My step daughter just acquired two VERY friendly horses: one is a trained 4 yo female miniature therapy horse and the other is an 18 yo gentle gelded Icelandic Horse. These two are very treat-oriented and will follow you around their enclosure trying to access my treats!! They have a nice set up with two shared fenced-in areas separated by a nice fence. My plan is to use systematic desensitization to introduce my boys to her horses. The first step is to have the animals see each other with the fence in between having plenty of hay available to distract them and give them a sense that all is well. During the first meeting, I will observe very carefully to see what initial signs of distress there might be. My boys have already met one horse who was walked over to our house and allowed just to stand on the other side of their pasture fence. The boys immediately came over as close as they could get showing only curiosity. I have also seen my boys when deer were grazing on the opposite side of the fence and there did not seem to be any anxiety. I suppose that I could allow my alpacas to spend the night and just pick them up and take them home in the morning. This probably would be a good step AFTER they were fully acquainted. It would also be possible to bring her two horses to my place and allow them to be in separate fenced areas, even spending one night at our place. This would probably give them all the familiarity that I am hoping for. The next steps would be to walk the three alpacas alongside the miniature horse and then gradually to have both horses on lead with the three alpacas on lead walking around my step daughter’s property. My “dream” is to be able to meet up at our local biking/hiking/horseRiding trail system for a nice walk with the two horses and the three alpacas all hopefully walking together and hopefully feeling more comfortable with their “friends” present. Any and all ideas are appreciated.
