Rescued Belgian Draft Horse Integration, our first time introducing a new horse to the herd Ep.24

Episode 24
How to Plan the Perfect Horse Integration...well...there's no such thing as a perfect horse integration but you can create a plan for a safe introduction.

This was our first time ever integrating horses. A few months back we integrated our donkeys together and really wanted this introduction to go better. Our donkeys fought things out for about a week and we didn't want the same outcome for our newest rescued Belgian Draft horse. I will include a link to the donkey integration video below.

We heard horror stories when it came to integrating a new horse into the herd. Many of those stories included a situation where they have let the new horse out with the others, the situation escalated and got out of control because the other horses saw the new horse as a threat. Some of those stories included horse being chased around, running through the fence, being forced into a corner, kicked or bitten. Moving the new horse to a new place is about creating a safe environment and taking the ‘integration process’ slowly.

We learned through our first horse integration that horses are herd animals and they will work things out how they want them worked out. No matter how much planning you do, the horses need and will establish a pecking order. In this video we show you how we integrated our new horse into the herd. Our biggest challenge and something we are still working on is feeding the horses in the same area. There is an example in this video of that challenging situation.

WE hope you enjoy this video and make sure you subscribe to the channel so you don't miss anything happening around the farm!

Below are the links I mentioned in this video.

Freya's Introduction Video
https://youtu.be/7mPrlnZv8S4

Draft Horse Dental Exam
https://youtu.be/ahpE4ZuQU3k

Donkey Integration
https://youtu.be/WrdrvndUXAw