# mares and geldings turned out together? your thoughts



## gigem88

From my experience, I think that's a lot of hoooey! lol Granted, my mare is the queen but I have never had a issue with gelding and mares together in a pasture. But, I'm sure you can find others with a different experience.


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## Kyro

Most of the stables I've been to have mares and geldings together, no problems whatsoever. Though, I could name you a couple times when they have whinnied to each other & been a little antsy when one was taken away for a bit..but that can happen between any horses who are good pals. Regardless of gender.


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## Incitatus32

All my mares and geldings are turned out together and I've NEVER had a problem with herd boundness, whinnying or any antics. 

I don't know if I just lucked out, but I noticed when I have a bigger herd with more variety of personalities, I have less herd bound horses.


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## Woodhaven

I have never had a problem turning mares and geldings out together, or at least more of a problem than turning out mares together and geldings together.
There can be problems with horses getting along together but it usually has nothing to do with gender. More of a personality problem than a gender problem.
If my horse was at a boarding stable I would want my horse to be in a compatible group which would be more important to me than gender.


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## Jan1975

While I only have experience with two barns, both of them turned out mares & geldings together w/out issue. The one barn had 4-5 different paddocks with a few horses in each, and several had mare/gelding combos. In fact, it seemed to be the same gender horses that were more apt to pick on each other.


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## jaydee

I've kept mares and geldings together with no trouble at all, the problems start when you get mares who are outrageously flirty when in season but they're a problem amongst mares as well so are best on their own when in heat or on medication to stop the heat. Geldings that aren't properly castrated are another problem around mares but eliminate those issues and you're OK


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## danicelia24

When I went to college they separated mares and geldings and I tended to notice the geldings were more pushy and apt to pick on their fellow horse. I currently have 7 horses which include, 4 mares, 1 colt, and 2 geldings, and if either of the geldings get too pushy or nasty the dominant mare wont hesitate to put him in his place.


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## gypsygirl

I prefer to have a mixed herd. I've found that mare only pastures do not work out well !!
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## Regula

It all depends on the individual horses. My gelding doesn't do very well in some herd constellations with mares. 
When I first got him I had him turned out with two mares and he became hard to catch and was herding the mares away from their owners when they came to catch their horses.
We also went camping once with a friend's mare (that he had never met before) and he loved her instantly and became really attached in a matter of hours.
He has since been in larger all gelding herds, larger mixed herds, and with just one other horse (mare or gelding) and has never had issues since.
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## edf

Our barn does a mixture. Sometimes the 2 mares are out in the main feild ( However, one gelding can't go out with the mares- he wont eat and tries to herd them) When the 2 girls are out in the field, one gelding stays with them and does chase the other boys away, but the gelding eats and isn't crazy about it.

The mare are also put in another field by themselves.

As for calling- my mare calls out most for the other mare. But I was working her in a ring- she was calling out, both the other girl was calling and this gelding. The gelding came up to the ring ( it butts up against their field) and they nickered to each other. It was a little bit of a distraction, but once he was there for a while my mare focused more on what I was asking. 

I don't know if you'd say they were 'bound', but the 2 like each other. The 2 mares get upset if they get separated more than this gelding.

I think the risk of a horse getting bounded with any other horse is always a risk, regardless of gender.


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## Rain Shadow

We currently run 6 horses. 5 mares and 1 gelding. So I have a mixed herd. 

But in the past I've had 1 mare 2 geldings, 2 mares 2 geldings, 2 mares and 3 geldings, 4 geldings and 2 mares. etc. 

I've tried geldings together and mares together and I had issues. There was fighting and bickering. 

What I started to do was make trios of horses or pairs if trios wasn't an option. I payed attention to who was dominate and who was submissive. Who was a bully and who would stand up for themselves. 

It took some time but I discovered Misty is dominate, lead mare material but she's not a bully and won't tolerate a horse causing trouble. The troublemakers go in with her. 

Harley is dominate, but a bully. He needs a horse that will stand up for themselves with him. 

Star is submissive but an instigator. She likes to cause trouble but runs before she can get her butt kicked in. 

Kenzie is a loner but she will nail any horse that annoys her. 

Trixie is very submissive, won't stand up for herself. 

Coco is a huge bully and is borderline nasty to her herd mates. 

Kenzie and Trixie are kept together. Misty goes in with them and keeps Kenzie in line and makes Trixie happy. 

Harley, Star, and Coco go in together. Harley handles the fighting, and Star is submissive enough that Coco doesn't pick fights.


