Re: Breeding shed manners

["Tracey" <tracey@tbt.co.za>]

Well said.  I read an article by an English lady in a magazine.  She had a
Trakehner Stallion whom she used to event, hunt, dressage and breed with.
He boxed in company with mares and geldings, and was turned out all day in a
paddock.  The only privilege accorded his entire status was that he was not
turned out with mares, but could touch them and their foals over the paddock
rail.


He once serviced a mare, and then rested in his stable for an hour before
going on to have a half-hour dressage lesson, wherein he behaved impeccably.
He knew the difference between the stallion halter (for covering) and the
everyday halter.


I have a friend who is one of our top showjumpers and breeders of Warmbloods
and Thoroughbreds.  Her young TB stallion will not cover a mare unless he is
turned out with the mare for at least two days so they can 'get aquainted".
Wish some men behaved as well...


Tracey


>Hello, Campers,
>
>   While I am not a breeder, I spent several years of my teens working on a
>QH breeding farm.
> I saw all sorts of machinations....keeping mares under lights ten hours a
>day to "fool" her pituatary into thinking February  was really May, pumping
>mares full of hormones to make them cycle, twitching, hobbling,
blindfolding
>or doping a mare to keep her still long enough to permit the stallion to
>jump, artificial insemination (with its steel vagina, and a padded piece of
>wood or steel gomer), the whole nine yards. This was before embryo
transfer,
>frozen semen, etc.
>
> And it always appeared to be far more stressful to the horses, both mares
>and stallions than it was worth. A mare that wouldn't stand for the
stallion
>would be AI'ed, the vet always having his arms up in her innards, checking
>checking checking and no she didn't catch again. The stallion, freezing his
>butt off (because he's kept clipped  year round in order to be in "show
coat"
>for prospective clients),  being led down the aisle to a strange mare he's
>never seen in his life, he's not even allowed to introduce himself and he's
>supposed to breed her right now..
>And all for what? A January foal.  A Michigan January is a miserable thing,
>the ice is up to your hocks, it's snowing,  it's been below zero for weeks,
>the sun hasn't been sighted in months, you can't even let the mares out
into
>the paddocks because the mud is frozen into ridges of ice that.
>
>They kept their mares one mare to a  small paddock so that the only social
>interaction a foal had was with his mother. The paddock was small enough
that
>a foal couldn't get up into a full gallop. Too dangerous. No playing with
the
>other foals, he might get hurt. At six months he was ripped away from her,
>(they called  it weaning), stuffed into a trailer and shown at halter until
>he was sold. The stud never got to meet a mare unless it was with his
>breeding halter on. Otherwise he was kept in a lonely paddock by himself,
no
>where near the mares. No  other horse, not even a gelding, to nibble his
>neck, no one to swat flies and swap lies with, just him in lonely, lordly
>isolation.
>And though he was gentle and sweet natured, they never, ever dared let him
>near a foal because " Oh, my god, no. Stallions will kill a foal".
>
>
>I used to wonder, "Why isn't this considered cruelty to horses?" Because
the
>barn was palatial, the hay the finest alfalfa, the stalls hock deep in
golden
>straw, the ribbons on the wall attesting to the purity of the bloodline?
>
>Horses are intensely social animals. They live in herds in the wild. In
>natural settings, a stallion lives with his mares until he's displaced by
>another stallion. The mares allow him to breed him when THEY'RE ready. He
>knows who they are, he's eaten with them, slept with them, run with them,
and
>he knows what he is supposed to do.
>The mares foal in May, when it's warm and there is green grass to eat. The
>foals run and play and fool around with each other, they get banged up,
they
>try what they've seen the grown up horses do to each other, making all the
>mistakes when they are still babies and can practice without repercussions.
>They know  their  father and know all the other mares in the band.
>
>The fillies watch the stallion breeding his mares. They learn that there
>might be noise, confusion and what sounds like fighting, but mom is unhurt,
>no one seems to be bothered by it.  The colts watch and later on, try what
>they saw dad do, and they suffer the consequences when they try to mount an
>old mare. Like other animals, they learn by watching their parents. By the
>time a filly is old enough to breed, she knows the deal, she's seen it done
a
>hundred times, so while she may be nervous she's not afraid. The colt, when
>he finally wins a band of his own, knows that if he's not respectful of the
>mare he's about to breed, he's going to get nailed by a pair of hind
hooves.
>
>So many times in our modern horse world, the horse has been removed from
the
>natural way of being a horse that he or she doesn't understand what we mean
>when we finally want them to be a horse.
> The virgin mare about to be bred for the first time may be honestly
>terrified of the stallion because she's never seen her own species mate
>before. All she knows is this huge stallion is yelling and roaring and
coming
>at HER.................The colt may be a monster to handle because he's all
>hormones and he-man, and no one ever allowed a mare to kick his ass when he
>got bratty as a baby. I knew one mare who was terrified of her first foal
>because she'd never seen a foal before. She'd been a show horse for her
>entire life.
>
>While pasture breeding is probably not do-able for most breeders anymore,
it
>still seems to be the easiest  way for a horse..any gender, to learn what
it
>means to be a horse at breeding time. Yup, I'm sure there will be bruises
and
>torn hide and probably offended neighbors who want to live in the country
but
>without all that messy stuff, like roosters crowing at 3 AM,  coyotes
eating
>their pet cat, smelly cows and and horny horses.
>
>The problems one sees in the breeding shed may not be a lack of training by
>the owner, or a lack of brains on the horse's part..but a lack of
experience,
>lack of knowledge of what is wanted and expected, and occasionally,
outright
>fear.
>
>It's a bloody wonder they don't hate us. Or go insane.
>
>I can't remember who said it, but the quote goes, "The closer he is to
>nature, the happier your horse will be."
>
>I'll step off my soapbox now.
>
>Michelle
>
>
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