herd bound problems

Question
Hello Geneva

I have a wonderful 2 year old colt gelding who bonded with me very well. I have trained him since a foal and we have acomplished very much. I have just started to back him and he has done great. He is pastured alongside sheep and goats so he was never alone. He lunges great with voice commands and I love him dearly.
The only problem I had with him was that he had a very limited amount of socialising within a herd of horses so he would sometimes be bargy and rude, especially to others who didn't know how to assert themselves as 'lead mare'. (I have always been 'lead mare' around him and he knows this!)

I felt that he would benefit with a dominant mare encounter for a short while just to give him those extra lessons he needed, so I was given this mare to borrow on Saturday who I was told was rideable and safe. I put her in my colts pasture and she is disciplining him well.

It also turns out she is the worst herd bound horse I have ever met! I tried to separate her from my colt yesterday by thinking I could take her for a short ride. As soon as she was out of sight from my colt she screamed and screamed and she reared and I went underneath her. Luckily I wasnt hurt, but she reared again and just went beserk, dangerously so. She is around 16 hands so it really did frighten me.
While it happened my children were near, so to protect my children I put her back with my colt. Ideally this wasnt the right thing to do because as far as the mare is concerned her behaviour meant she was rewarded by being put back with my colt, so the next time will probably be worse, but I was not prepared to let my children be in harms way.

Anyway, my question is, will her being so herd bound make my colt the same in such a short time? I will not be separating them again until it must be time to give her back. I want to give this mare back as soon as possible as I have taken a dislike to her. She is moody, hard work and distrusting (I can't blame her though - she isn't at her home, shes in a new place) but I havent got the want or time to work on this as I will be giving this horse back as soon as I can for everyones sake.

Keeping them together means my colt is learning manners, but then because of her neediness will they be bonding too much at the same time? Am I in a no win situation here? Should I give her back straight away before it gets worse? I don't want my colt's bond with her to get stronger than it is with mine.

Please help. Thanks alot. Pam.

Answer
Hello Pam,

Are you able to work with the horse with another rider perhaps the owner could come and ride the horse with you. If you are able to do this then you shouldnt have a problem. How is your horse when you take other horse away? Does he act out? If not you may not have a problem but if the horse does act out I would see if you could work both horses together and start riding off from one another, then riding back to each other then riding off again. Let me know if this helps you if not we can figure something else out