Heidi; That was funny reading about your guy backing to the fence to make a stud pile. My mares do that and I've always thought they were so tidy, they pooped on the other side of the fence, so they had a nice clean corral ! Makes it real easy to clean stalls, same little pile each day. I have heard that studs make piles to cover up the scent of the previous depositor, in order to establish territory. But then we had a gelding who was so accurate in his "latrine", with every single urination, that we made him a trench leading from his wet spot so it could drain right out of the stall. We had a colt over here a while back, who was very "studdy" in behavior, but he pooped like a rabbit all over the place, and usually loose and then he rototilled it in for us. But even after gelding at the age of one year, he spent the next year biting, striking, snaking his neck, charging people etc. We considered gelding him twice, even though we saw all the gonads removed. He was just a rotten horse, and was eventually kicked off the island.
Beth