Reintroducing stallion, help please

[Jean A]

Several months ago, we brought home our gang from the farm they had been at together. The two bred mares were not bred to the stallion we had brought with them, but they all knew each other. Things were fine, until shortly before the first girl foaled. That was totally expected. We just rotated stall and pasture time.

Now that the second mare has foaled (a cute little pinto filly), we'd like to return Oliver to the girls, and let them pasture breed, as had been the practice for years at their former home.

We did have an experience the other day with this. We get that they will need to settle into their places, and that is no problem. The mare that foaled in March is in heat, and the other is entering foal heat. We let them all run together the other day, and what resulted was basically an assault, with Ollie not taking no for an answer..we eventually broke them up and figured we'd regroup and begin again after asking around.

They do have access to nose touching and such even though they have not shared the pasture for a while. No fussing, no kicking or squealing..things are calm until he can actually get to them.

The plan is to turn out Oliver with the lead mare and her foal..(or should we turn out both so they can watch each others foals?) The concern is that we don't know what behavior is ok..how much chasing around, for how long? We expect some biting and kicking..at what point do we intervene, if at all?

Thank you for your advice..

 

[Riverrose28]

Do you have some stalls that you can put the mares in and the stallion in another, so they can at least see and smell each other? I haven't bred mares since 2009, so in order to send out some bred mares I had to reintroduce the stallion, no foals were involved. I put the mares in stalls, and the stllion on the other side of the barn, but he could still see them, for teasing, I hand bred for one month then turned them all out in the pasture together and everything was fine. I'm always one that fears for the foals when exposing mares.

 

[Jean A]

They are all in the barn together, and whoever is out, has the run of the walk, so they visit plenty. He hangs out around their stalls, and even the foals nose him under the door..

Former owner would have just put him in with 15 mares, and driven back to the house. I can't imagine doing anything like that.

 

[Riverrose28]

when the mares are showing signs, can you put them in with him for a breeding, then take them back out and put back in with the foal. The reason I don't like breeding mares with foals at heel is this: I once watched a QH stllion trying to mount a mare in, with foal at heel, the stallion reached down and in a matter of seconds grabbed the foal and ripped off all of the hide on one side. It was awful. Took 18 months for the foal to heal. I do know some that keep the stallions with the mares 100% of the time, just not me.