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## evilamc

I think it can depend some on the horses. I have a mare and a gelding..and one gelding as a boarder...the three of them are turned out together and do GREAT! My old boarder was also a gelding but was a stud till 14-15 years old. I could NOT turn him out with my mare. If I did he would "claim her" and viciously chase off the other horses. So he had to be separated.He just moved out though after their bickering/flirting over the fence line lead to downed fence and other boarders horse worked up into a total sweat from being chased off! 

So sometimes it really depends on the horses. Ex-boarder still acted studdy..just wasn't safe to have him out with my mare and the other geldings at the same time.


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## WhattaTroublemaker

My two cents:
Horse people tend to stick with what works, and shy away from what doesn't. Now when it comes to this, many, many things work with different people, and sometimes, they don't. Everyone's personal experiences differ, but it begins to be a problem when someone adopts the mind set of "My way works, so it's the only right way." Or "I had a bad experience with this way so it can't work for anyone." 

I know someone who used to preach to me all day about how I turn all of our horses out together (two geldings, two mares, and a 2 year old stallion) She'd say "They will get herd bound." "Your colt will start to nurse" (??) "He won't want to leave the herd." "Your mares will be mean to him." She was always coming up with some kind of reason to make my life harder. 
Turns out, when I finally decided to give it a go after Trouble got kicked quite badly and went lame for a couple days, that method just wasn't for us. In fact, when turned out with just a gelding Trouble got super worried about leaving his buddy. He was stressed whenever he couldn't see him, he picked up some bad habits like biting his buddy when I was leading them both, untying knots and undoing gates. 
When he was better I threw them all out again and everything went back to normal. Our "boss" mare kept his attitude in check, as well as his buddies, the older gelding chased them around enough to keep them out of trouble (gate opening) and he now relied on me for company - since the two geldings buddied up, as well as the two mares, Trouble has no friends- his worry went away, he was happier, etc. 

If it works, it works. If it works and you don't want to do that, that works too. Don't be afraid to try whatever you want to do, but be prepared to change it if it doesn't work.


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## smrobs

So long as the horses get along (none of them is a bully) then I really don't see the need to separate them.

Being buddy or barn sour is a training issue and should be treated as such, not avoided.

I have 3 main pastures. One is 5 geldings, the other is 2 elderly geldings, and the last is 2 mares and 5 geldings. No problems with bad behavior.


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## Captain Evil

I have limited experience, but I've seen it go both ways. My Percheron gelding was way too studly to go out with mares.

My sister's mare was out with geldings until she was bred. Once pregnant, she absolutely had to be alone or with mares, as all the geldings at the barn started trying to breed her themselves. Once her foal was weaned, she was fine with in a small mixed herd again.

My new Haflinger is out with two mares, and they are fine together.


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## waresbear

Mares have no problem mixing with geldings, but there are some geldings who get bewitched and become obsessed with that mare to the point of him doing something very stupid. I rather keep them separated than wind up with a bewitched gelding, it's so sad.


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## AnrewPL

Every cattle station I ever worked on had a horse paddock into which all the work horses went, mares and geldings, all but the stallions and brood mares went in together. there's no need to separate them. And as far as bullies go, they all tend to sort themselves out eventually.


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## ForeverSunRider

What a load of nonsense.

We ran a boarding barn back in the day (we don't anymore because apparently having triplets makes your mother - the one who ACTUALLY ran the barn - want to cut back on the number of animals in her care...imagine that lol) 

Anyway...we ran a herd of about 8 horses. We had all her horse friends keep their horse on our property. 

There was a broodmare that produced a foal every year (the owners bred her, obviously), my pony mare, and 6 geldings. And whatever the broodmare threw that year - colt or filly - and they all got along as well as can be expected.

And yes, we EVEN ran the foal with the rest of them (after a few days/week of being alone with mom) and it was fine. 

I'll never buy into the nonsense that geldings and mares need to be kept apart. Studs and mares? Yes. Any horse based on his or her own personality? Sure.

But to section off two genders (is gelding a gender?) purely based on the fact that one has girl parts and the other has unusable boy parts? What exactly is the goal? Putting the two together won't produce babies lol


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## stevenson

I agree it all depends on the horses. One year I had an older mare out with 3 geldings one became possessive of the mare and was constantly herding the other 2 geldings away. 
So the jealous horse was removed and one the gelding that he chased the least amt were put in a diff pasture . i have one reall bossy big gelding and put him in with the really bossy big mares and they get along fine.. i do keep my senior horses separate from the others just because of the different feed.


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