From: deblev@nimoy.ipac.caltech.edu (Debbie Levine)
Newsgroups: rec.equestrian
Subject: Re: Stallions
Date: 20 Dec 1992 05:56:04 GMT
Organization: California Institute of Technology
NNTP-Posting-Host: nimoy.ipac.caltech.edu

In article <1992Dec19.064732.6277@desire.wright.edu> sbishop@desire.wright.edu writes:
>...Recently a local Appy stallion escaped from his lot (only fenced with
>one strand of eleric fence) and traveled three miles (!) and was found
>attempting to climb a fence to get in with a mare in heat.  Geldings don't
>do things like this.

OK this is my last waste of bandwidth on this topic... :-)

Geldings DO escape from single-strand electric fences.  No, they don't
generally try to climb fences to get to mares.  But there is a world of
territory in between single-strand electric fence and a 6-foot yard.

>Talk to some people who routinely handle stallions.  I have. [...] 
>The woman I know who was kicked in the head by her 24 year old stallion
>had never had a moment's trouble with him before.  And she had had him all
>his life!  

Well, our barn has four stallions and I've handled all of them to
some extent.  I don't handle them all daily, and only one of them
is an active breeding stallion, and he is the most difficult of the
lot to deal with, so my experience is limited -- but it isn't
nonexistent.  I've groomed, clipped, bathed, ridden, and turned them
out.  They all wear stud chains, and they are turned out in the most
isolated of the turnout pens, with a quiet gelding in the nearest
paddock.  They don't get to have stall chains, their doors are always
kept closed and  latched.  Their stall neighbors aren't mares.
And, no, they aren't allowed to scream, strike or otherwise
carry on.  But, they get treated like horses, not like
fire-breathing monsters.

Keep in mind that handling ANY horse contains some element of danger.
Any horse can go nonlinear in some wierd set of circumstances and injure
or kill a handler.  Not everyone who gets kicked gets kicked by a stallion.

All I'm suggesting is handle stallions with care, with the knowledge
that they are stallions, with discipline, and with kindness.  Don't
punish them simply for BEING stallions!  Maybe I'm preaching to the
converted, but what I sometimes see are people who are so afraid of
their stallions that they punish them for things they might be thinking
of doing instead of just dealing with the behavior they get.  It's
that kind of treatment that I still maintain is more likely to make
a horse mean than to make him disciplined.  The most belligerant 
difficult stallions I have known are the ones who had minimal
contact with humans, who were cooped up in isolated stalls most
on the time, and who were constantly being yanked on and hit
for the merest indication that they might "do something".  It's
that kind of attitude I'd like to see eliminated.  I'm not suggesting
that everyone should go out and buy a stallion to make a pet of!

>The thing you MUST remember is, stallions are very often have their brains
>in only one place, and that's not in their heads!

I've heard this argument applied to men, in various variations on the
theme of all men are potential rapists.  I've never bought the argument
applied to humans, and I'm only willing to buy it partially for 
horses.  I will concede that once a stallion is aroused he isn't
going to stop and consider the ethical ramifications of his 
behavior -- but even a horse is capable of having his attention
focused on his handler and not irrevocably on procreation.  Stallions
in the wild, after all, do a few things other than breed continuously...

I'm shutting up now!

Debbie
deblev@ipac.caltech.edu

Debbie
deblev@ipac.caltech.edu
Newsgroups: rec.equestrian