not fun anymore!

We had a gelding and mare. Got along wonderfully. Added a second gelding. Although he could be a bit bossy with the mare the three settled in quite nicely. Unfortunately the mare developed some lameness issues. My daughters riding coach loaned us the horse she had been using in her lesson so she could finish out her 4-H year. Our new gelding and the loaned one even after a month did not settle. Our second gelding was constantly pinning his ears and going after him with meaning. The borrowed gelding would just go through the fence. I was relieved when he went home at end of summer. Two weeks ago we bought a 2..5 year old large pony gelding. Kept him in the riding ring with the mare for a week then turned them all out together. I have fixed and improved alot of fencing since. I still separte them at night, mare and pony in riding ring, the two geldings in the paddock alongside. I don't know what to do anymore. The second gelding is still going after the pony - not just a get out of my space sort of thing, but I'm going to chase you down and pound you. I'm not sure what happens at night but I have two boards and two strands of electric and twice now the electric has been broken and the insulators pulled right out of the posts. There are still a couple nails unaccounted for. With winter coming they won't be up in the big pasture through the day, but down in the lower one. I have a run in and had hoped they could all stay out but it is looking like I'll have to put the mare and pony in the barn at night.

I am at my wits end with this gelding. I have closed him into a pasture by himself today and left the original gelding in with the mare and pony. He'll pin his ears at the new guy and boss him, but he doesn't chase him down and will let him eat hay near him.

Any advice?? With all the fence fixing and drama there doesn't seem to be anytime to enjoy the horses, and riding seems to be long gone.... course the weather isn't great so I am sure it is adding to my sense of gloomy-ness.

Thanks

It can take up to 6 months to a year for horses to finally settle in a herd - so really waiting it out is your best bet. I would also make sure you have hay in more than one spot, so if the bossy fella keeps moving the others they always have another pile of hay to go to. And some horses just never learn to like one another - I am sure there are people out there that you would HATE to be stuck living with, same thing for horses, sometimes they just don't click for one reason or another.

Yup, I repeat everything MB says. LOTS of hay piles and lots of room to move away from the bully. How much hay are you feeding right now?

They are on the big pasture all day and then each group gets a square bale (they weigh between 40-50lbs) The couple times we had tried leaving them together I broke the bales into flakes and spread them all around. He just keeps driving them away until he gets them into an area with no hay and won't let them back. I just hope it works out eventually. With the rain and sloppy footing, plus the fence breaking and stray nail I am really concerned about someone getting hurt. I just came back home from errands and our old gelding the mare and the pony were all in the run in cleaning up the hay I'd put in there. The other gelding was eating his hay in the pasture that runs along that paddock. He will still run at the pony if it comes near the fence. He never accepted the borrowed gelding and he was here over two months I think/

My husband and I were talking, we have one of those portable garages and we do have a sheltered spot alongside the riding ring where we could put it - take a few boards down on the ring and that would provide shelter for the mare and pony. That is my big concern is making sure they have access to shelter as well. I have struggled with keeping them in the barn or not and really do want to keep them out, but we do get some wild weather...

Thanks.