Pasturing/keeping Jacks

[jdomep]

I have decided to keep my super lovely little boy to be a future sire. I have 1 Jenny and my friend has 3 Jenny's and 1 small Jack. (so eventually we will "share" boys and they won't ever be 2 Jacks at 1 farm)

I have LOTS of questions regarding the keeping of Jacks.

Do you keep them with Jenny's?

Pastured seperately? Hand bred?

Pastured next to the girls?

If I only have the 2 will they be upset not being together??

I do have my mini gelding who is good buddies with my Jenny - can he stay with her or the Jack???

Share your widom when you have time

 

[shminifancier]

Well for a few years that I had 2 mini mares and a Jack I kept them separate because the one really was only a filly so I wanted to wait a couple of years before I use my Charley..Now I had a Very Good fence between them a 6 Foot high Chain Link and before I get any flames here on Both sides I had 3 lines of Hot wire...So nobody really got close enough to really get into trouble...And knowing my Jack was 4 years old I knew and respected him that is why I had a not only a chain link fence but it was a Very Heavy Duty one with those hot wires...The posts were in concrete no panel's were going anyplace....5 inch wooden posts in concrete with the Chain link panels screwed into the post with long Lag bolts In other words that sucker was strong and safe too....Donkeys can jump rather high from a standing start so I wasn't going to take any chances

And that is all I can say as I sold both mini horses before I had a chance to uuse my Jack for any breeding

 

[dbarjminis]

If kept away from the jennets, our jack is in a cattle panel (48" high) fence with a hotwire in the inside. If he's with his jennets, as he is now, he's happy as heck to be in a single strand hot wire. He ain't goin' nowhere! Some jacks are very docile and some are extremely aggressive.

What works very good I've found is to try to keep your young jack access to an older bred jennet, so she can teach him manners (beat the tar out of him if he needs it) because they can be down right vicious, especially at breeding time. I feel to keep a jack all alone as he grows up and then introduce him to jennets will lead to a very aggressive jack. A grazing muzzle works great when introducing him to jennets in a pasture or handbreeding. We bought a wonderful product from Country Supply, it's a carbon copy of the "Grazing Muzzle" by Best Friend, but only $19! The mini size fits him great, a bit bigger jack may need the pony size.

 

[minimule]

My jack has his own paddock but can touch noses with everyone else. We only hand breed him and so far he has only bred mares. He doesn't really know what a jenny is for. He was raised for the first year in the corral with my mares. When he was almost 3, we sent him out to learn to drive. We completely control him when we breed. If he acts too aggressive, he is put away. We don't let him bite the mares at all. He must ramain a gentleman.

The farm where we bought him, they no longer hand breed. They got tired of getting bit, kicked, etc... Now they have multiple pastures with one jack and his harem in each. The whole herd is quite happy with the situation.

Some things you need to know when the time does come:

If you hand breed:

Always use the same halter to breed him in. Have a seperate one for everything else you do.

Always breed in the same place. Try to stay away from that area when he is just out having fun or training.

A good experienced jenny is good to "break him in". They will teach him his manners and he will learn to respect them and when the right time is.

Good luck with him. I think he is going to make an awesome jack.

 

[EquineLover]

Always use the same halter to breed him in. Have a seperate one for everything else you do.

I was just wondering why you should use a different halter.Thanks.

 

[tazz001]

As for using the same halter when hand breeding...it is so in time the jack associates that halter for a particular job. The same thing is done with dogs....whether it be hunting, tracking or guard dog training. It gives them advance notice that a job is to be preformed...

Did I do an adequate job trying to explain??

 

[RNR]

Thank YOU Guys THis was a very INformitive ThreaD!!

RNR