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We just bought our soon-to-be 15 year old daughter her first horse. She is a great, calm just-turned-10 year old mare, who's had couple of foals. We've had her 3 weeks now, since June 14. I wanted her to settle in first and get used to her new place.
Tonight I introduced Rocket and her (Clue) face to face. She is at the neighbor's property which butts up against ours, with a chainlink fence in between, but there's a hotwire there also, since the neighbor has an Icelandic who's a fence leaner. This means Rocket's seen her, but can't quite touch noses or anything with her.
He did great, friendly tail wag, he wanted to sniff her nose, relaxed body signals, no shyness or fear; he was far more concerned with the cheese I was holding than her.
She seemed not so cool with it just a little to me, though; her ears went half-way back a couple of times, and she nickered a little, and DD thought she was meaning that she didn't *like* him. She was afraid Clue might nip at him. I am not as versed in horse 'language' and I stressed the importance of giving off relaxed vibes for her to DD, but I don't know how well she could manage that. Clue was pretty calm, she didn't stamp her feet, she didn't move, I don't know that she would've actually nipped or not.
I didn't let them get super close, and I had them sniff under the gate first; after their initial meeting in the corral, he took some cheese from me and he laid down immediately on command, then DD took her back over by some trees and he and I just walked calmly around the corral a bit, so he could leave smell behind and she could just observe us walking normally.
I really would like them to get along, and apparently he's good with it so far, but any suggestions for the horse? I know this may be a slow acclimation process, and that's fine by me. I'm not as *good* with horses as dogs, and although DD is, she IS only going to be 15, and I don't know if I 'trust' her interpretations. Do you reprimand a horse for behavior you don't want, like a dog? (Like if she was going to nip at the dog) I told DD to give her a little treat while we were there, but she didn't want to.
Thoughts and suggestions are appreciated.
Tonight I introduced Rocket and her (Clue) face to face. She is at the neighbor's property which butts up against ours, with a chainlink fence in between, but there's a hotwire there also, since the neighbor has an Icelandic who's a fence leaner. This means Rocket's seen her, but can't quite touch noses or anything with her.
He did great, friendly tail wag, he wanted to sniff her nose, relaxed body signals, no shyness or fear; he was far more concerned with the cheese I was holding than her.
I didn't let them get super close, and I had them sniff under the gate first; after their initial meeting in the corral, he took some cheese from me and he laid down immediately on command, then DD took her back over by some trees and he and I just walked calmly around the corral a bit, so he could leave smell behind and she could just observe us walking normally.
I really would like them to get along, and apparently he's good with it so far, but any suggestions for the horse? I know this may be a slow acclimation process, and that's fine by me. I'm not as *good* with horses as dogs, and although DD is, she IS only going to be 15, and I don't know if I 'trust' her interpretations. Do you reprimand a horse for behavior you don't want, like a dog? (Like if she was going to nip at the dog) I told DD to give her a little treat while we were there, but she didn't want to.
Thoughts and suggestions are appreciated.