Getting Here, Getting Settled 

In preparation for the arrival of my new rising 3 year old horse, Sky, I needed to consider her needs. She's been home bred, so not travelled before, and had consistency throughout her young life (which is why I bought her) but her routine and home was all about to change.  I wanted to minimise her stress, and give her time to adapt. For transportation (a 3 -hour first trip isn't ideal), I found a horse-sensitive transporter, and after the low-key vetting, the vet and I discussed the use of a low level sedative to help ease any anxiety (for her not me!), as I didn't want this trip to be traumatic for her. Her previous owner supported her change in grass (she's moved from the south to the hilly north) and used prebiotic gut balancers the week before her trip, and I followed on with this after she arrived- the goal is to keep her feeding routine as similar as possible to minimise any changes there.

Thanks to the good foundational handling by her previous owner, including teaching Sky to stand on tarps and large boards, she managed her first loading well, and travelled calmly overall. She was happy to arrive and settled very quickly with her new pasture mate. We unloaded her and immediately took the pair to the field. It took 16 seconds from releasing her to her having her head down grazing. 

The first week was all about giving her time to pair bond with one (of the three) mares at her new home. Gally babysat beautifully and calmly, and enjoyed 4 days of being in charge before Sky started to move Gally away from the gate/attention etc. Poor Gally, that didn't last long! Sky mapped the field, and we soon had a feeding routine in place where they were polite around the gate. By day two they were sharing hay from a bale in their stable (we brought them in for a short time to get Sky used to this space too). She was a little anxious at first in this space, but 24 hours later, when we repeated the stable time feeding,  they had a polite conversation over their stable door and shared a hay net.

After 6 days, we then moved the pair into a field next to the other pair so they could map that, and meet over the fence. Sky was calm and allowed Gally to do the squealing and drama for her. Sky was more interested in the chickens. The 'over the fence' bonding settled the other two mares with Sky. We brought all 4 horses into the stables for an hour to be in close proximity with each other. Scarlett, the herd leader touched noses with Sky as she was a little unsettled in the stable. The following day, we took Gally away from the field and replaced her with ^ year-old Willow, who seemed eager to meet Sky. They hit it off straight away and had an easy day together.  The next day we replaced Willow with Scarlett, and had no drama at all so we added Willow back into the mix-this was an easy reunion, and a few hours later, Gally joined the herd. So, although it took 10 days, we had a drama-free, injury-free, settled herd grazing quietly together. Success. I couldn't have done this without the amazing support of the farm owner, Sam, who was mindful and patient about the herd combinations to enable this smooth process (in awful weather).