keeping stallions together

[Riverdance]

Castle Rock. I am with you, I run all of my boys from 2 and up together. As long as there is enough room and they are away from the mares. There is no problems. If they are right near the mares, then we have problems during breeding season. No one hurts the other, but we do get some squealing and kicking for a couple of minutes. Most of the kicking is only hitting air. By putting them together, the younger boys lear manners.

If anyone has ever watched Animal Planet, they may have seen the show about the male Elephants that were relocated to another area. They were all young males. As they got a bit older, they started killing Rhino's. Come to find out, by relocating them with out adult males, they created young male bullies. They then introduced adult male Elephants and with in a short time, no more Rhino's were killed. In the Wild, there are large herds of bachelor horses running together.

I hate the thought a a single stallion having to be cooped up. They are herding animals and need companions.

 

[Forever Farm]

Call me insane, but currently, out on pasture right now I have two adult breeding stallions, One coming 4 yr old intact colt, a coming 2 yr old intact colt and a gelding all out in the same pasture as the mares. They are only together because it's too cold for the mares to be cycling. Come warmer weather, the boys will be going out into their own pasture while the girls stay together out on theirs. My boys are well natured, and have figured out that whoever starts a squabble gets put back in their stall- no fun at all for them! The pasture they are currently on is 30 acres, so plenty of room for everyone and enough room they can get out of each others way.

 

[MiLo Minis]

I have always put my boys in with their mares for breeding, leave them together till it is time to wean the foals and then put all the colts and their dads together for the winter with the herd boss. I have only had one stallion that I couldn't put together with everyone - he just wouldn't listen to the boss and kept trying to sneak the younger boys away for himself making 2 "herds" and starting arguments. Ordinarily, as long as you have room for them to sort themselves out and buddy up, they all get along just fine. Now I have 3 separate winter herds - one all boys ages weanling and up to 19, one of that one stallion with just his boys (they aren't actually all his get) and one of all the mares. The only time there have been injuries was involving that one stallion and that was minor - the herd boss only used as much force as was necessary to get his point across and I took him out when it was apparent that he was not willing to give up. You can never just throw any old horses together - care must be taken that no one gets seriously injured. Mares and geldings can beat each other up just as easily as stallions.

 

[supaspot]

it didnt work for me

 

[dgrminis]

We have 4 stallions and they are together year round... IF I pull out a stallion for breeding and decide to pasture breed then he will be out until I put him back in but they do fine... We have no issues with our 4. I do not think it would work with just ANY stallion but for our 4 it does. We actually did own a stallion for a while that would NOT tolerate other stallions (or geldings) in his pen... Our boys do occasionally get a little rough in their playing but never anything that I would consider dangerous. They enjoy eating together and grooming each other and almost every morning you will find all 4 sleeping side by side in their pen...

 

[stormy]

Forever Farm, it is never to cold for mares to cycle...have had more then one call from people for help because their mare foaled in November or December and they could not care for it properly (never managed to save any of them, found too late)....they too thought mares do not cycle in the winter, not always the case!!

 

[Forever Farm]

Forever Farm, it is never to cold for mares to cycle...have had more then one call from people for help because their mare foaled in November or December and they could not care for it properly (never managed to save any of them, found too late)....they too thought mares do not cycle in the winter, not always the case!!

I've never had one of these girls cycle in the winter, and I do watch them carefully to make sure, though. The girls are such hussies when they are cycling, the whole county knows! I did have one mare that cycled constantly, but she had hanging follicles- what a mess! We have a heated barn, so if one did foal during cold weather the foal should be fine. They are only out together for about 4 hours, then all the boys come inside to their stalls. If ti's really cold, then the girls come in as well. We've done this arrangement for several years and have never had an issue with an unplanned foal. I don't advise everyone to do it, don't get me wrong, and I certianly don't do it come warmer weather.

 

[Jill]

We do have November, December and January foals. I've had one, and several February ones...

 

[rabbitsfizz]

Absolutely mares cycle in winter- some mare only cycle in winter! My big mares never stopped cycling, maybe a short break over Christmas but that was all. I would never risk running more than one entire(or male, for that matter) in with mares. If you do get an Oops it will be expensive to find out who daddy was, at the very least!

I had a December 27th foal one year- the breeding was intended but I had forgetten to factor in the mare's ten month gestation!!!!

 

[crazyponies]

We run our colts together all year, there all under 4yrs but we have not used any of them yet.

our 5 yr old stallion who has been used is from time to time let out to play for a while with them, it can get very rough but i think its all a good part of living a normal live, as they would in the wild and nice for them to socialize naturally.

