Calf And Mini Horse Together???

[BuettnersLittleFarm]

We have a 4 month old Holstein bull calf sharing an open pen to the pasture with our 8 month old male mini horse and neither one of them has been castorated...the bull will be casterated next week and will do the horse in a few months...the mini horse is much smaller than the calf but he is always trying to bite the calf...other-wise, they get along fine eating and sleeping together..Our question is...

"Is it wise and safe to keep them together???" as we are limited on space...

P.S. Many times, we do tether up the mini horse in our yard during the day as we have only a one acre of pasture...

 

[goodhors]

The mini has more weapons than the calf, could hurt him. I would get the colt
castrated now, when there are less flies around to provide infection to the wound.
Even with both of them castrated, the mini will need to be tied up so the calf
can eat unpestered. In horses, if you can drive off the others, you eat better,
are an Alpha horse. If your calf is not dehorned, he could later do cow herd
Alpha, and horn the mini, because that is how CATTLE gain herd status.

Also with mini thinking like a stallion, he could be dangerous. Even small, he out
weighs a person, has teeth and hooves to use when he WANTS something or gets
angry. More people get fooled by small stallions, hurt, than you would think possible.
Some "brain surgery" is always recommended for colts, stallions that are not
to be used as breeding animals. And just like a bull, stallions are controlled by those
testicles to be a breeding machine, regardless of people ideas.

I am SURE the mini doesn't need a lot of free choice food, they gain weight looking
at PHOTOS of food!! So limiting his intake is actually doing him a favor, not
letting him get obese with the problems that can cause. Tying him up, putting
him in a stall part of the day, won't hurt him, to limit his food intake.

I would say that if you can keep them apart, they each will be better off than
if they are arguing over feed. I would plan to buy hay, that amount of acreage
is not going to provide enough grazing to fatten the calf all summer long. And
the bigger the calf gets, the MORE hay/grass he will need. Mini needs TINY amounts
of feed or he is overweight.

 

[BuettnersLittleFarm]

Thank you for your advice, greatly appreciated and yes, will get him fixed a.s.a.p.