How common are injuries with group turnout?

[Timex]

our groups run up to 6, due to the size of our paddocks. we very rarely see anything worse than some hair rubbed off. but our guys have plenty of room the stay out of each other's way, there's not a lot of competition for food (free choice hay 24/7, not a lot of grain fed) and our groups, even when mixed gender, are pretty carefully organized so no one gets bullied. so i'd say that your gut is right, that's way too many 'accidents'.

[Lady Eboshi]

Think I'd be movin' that water trough.

[sunridge1]

Funneled watering area can be a bad recipe for ugly horse encounters even in a friendly herd.

[Griffyn]

Ours are divided by the Jenny Craig group, the string beans (ottb and saddlebred colt) and Everyone Else. For awhile there was a group of the tough guys, and when put all together, the gang leaders mellowed out. the mellower others never did develop another really dominant leader. I thought someone would rise to the top, but instead they all stayed cool

[poltroon]

My experience has been that there are injuries during the second week, and then after that everything is fine.

[Simbalism]

Sounds like the pasture may be alittle small for the number of horses. Also don't like the sounds of the tapering near the watering area. The last farm I was at had 5 horses in 7 acres, never any problems other than a few scrapes her and there. Just moved barns a few months ago due to previous farm closing. One mare that had been at that barn moved with us to the new farm. They had been pastured together for at least a year. After being at the new farm for about a week, they had a knock down drag out fight resulting in the other mare(17h Freisan cross) body slamming my mare(15.2h TB). My mare got knocked down and large deep scrape on her head under forelock. Barn owner ran out with lunge whip to chase large mare away. We just watched them and no further problem and they even stand in the one stall of the run in shed together. Who knows what caused the fight, maybe they cussed at each other.

[PRS]

In 21 years I've only had 2 injuries requiring a vet. Neither one of those was caused by horse on horse violence. I think that there is something in the herd dynamic that is wrong. May be a bully or not enough resources or too many horses in too small of a space. A few hours spent observing the herd in action could give you a clue as to what is going on.

[arlosmine]

The space is too small for 8 (or even 6) horses. The water is in the wrong spot. Good thing they are barefoot behind!
The layout needs to be changed, or four horses max in the space.

[catknsn]

Somebody needs to camp out there for half a day and see what's going on, because it sounds to me like you've got a "bad actor." All it takes is one to have the whole herd in a constant state of uproar. This occasionally happens, and that horse once identified needs to be in a place of his own--FAST.

Exactly. I think you have one troublemaker out there and he needs to be separated. Why is the barn manager not paying attention?

[SAcres]

Injuries like what you describe are extremely rare at a well run barn. I had my gelding at a large lesson barn. 20 horse herd on less than 10 acres, mixed herd including a few bully geldings and a crazy mare. My horse didnt ever get an injury I even thought would need stitches for. At the very most a horse might get seriously injured (requiring stitches) every six months.

I would move, and move soon.

[lolalola]

Do you have the geldings fighting over the mares? IME, you can turn out one gelding with one or more mares, but not one mare with more than one gelding. If you're going to do a large, mixed herd, you need more mares than geldings. Probably quite a few more.

[onthebit]

I have to agree with the other posters. IMO that is not nearly enough land for 8 horses (and then it will be 9 if your mare is added to the group), plus the tapered area to the water trough sounds like a disaster looking for a place to happen. On top of that, some mixed herds work beautifully, but some mares and geldings simply DO NOT do well in mixed herds. So there may be a lot of factors influencing the very high number of injuries you are seeing.

[Lina]

The turnout group does not seem ideal. They are probably not getting along so well. It is best for you to keep your mare in a private pasture or w/ only 1 other mare. Serious injuries should not happen often, but it has happened to me twice in the past year. I have learned now that I need to give clear instructions to the BM.

[Equine Studies]

I can attest to the "certain groups are just not going to get along". My mare has been at a new place for 2 weeks. Was put in (until this morning) with a meek gelding, and a big Belgian mare who is the boss, and easily outweighs all of them by 800 pounds at least. The big Belgian won't chase but does like to squeal, run them off the feeder and will spin and kick as her first choice of weaponry.

All was relatively OK until this morning (they had settled for the most part other than a few kick mares on mine which I wasn't pleased about-and another young mare was integrated in with no real incident). Mine and Belgian mare went towards the trough, and with no apparent reason (other than mine was standing too close to her for her liking), I watched her run backwards kicking at mine who had stopped to stand 20 feet or so behind the Belgian waiting her turn to drink. I know it's that far because she was on the grass not the dirt and just for the heck of it I paced it out after. Mine, for whatever reason, went right back at her, ears pinned. Right before the trough incident I watched her pin her ears and threaten to fight back at the feeder when the Belgian did a sweep, ass first to move the other three off the hay, so that was it for me. We are trying her with another group and knock on wood it'll work. So far nothing has gone bad (although I left there at 11 this morning so who knows what might happen).

A new boarder came from the same place as the Belgian a few days ago. Apparently she and the Belgian (and the gelding) had all been turned out together, so the owners had requested that. And of course within a few minutes the new mare and the Belgian went back to back kicking at each other, but interestingly enough the Belgian backed down first. Glad mine was out of there. I am certain that one of them (likely mine) was eventually going to get hurt had we left that mix of horses together. Yes it could still happen with the new group but at least there are no real bullies.

I hate, hate, hate introducing horses into turnout fields. Have had some bad experiences that's for sure. There certainly should not be injuries like that so frequently. It's definitely a hint that it's not a good mix.

[starrunner]

I think it's difficult when there is limited access to just one source of water or shelter.

But I have had more injuries in a tiny turnout herd the past few years than when I had my mare in a larger mixed sex herd. Go figure. I'm not sure if I'm just more unlucky, the horse is aging harder and getting more paranoid, or my karma ran over my dogma.

[Equine Studies]

starrunner-I think the larger mixed gender herds worked because it seems more herd-like. I have seen it at lesson barns and breeding farms and nothing ever seems to have a scratch. It seems sometime when you try a group of 3 or 4 or 5 thinhs get ugly.

[Montanas_Girl]

8 horses on 2-3 acres? That's why they're having so many conflicts. Such tight quarters are just asking for problems. I doubt it is the mixed herd issue. My guy is out in a mixed herd of around 10-12 on 80 acres. There are never any fights because everyone has plenty of room to escape the bullies.