Heres an interesting video for everyone: https://facebook/photo.php?v=569193863124077 Its time-lapse photography, so it appears a bit jumpy. Im not for a minute suggesting that everyone rush home and turn all their stallions out together, but it is interesting to see that it can be done without issues. In the wild, stallions are managed in essentially one of two ways - the harem stallion, who has a herd of mares, and the bachelor herd of stallions - only males. And that is the key in this situation - no mares involved or even close. Domestically, one can manage stallions in a similar manner or variations thereof. The single dominant with a group of mares - who may be surrounding him in separate stalls in the barn, they do not need to be all in together as long as there is visual contact; and the bachelor herd arrangement where there are multiple stallions with only male-male interaction. Again, these horses can be in separate stalls, or - as in this case - turned out together. When lecturing on this topic, I always explain the management options, and suggest that the attendees do not go home and turn out all their stallions together, as the first hour will likely be a bit exciting, but that in all probability even if they did, it would not be as big an issue as one might think - AS LONG AS THERE ARE NO MARES INVOLVED!! We manage between 10 and 15 resident stallions on average during the breeding season, and the stallions are all over on one side of the property away from the mares, which are on the other side. The stallions are in individual runs, but are only separated by a matter of a 10 aisleway from each other, and there is constant male-male interaction potential. We can take a stallion out to collect/breed and return him to his run with very little being said by the others. Typically if there is a comment made its by a new kid on the block. The older stallions pretty much ignore the movement. Similarly, when we introduce a new stallion, as in this video, there may be a little chest thumping for maybe 10 minutes, but then everyone goes back to eating. Once again, the key to quietness is no mare interaction!! If one introduces a mare into the mix, its no longer a quiet arrangement!!
Posted on: Mon, 28 Jul 2014 16:39:01 +0000
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