Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

Besides all the good reasons you've been given, there's another one.. Liability. Most states have some kind of laws about stallions and what kind of fences they need to be in and what the owner's responsibility is if the horse gets out and causes trouble. Letting him run seems to me to be an invitation to trouble.

 

I like to give my boy a lot of room. His paddock is nearly an acre. But, I won't turn him out in a bigger area unless I'm close by to supervise. I just don't want the liability if he decides to act like a stallion.

 

Just because your horse is nonagressive now and seems happy as a clam, don't assume that he'll always be that way. He is 900-1000 or so pounds of muscle and testosterone and when they think with the little head instead of the big one, watch out! Just because he hasn't done it yet, don't bank on it never happening. At some point in his life, he IS going to have a stallion moment. It's not a matter of If, but When.

 

I was a newspaper reporter for years and had to carry a pager and respond to car wrecks and other calamities in our rural county. The saddest thing I had to go to was a midnight wreck with a car and horse on a major highway. The horse was killed. So were a woman and her daughter. the impact peeled the roof of the car back like a can opener. The dead horse was a stallion that was kept in a lot alongside the highway with only electric tape fencing.

 

I doubt seriously that the woman who owned the horse has any assets left. I'm sure the family of the dead people sued and won.

 

this could have happened with a mare or gelding housed in the same way, but the insurance companies will tell you that the risk is greater with a stallion. He likely smelled a mare in heat somewhere and went to find her.

 

I'm sure you have better fences than electric tape, but when a stallion puts his mind to it, he can go through a lot. IMHO, it's just good stallion management to keep them in a controlled situation.

 

chris

jspoone@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:

> I've noticed a lot of people refer to keeping their stallions by themselves and
> I'm just curious why they do. Mine is 3 now and has been in with everybody else
> since I got him. The herd consists of 2 mares, him and 4 geldings. He's not at
> all agressive with the horses or people and seems super happy to be in there. I
> guess I'm just wondering if I just got real lucky with his temperment.
> Jess Spoone-Raines

I am not afraid of storms, for I am learning how to sail my ship. Louisa May Alcott

 

Chris Paus

BayRab Acres http://pages.prodigy.net/paus

Lake Region SWA  http://lakeregionswa.fws1.com