I have to say i notice a big diff in there muscle tones and fittness when there all out together,which saves alot of boring work for them.

our gelding was cut last year he can be good one day and naughty the next, he is however a very good babysitter to weaned foals, so he lives with them all year till there ready to join the bigger boys.

they can all touch and see each other 24/7 even stabled at night.

All our boys are keep on the main yard and land and the mares are kept agood 1/4 mile away.

i think it does depend on the horse, land and it you can hold your breathe and let them get on with it for a while, but no when to step in and call it a day for them.

 

[MiLo Minis]

We have a heated barn, so if one did foal during cold weather the foal should be fine.

That's good but it could get expensive figuring out who the daddies are!

 

[Jill]

We had a January foal a few years ago and NO heated barn. We do have heat lamps and foal blankets. I have to say, with a magic wand, all my foals would be January foals!!! They are old enough for vaccines before biting flies and for whatever reason, I just really enjoyed having that January baby girl

Snow and all. She loved it and she is a rock of health!

 

[rabbitsfizz]

January foals are OK- a foal that is a yearling at four days old is not so clever!!!

He was a strong little thing though, I did blanket him, and he did have to stay in a lot more than I like, but, yes, having it all over and done, and weaned by May was brilliant- I even showed him, as a yearling, at the end of the year!!!

 

[Capall Beag IRL]

we run our 4 boys together all year around

1x 10yr old stallion

1x 5yr old stallion

1x 3yr old stallion

1x 6yr old gelding

all eat together and stable together no problem but we are lucky enough to have

enough land so that the boys live in a seperate area of the farm altogether with no

fillies near by and no fillies EVER on their ground.

we can even travel 2 boys at a time to shows with fillies also on the trailer with

absolutely no problems whatsoever.

but it doesnt work for everyone.

 

[Forever Farm]

That's good but it could get expensive figuring out who the daddies are!

And that is a good point, and a very valid one to consider. The older stallion is infertile, so I know he's out of the equation- his drive is so low, even with a mare in full blown heat in front of him, he doesn't get excited. The 17 yr old tolerates the old man out with the mares, I guess he sees not threat? But keeps the younger boys between him and the mares. The young boys don't even try- too busy with the grass to bother the grouchy mares. Right now it's just convient during the winter- the spring pasture for the boys only has a run in shed, which is fine for mild weather, not so much when it's windy and cold. My intentions have been to make a better shelter out there so the boys stay out there all the time, but never seems to fail that time and money can never seem to get together to get it done.

If there were an oops foal to happen, it wouldn't be a huge deal, other than figuring out who's it is.

 

[SHANA]

I have pastured 4 stallions together before with no problems but right now my 3 AMHA/AMHR stallions share a fence line which they cannot break(horse panels). They get along fine and scratch each other through the fence. My other stallion(ASPC/AMHR) has his own paddock but can see the other stallions and the mares. So far it has worked for me.

 

[Tab]

I think the best success rate would be horses raised together as colts. Caution is always best when dealing with horses.

 

[smohap's-coco]

Do any of you turn stallions out together? And if so do you turn them out together up until a certain age?

I owned one stallion and purchased another it took about a couple of months of through the fence chatting, and and monitored turn outs together for small amounts of time. now they are best buddies. I feed then their grain separately, buy give them their hay together and they are doing great!

I was very nervous about this, when I first started the process but I am very happy with the results, I do not have any mares on my farm.

 

[Michelle@wescofarms]

We have always kept our stallions/colts together, but they are in a large - 4-5 acre pasture (and have been in up to 20 acres) so they have plenty of space. Once the hierarchy is established there is little to no fighting. Age range has been anywhere from two to 20.

If you know your horses and have the room it's very natural for non-breeding and/or off season to keep them that way as in the wild a bachelor herd is the common way they live. I've also found they're less aggressive/studdy as they learn manners from each other and have a natural way to burn off energy in their play time as well as the companionship herd animals need.

I've only seen one stallion that didn't/couldn't adjust, a friends stallion that had always been kept solo and had been in a very isolated pen (zero contact with other horses, etc.), so he didn't get it. After four hours he was still trying to pick fights with everyone and was in a full sweat. He might have adjusted eventually but we chose to remove him before he injured himself. My guys were like what? I don't think they could figure out his attitude either.

 

[happyfarmgirl]

I have a stallion and his two sons running together most of the time. Now that we have moved to a bigger place will probably never have to seperate even if I choose to breed one. They are always next to where they can see the mares but have only had to seperate one time when the one son was a yearling, have had no problem since. They seem to enjoy each others company and very seldom get in a fuss. So glad they like each other. I guess I am lucky on that.