Re: RC: Re: Re: bad boys

[CMKSAGEHIL@aol.com]

In a message dated Tue, 12 Jun 2001  6:12:31 PM Eastern Daylight Time, "Becky Huffman" <tos@htcomp.net> writes:

<< I have worked with stallions, and I consider temperament to be AS important
as conformation, and I also consider emotional stability to be extremely
important in the mix.  ...and not just stallions... *all* horses.!!!>>

Becky, this is SO true!  Stallions and stallion prospects should have impeccable dispositions, and any "teenage stuff" should be calmly but firmly not tolerated.  We never pick or fuss at our colts, but we expect--and most times get--good behavior.  We are the "herd bosses"--and if you watch them, they run a pretty smooth operation, most times.

Some of you have heard about our episode moving stallions last fall--and it really underscores why stallions have to be just as sensible and mannerly as any other horse.  We loaded up 10 stallions in a 10-horse trailer (commercial hauler), with just regular partitions with headpieces between them.  Ages ranged from 26 down to 3.  (The yearling came on a later load in our 3-horse with a mare and a gelding.)  All were loaded with plain web halters, no chains--no fuss, no muss.  Some of the younger ones had not been in trailers except for a couple of times as babies--still no problem, just took a minute for each one to sniff the floor and ascertain that it was ok.  After a LONG day (600 miles), and in the pitch dark (freezing temps, sometime after midnight), the driver felt something wrong and pulled over--not even enough shoulder to get clear off the pavement.  I was following in my car.  The pins holding one of the partitions had sheared, and one of the three-year-olds had pull!
ed back, trying to avoid the bro
ken partition.  This started a chain reaction of sorts, and all five of the younger stallions up front had partitions either lifted off and leaning on them, or something. The stallion in front literally had the partition unhooked and sitting across his face.  None of them panicked or freaked.  There was a ramp down from the front of the first stall--about 18" wide, and with spilled water on it, so it was icy as soon as we opened it up.  Each of these green youngsters bravely unloaded down that steep, skinny, icy ramp onto the pavement in the pitch dark. (I had to crawl in with the first one and hold the partition back so that he could get out.)  Then we had to unload all the mature stallions out the back as well, in order to get in and fix everything.  We had stallions tied to road signs, to power poles, and to barbed wire fences.  They waited patiently this way, in the cold, for two hours, while the driver and I got the trailer fixed.  Then each and every one of them got righ!
t back in, calmly, and we got ba
ck on our way.  I was eternally grateful that it has been a lifelong habit for us to make sure our stallions are treated like "horses" and are expected to behave as such.  So was our driver!!  If anything, a stallion is an EXTRA liability, and as such, should be even BETTER behaved than the norm.

Heidi