Three stallions together

[heartofwisdom]

I put my new Bubbles (4yo) with Comanche my 2 yr old alpha this morning. What a commotion. Biting, kicking, yelling until they were both worn out. About 2 hours after they calmed down I let Toby (2 yo) in the pasture with them. A little bit of kicking and neighing but only for a few minutes. All are happy now grazing and Bubbles is the new alpha.

No one hurt, everyone happy. I'm glad I put them together the 2nd day. I believe waiting would have made it worse.

Robin

 

[Joyce]

I could never do that with my 3 stallions. If I did, only 1 would be left and probably seriously injured.

 

[Jill]

Hi, Robin --

I was able to keep two of my former stallions together until they were 5yo and 4yo. It just became unsafe. The older stallions get / the more mature, it just nearly never will be a safe situation to leave them all as stallions unless you have them in a very large area. You will probably enjoy them much much more as geldings vs. stallions.

Right now, i have a 1yo stallion out with two geldings. I hope this will work out long-term, but I'm not sure it will. I think in my favor is that the stallion is a yearling and the geldings are older and bigger. One thing I do not like about having a stallion is that usually, they live fairly lonely lives.

Jill

 

[Miniv]

You are so very lucky that you could do that. It's great for stallions to get along and form their own herd apart from mares......but it doesn't always work.

I think part of the trick is to do it when they are all young and don't know any better.

: :bgrin

MA

 

[CheyAut]

I have two stallions, they are next to each other, but I haven't put them together yet... one is 22 years old, he's new to us... the ohter is 2 years old. However, both are also kept with geldings. I don't let me 2 year old stay alone, he is below the geldings in status, I like it that way.. helps keep him in line

Jessi

 

[slaneyrose]

My stallions are really gentle and always wean the foals which is great, so I put a yearling colt and a 2yr old colt with Tirnan last winter and they are the best of friends. All three were recently gelded, Tirnan (8) - still acting like a stallion and even breaking out of his paddock when the mares up the road were in season - has never fought with them except in play which I find remarkable.....but even more so Sundance, who at 5yrs old will allow Taiga(2) in the field with him when he is with his mares as long as Taiga doesnt go near. But the best yet was yesterday...Taiga and Blaze (yearling) who are best buds, were up with the rest of the herd, and Taiga is covering Raven every day while she is in season....well when I held Raven for Taiga he kindly obliged but just as he was about to enter her, BLAZE, with his little flagpole at full mast

rushes over....jumps up, pushing Taiga OFF Raven almost knocking him to the ground and proceeds to try and cover Raven himself!!!! His berries have descended but at 25" he couldnt quite make Raven`s 30" so I had time to pull him away from her!!! It was hilarious because Taiga was annoyed but didnt hurt his friend, and yet if one of the geldings in the next paddock go anywhere near the fenceline he bites them thru the fence!!!! Taiga is obviously the type not to let a woman come between him and his mates!!!! lol

edited for spelling

 

[Margaret]

I hope it continues to work out for you, as Ive seen on here that it can be done, but I was always afraid to turn my back when I did it.. I suppose it helps to have a big place for them to get away from each other also. I ended up decideing it was better to sell one stallion, than to try to make two co-habitate, as mine had some unresolvable issues. Now the one stallion I have left co-habitates with the mares.

:

 

[rabbitsfizz]

I do this in winter, but I have to admit I would not try it in summer unless there were no mares around.

It is not actually in a stallions nature to allow "co- habiting" and when it goes wrong it will be spectacular.

So long as you have no mares around you should be alright.

I would keep a very good eye on them, though, I am not sure how big your paddock is, but if it is not, to the mature animal's way of thinking, big enough, he will put one of the colts through the fence.

If he can put the colts far enough away from him, at first, to satisfy him, they may well all settle down and be friends.

