Introducing horses

[earlybp]

Any advice about how to introduce horses to one another? I am going to be moving Bert and Eduardo to our farm (which we've recently rented). My landlord's two horses are there and may or may not be moving away. They seem like well-socialized, curious critters.
One of them had a good time chasing my dog around the corral yesterday.
Anyway, I'm not really worried about Eduardo, but I am concerned about Bert. Since Bert is older and injured, he'll be at the bottom of the pack. I'm wondering how I can ease him into the situation.

[gdp1]

It is usually best to just put them in with each other. Be sure they have lots of room to move about so they can get away from eachother and they will normally work it out. It may sometimes look brutal but most of what goes on during socialization is intimidation. It is seldom horses actually hurt each other. Just keep a close eye on them for a while. During feeding is usually the hardest time so if you keep a good distance between their hay piles or separate them during feeding will help.

[earlybp]

Thanks! I'll separate them during feeding, and keep an eye on them.

[sunlightslady]

I had the horses in seperate but next to each other pens for a couple of weeks. then I added my gelding to the herd. It was hard at first to watch a big drafty (16+) get his butt kicked by 2 small arabs(14.2+) but once they got the order worked out everything was fine. No major injuries to report just egos. We do feed them apart and spread the flakes out to six piles 2 for each. I know in some cases the order placement does not always work out that easy. Good Luck

[earlybp]

I am worried about Bert, but not so much about Eduardo. I think I'll put them both in the corral, and then let them smell over the fence for a few days. If anybody is a problem, they get to go out to one of the pastures to cool their heels a bit.
The nice thing about our place is that there are lots of places to put horses if they don't get along.