introducing horses to each other- help?

[Erin's mum]

Well i've just got my new horsey home At the moment she is in one field and Erin is in the other but they are able to talk over the fence, which is post and rail/plain wire so as safe as can be for now. They have been pretty good so far, a bit of squealing and once when Erin tried to nibble her Lily kicked out.

My worry is Lily has shoes on at the moment so don't want to rush into putting them in together. Should I leave them for a day or two to get used to each other over the fence or is that just dragging things out? Should I just put them together and let them sort themselves out? Both are good natured and Erin will back down if she's challenged but I just want to make things go as smoothly as possible...

Thank you!

[catkin]

When I brought the Welsh Princess home I had the two mares in adjoining boxes so they could sniff and squeal to their heart's content (we have a solid wall about 4 feet high between them). It was a very noisy night.

We made sure that the new one was turned out in their joint field on her own at first so she could explore it and would know any 'escape routes'. We then turned them out together when they were both a bit hungry, left them to it and made a cup of tea;  don't look at first - it will make your heart flutter!!

We took back shoes off too.

[Ritchie]

I second taking the back shoes off at least before you put them in together.  I bet you are really excited

[DollysMum]

I tend to keep new ones separated by a fence until they're happy to graze alongside each other, but I'm pretty paranoid. Saying that when I got Nelly I chucked Kai in with her straight away and all was well and it allowed her to make a friend before meeting the rest of the rabble.

[Erin's mum]

Thanks guys! Think we're just going to leave them as they are until the farrier can come out and take shoes off...tbh we were planning on losing them anyway to see how she did barefoot and with hoofboots out hacking so might as well do that sooner rather than later. Can't wait to see them together properly, then the sh#tlands need to be introduced and all hell will break loose

[ros]

I'm a bit late in on this one and hopefully all is now well. I usually try to stick by a few tips I was given years ago!

- If you've got the facilities, yes, let them get to know each other over the fence for a week or two.
- Try to hack out together in the meantime - it's a natural herd activity  
- When introducing them into the same field it's better if it can be neutral territory. And...
...make sure they're good and hungry when they first go out