Keeping Stallions together with other Horses - Observations and Experiences

	Classical-Iberian & Circensic Horse Training h Keeping stallions - Together with other horses?

	It is our strong conviction that no horse should be kept separate from others horses for a longer period of time. Horses are herd animals whose well-being depends vastly on being integrated into the social structure of the herd and humans are no substitute for that. Every horse should have at least one other horse for companionship, so as to avoid the development of behavioural or social disorders. Following this principle we describe below our own experiences and show you very rare pictures of what happened on introducing our stallions to each other. Over the years we have had different scenarios: · Young stallion - Young gelding · Mature stallion - Young stallion · Mature stallion - Mature gelding · Two mature stallions (both have served) · Mature stallion (has served) - mature gelding · Mature stallion (has served) - colt h In 1991 the dominant but very gentle Friesian stallion Oene came into our care, aged 3 at that time. From his first day on we kept him together with our extremely playful Trakehner gelding Luzi who is one year younger than Oene and loves and adores his "hero". There were never any serious fights between them but they are affectionate with each other and mates for life. h In 1995 we bought 4 year old Friesian stallion Aart. Oene, 7, was fully mature by then and king with one subject (Luzi) for four years. We put Luzi and Oene in one paddock and Aart in the adjoining one, so they could make contact over the fence but not more. Whenever Aart and Luzi tried to make contact, Oene would charge like a valkyrie, driving Luzi away from Aart. This behaviour we have observed on several occasions ever since. Obviously the boss does not allow new horses to go near his established herd until the new-comer has submitted to him. After a few days of familiarisation we opened the gate. Again, the first thing Oene made sure of was to separate Aart from his herd, i.e. Luzi. Only then he dealt with Aart and clearly Oene’s non-negotiable condition for Aart to the join the herd was that Aart submits to him, unmitigated. Aged 4, brimming with testosterone, Aart was not quite ready to capitulate that easily but all the same, not even 10 minutes later, he did. Thereafter he was allowed to graze close to Oene and also to make contact with Luzi. Sadly, Aart died a few months later. h A year after Aart's totally unexpected death we bought another Friesian, then 9 year old Nanne, a quiet but very opinionated gelding. Gelding or not, other than Luzi five years earlier Nanne was not prepared to readily submit to Oene (8). It took a few skirmishes until Nanne saw reason to give in but he did that only very reluctantly, trying to get away with less. First he went down on both his knees but Oene didn't consider this satisfactory. Next Nanne went down to the ground but with the head still up. Not enough. Only when Nanne finally lied down with the head flat on the ground, Oene did the "Spanish salute" (holding his front leg outstretched over Nanne for a few seconds). From that moment on, Nanne was a fully accepted member of the herd. h In December 2004 an additional horse, 20 year old Trakehner stallion Atalanta, came into our care. We did a lot of researches to find out about the best way to get two mature stallions (both had served) accustomed to each other but found close to nothing. Apparently nobody else tries to bring two foreign stallions together or, if they do, they seem to keep their experiences for themselves. Atalanta had spent many years, in all probability his whole life even, in solitary confinement - sharing the sad fate of most stallions. Hence he overreacts entirely when spotting another horse, let alone a stallion. Although not aggressive by nature, he is hardly amenable in such a situation. This did improve somewhat by doing ground work with him, such as Basic Education, Lungeing and later on also Double Lungeing. However, the behaviour described seems to be hard-wired beyond repair in a 20 year-old horse. Atalanta is fine in work but when he is in his paddock certain situations seem to trigger old films in his mind that are repeated over and over again. So we thought Atalanta would surely benefit from a mate or, better even, a herd. The first two weeks we kept the two stallions, Oene and Atalanta, separated but within sight of each other. After a day or two they stopped screaming and pacing fences, just stared at each other, dropping manure demonstratively close to the fence. Unlike in the scenarios before, these were two fully mature stallions; Oene being the undisputed leader of a herd all his adult life, Atalanta never having learned social horse behaviour; none of them had ever submitted to another horse; both stallions had served. So, yes, there was a risk of injury but still we thought it worth a try. When the stallions gradually settled down and even the staring dwindled, we put their halters on them (as a sort of "emergency handle"), led them into a paddock and - let go: Click on the image below for downloading the *slideshow* (a PDF-file) turn the sound on and have a little patience, please. DO NOT click "Play", the slideshow will start automatically (click "Play" only if you'd like to watch the slideshow again). After some half hour of running, chasing and fighting the two stallions started grazing quietly and peacefully next to each other. However, after a short