Re: [RC] [Guest] Stallions, Mares and Hormones - k s swigart
Whether fair or not, in general (at least in FL ) if anything happens it
is the fault of the Stallion owner...period end of conversation. That
does place an extra burden ( not matter how much they feel it unfair ) on the
stallion owner.
Strict liability for stallion
owners is the case here in California too. That does not change,
however, my comment that the way to teach mares to behave themselves around
stallions is to teach them to behave themselves around geldings.
Attempting to teach them to behave themselves around stallions if you have
permitted them to misbehave around geldings is an uphill battle.
It is because only about one mare
owner in ten (probably a gross exaggeration) thinks that "flirting" is
unacceptable behaviour that can/should be trained out of a mare that I
commented that a flirty mare SHOULDN'T provoke a response in a stallion at an
endurance ride....because stallion owners are almost guaranteed to find flirty
mares at endurance rides (and most stallion owners know this), and teach their
stallions not to respond.
As a stallion owner, I used to
think, "It is not my problem if you can't handle your mare when my horse is
around." However, in law (even if it is not fair), that just isn't
true. When I bring my stallion, the behaviour of everybody else's horse
becomes my problem. _I_ consider the relationship that can be had with a
stallion to be well worth the added trouble, but it ain't for
everybody.
It is not difficult to teach a
stallion when to breed and when not to breed. Stallions, by nature, just
don't do all that much breeding. In the wild, they live all day, every
day in close contact with multiple (maybe) mares and if they are lucky
they probably get to breed about 5 times a year. The rest of the time,
they are just horses. Smart stallions, no matter how horny they might
be, know very well how to take "no" for an answer. It really isn't
very hard to teach them that they don't get to breed with a saddle
on.
Those that haven't learned that
lesson, you are unlikely to find at an endurance ride.
