Re: Re: Stallions in endurance riding

["Susan Garlinghouse" <suendavid@worldnet.att.net>]

>So, I guess you have to ask yourself, if you are willing to >put up with
>other horses' reactions to your stallion.  It may affect >your ride.

I hadn't thought of this until I read this post, but now I'll throw it in for the FWIW category.  Many years ago when I had my horses in Burbank (CA), there was a father who let his teenage son ride their stallion.  The stallion was fairly well-behaved, ie could normally go out with other groups of horses and you wouldn't automatically realize he was a stud.

 

There was also another family who had just bought their first horse, a chubby lil pony mare that their five year old daughter could sit on and wander around the arena on.  One particular day, the teenage boy was riding the stallion and the little girl was in the arena on the pony mare, who happened to be in standing estrus.  The stallion decided to take a detour, the boy couldn't stop him, the stallion promptly tried to mount the mare and one of his front feet caught the little girl in the head and killed her.

 

This isn't meant as a judgment on all stallions, or control issues in general, or judgment on all teenage boys or meant to start a debate on whether the little girl should have been wearing a helmet or if it would have saved her life.  I would just hope that anyone riding a stallion without ABSOLUTE AND TOTAL CONTROL (and I've seen more than a few stallions at endurance rides whose owners haven't got a clue what control even means) would remember that that's alot of instinct and testosterone underneath you, and alot of damage can get done in a hurry if things get out of hand.  So think it over before you let anyone other than a very experienced rider hadnle a stallion in strange company, which may very well include mares in heat.

 

Just my two cents.  :-)

 

Susan