break another battle would erupt, over and over again. Despite their often ear-piercing screams no major injuries occurred, but as they didn’t come to terms with another either we finally separated them. We repeated the scenario a few more times, with the same result, and decided at last that the stallions would probably be better off running with a gelding each. So ever since the two groups live within sight of each other, with some 50 m in between them, Oene with his nearly life-long mate Luzi and Atalanta with Nanne. h Nanne, 18 at that time and fairly serene, is the perfect match for Atalanta with his non-curable dissocial behaviour. The two of them never had a real fight. Whenever Atalanta tried to mount Nanne, Nanne would just lift his bum a little, give Atalanta a good kick if need be and ... walk away - perfect de-escalation tactics, end of discussion. Occasionally Atalanta feels the need to reinforce his position as the boss. Then he is happy to chase Nanne away from his hay feeder, who dryly walks away only to queue up behind Atalanta again and to continue with his hay as soon as Atalanta is finished (which is the case after a few minutes as the whole point of this action was to make a statement, after all Atalanta has got his own hay feeder). h In December 2006 we bought Lipizzaner colt Favory Gigi I, 15 months of age, from Annwn Park (www.annwnpark.com.au ). After our experience with Oene and Atalanta we were hoping that at that age Favory was still young enough to be integrated into one of our two existing groups of horses. The goal was to integrate him with Oene (18) and Luzi (17). As before, we had the three horses running next to each other, separated just by a fence. We had this set-up for 1 1/2 days before we opened the gate. Drawing on previous experience we first let only the two stallions together as Luzi would be separated from Favory by Oene anyway. See yourself what happened ... Click on the image below for downloading the *slideshow* (a PDF-file) turn the sound on and have a little patience, please. DO NOT click "Play", the slideshow will start automatically (click "Play" only if you'd like to watch the slideshow again). One week later ... And another month later ... Oene has got with Favory another passionate admirer. Although without doubt standing in awe of Oene, Favory keeps himself constantly alongside his idol, being visibly proud that he is granted this privilege and trying to copy everything Oene does. Oene, on the other hand, is the best foster-father one can wish for. Other than Atalanta he doesn't need to make a show to prove his leadership as his natural serenity and dignity eradiate just that. He can afford to be incredibly patient and indulgent to his youngest pupil's tomfooleries although he doesn't hesitate to put Favory in his place when necessary. Luzi and Favory deal friendly and playful with each other, however, Favory doesn't pay Luzi the respect he does to Oene. So far Luzi keeps Favory easily to the bottom of the feeding line but this is not down to Favory not trying. Time will tell. h In August 2007 Pura Raza Espanola colt Querido arrived. He had just turned 2 yrs and is two months older than Favory. Same procedure as before, with Oene the first of the herd being allowed to make contact with the new arrival. Much to our surprise, this scenario was completely different again from all the ones before: The moment Querido spotted Oene, one stern look of Oene was all it took to point out who the boss is. Querido opened and closed his mouth a few times, an unmistakable sign of submission. Oene didn't even bother to show the Spanish Salute ... ... while Favory took the chance straight away to ascend to a higher rank. Conclusion As stated at the beginning of this article we believe that keeping the herd animal horse in solitary confinement leads to the development of behavioural or social disorders; Atalanta is a sad example for that. Stallions are also just horses, not monsters, and their well-being depends a great deal on living in a herd. That often stallions are hardly manageable in the presence of another horse is in our opinion to a great extent a self-made problem, because they were never allowed to develop normal horse behaviour. They simply react like someone would who dying with thirst you show a bottle of water. We assume that it didn't work with Oene and Atalanta because of their specific previous histories (both fully mature, Oene the leader of a heard nearly all his life, Atalanta lacking healthy horse behaviour) but this was 1 out of 6 scenarios that failed while all others were successful. Therefore, basing on our personal experiences as described and pictured above, we would always try it again; the younger the horses the better the chances of a successful integration, of course. The reward, if successful, is a happy, basically relaxed horse that can be handled well, without playing up at the sight of another horse - a win-win situation for horse and human. CAUTION Any dealing with horses can be hazardous. Our observations described above may not be suitable for everyone to replicate. Make a very careful assessment of the possibilities and abilities of the person as well as the nature and history of the horses involved prior putting the horses together. What we have done is not a guideline how to do this, it is only a report about our experience. Schooling-on-the-Ground accepts no liability for personal injury, damage to property or pecuniary loss ensuing from copying the observations described.