 

[Songcatcher]

My stallions are really gentle and always wean the foals which is great, so I put a yearling colt and a 2yr old colt with Tirnan last winter and they are the best of friends. All three were recently gelded, Tirnan (8) - still acting like a stallion and even breaking out of his paddock when the mares up the road were in season - has never fought with them except in play which I find remarkable.....but even more so Sundance, who at 5yrs old will allow Taiga(2) in the field with him when he is with his mares as long as Taiga doesnt go near. But the best yet was yesterday...Taiga and Blaze (yearling) who are best buds, were up with the rest of the herd, and Taiga is covering Raven every day while she is in season....well when I held Raven for Taiga he kindly obliged but just as he was about to enter her, BLAZE, with his little flagpole at full mast

rushes over....jumps up, pushing Taiga OFF Raven almost knocking him to the ground and proceeds to try and cover Raven himself!!!! His berries have descended but at 25" he couldnt quite make Raven`s 30" so I had time to pull him away from her!!! It was hilarious because Taiga was annoyed but didnt hurt his friend, and yet if one of the geldings in the next paddock go anywhere near the fenceline he bites them thru the fence!!!! Taiga is obviously the type not to let a woman come between him and his mates!!!! lol

edited for spelling

I have trouble keeping up with who is who in this, but you would be surprised what a 25 inch boy might reach and what "friends" might do to each other when hormones are involved. I personally would not allow this situation. Hope you DNA.

 

[Dontworrybeappy]

I've done this with up to 5 stallions at a time - 2 of them over 6 years old - the boys are MUCH nicer to each other than the girls are!

:

There are no mares in direct sight or within many feet of the stallion corral - I do think this has a lot to do with them getting along better!

 

[heartofwisdom]

I don't have any mares (maybe thats why they are doing so well) They are in a large paddock or one of the one acre pastures. After the first day they are doing great.

I made my descision to keep them together ater reading

http://www.grandin.com/inc/animals.in.translation.ch4.html

The author said

One of the worst things you can do to any domestic animal is to rear it in isolation. Many people mistakenly believe that stallions are aggressive nutcases you can't handle, but that's true only because we make them that way. I remember being amazed when I walked into a holding pen at a Bureau of Land Management adoption center, which contained fifty wild stallions. The stallions were completely peaceful and quiet with almost no fighting. Every year the BLM gathers surplus wild horses and puts them up for adoption so that the horses don't over-graze the ranges, and people who visit the BLM pens find it hard to believe that fifty stallions can actually get along with one another. But that's the way well-socialized animals of any species usually behave. In the wild, constant fighting is not normal.

The first few hours were roguh but they worked it out between themselves.

Thanks,

Robin

 

[Ashley]

I agree with the "hope your DNAing" I would not have more then one stallion with mares at all, no matter the age(unless they were not weaned yet).

 

[CheyAut]

It is not actually in a stallions nature to allow "co- habiting" and when it goes wrong it will be spectacular.

Do you mean when mares are involved, or ever? Mustang stallions who lack a band of mares form a bachelor band, so yes, stallions do "co habitate" without mares...

Jessi

 

[rabbitsfizz]

Yes, I know about Mustangs, and I do keep my stallions together in winter.

As I said, stallions on their own, without mares anywhere near, will live together.

Mustangs also fight like crazy- the whole herd ethos breaks down- when there is a mare in the mix!!

The other thing to remember is that Minis are bred from Shetlands and, although it is possible to get Shetland stallions to live together fairly amicably, they belong to a behaviour group (there are at least five different behaviour groups, two among Mustangs) in which the stallion stays with the herd all year long.

Most Mustangs belong to a behaviour group where the stallions wander off in the "off" season and hang out with their friends.

 

[CheyAut]

K, gotcha

My stallions do fine with geldings during breeding season, but I won't even think about putting them together until that's over! We've only had our older stallion a couple months. They ARE next to each other, but can't get to each other.

I agree about not when there's a mare around, especially now

Jessi

 

[Jill]

Also, though, keep in mind what the average lifespan is of a wild horse. I don't remember exactly what it is but it's somewhere around 12 years! So when people like to say "well, the mustangs do it", they maybe do but they also do not have very long lives compared to domestic horses.

 

[Magic]

My three young stallions lived together until this spring, when they each started breeding mares. They were ok when just one had been breeding, but once the others started breeding, they all had to be separated. Each gets to be next to mares, they can touch noses with them, and I would like to put the stallions together this winter as they were great buddies before the hormones got the best of them.

 

[Sandee]

I have an 18 yr old gelding and a now 3yr old stallion. When the stallion was 1-2 yr all was fine but this winter we got a weanling filly and the boys could not get along after that. She was much too young to breed and it was winter and each boy would go out with her and run and play (well, the older one not so much). However, the 2 boys could not go out together. At least twice my stallion, who is a few inches smaller, would come in with bloody front teeth. I could never find many marks on the old gelding (maybe too much hair) but I figured I couldn't afford for the little guy to lose teeth if I wanted to show him. So they each have their own alloted time alone on the green grass.