can use is to put new horse into a stall or paddock within site of others. This way he can visit from a distance and watch interaction of other horses. The new horse will study others behaviors and learn what herd hierarchy is from a distance before he gets into mix and herd gets a chance to check him out too. Pick one horse to introduce to new guy to and concentrate on building a relationship between two of them. Start by walking new horse by other horse just so that they can see each other. Stop and allow them to smell each other, but don't let them interact at first. This is easier if you do introduction on neutral territory. Go on a trail ride, take them to a friend's house, work cattle, go to another barn/arena to ride, etc. There is nothing like working together to bring two horses together in a common bond. Eventually, you are going to put two of them together in a fenced area. For sake of safety and ability to control situation, you may still want to use some form of "common problem" technique in order to freely introduce two horses. The Wide Open Spaces Technique Provided you have a lot of unhindered space, you may be able to throw new horse in with established horse(s) and let him work it out with established herd on his own. Nothing new here -- horses have been doing this on their own for years. A good rule of thumb would be 1 horse per acre of land. You need more space to allow for horses to move, send horses out, invite horses in, etc. You risk more kicks, bites, and other injuries with this method. But, your personal safety is less at risk. Even if you decide that this is way you want to go, it's still a good idea to work horses in order to get their mind off of horse games with each other. If you can initially get horses to focus on you, they will be more likely to quickly accept new horse because of his cooperation with others. Many horses don't know how to be horses. We have a group of mares that we use to institute herd behavior with our new horses. There's nothing better than an established band of mares who will not tolerate spoiled behavior to teach a young horse how to behave. They learn about posture, yielding, respect, patience ? all of things that you want horse to understand with you as their leader. It doesn't matter where they learn it. What's important is that horse does understand herd behavior and how to be a horse. Your job is then easy? All you have to do is learn how to communicate with horses to become their leader. Set yourself up for success Use common sense. With any of these techniques, you will have better results if you set yourself up for success: When you feed, scatter food around so that horses don't have to eat on top of each other. You'll avoid a lot of accidents by spending just a little more time. Make sure that you have shelter for all of your animals. If you don't have enough protection then you'll have some of them attempting to push others out into weather. Establish a good quarantine program so that you don't introduce any disesase/sickness to your other horse(s). Stallions should not be introduced into a herd under any circumstances unless you know what you are doing. Young horses shouldn't be introduced into a new herd until they are strong enough to fend for themselves. Sick, injured and/or old horses may be better off doing their own thing rather than making them have to deal with fine points of herd behavior. You can introduce horses across a fence line, between stalls, on trail, or working. There's a lot to be gained in these particular cases by making sure that these horses have ability to see other horses and can visit from a distance without causing any harm or being hurt. A horse doesn't necessarily have to be in same fenced area as others to be part of that herd.Article by Tracker Outdoors www.tracker-outdoors.com
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| | How To Find And Buy CollectablesWritten by janes-place
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If you want information about a specific artist, type name of artist in search box, with quotation marks around it. For example, let's say you are interested in pottery by Clarice Cliff. Type in "Clarice Cliff". The search engine will search for 2 words as a phrase and show only sites that match it. The site: http://www.claricecliff.com offers useful information and has a forum for chat and disscussion. You will find an 'Antique & collectable Info Exchange Bulletin Board' at: http://www.yankeelady.com/yl-antiques/index.htm Scroll down to bottom and click on link. You are not allowed to post things you have for sale or things you are looking for. It is just for discussing and exchanging information about antiques and collectables. Be sure to follow rules of any forum or discussion group you go to. If you don't, you might not be allowed to participate. Search engines have their own way of allowing you to narrow or broaden your search information. Look for special help sections on search engine's home page. They will teach you how to search successfully. Enjoy your new collectables!
Jane Fulton is the owner of 5 sites and has been helping people since 2000. Sign-up for SOS Newsletter at http://janes-place.com to receive these type of articles twice a month and to get your special mailing of interviews with some of the greatest Marketing minds!
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