vickie gee
Well-Known Member
I am really looking for opinions. I have so much to learn about about stallion behavior. One thing I do know is that with small acreage more than one can only lead to trouble. I had a situation develop here yesterday which totally affirms that. My stallion Memphis is 4 years old. He is kept in a large pen on our property which is about 200 yards away from the corral and barn where my mares are right now due to no grass growing in the pasture at this time. J R is another stallion who is in a pen adjacent to the mares. J R will be 2 in March, was sired by Memphis, and has already grown at least an inch taller than Memphis. Yesterday I let J R out to run around in the pasture for a little while to burn some energy. I also knew he would enjoy following me around while I did some chores. I was up near the barn and heard some whinnying going on down at Memphis' pen. I looked up to see that J R was in the pen with Memphis. J R was mounted sideways across him
:shocked Now first of all the gates to the pen were closed and chained. The fence is nearly 5 ft tall with the exception of a hog panel which is about a foot off the ground and so the top of it is about 4 ft high. I am not sure if he wallered under the fence or jumped it. I have seem him jump a fence before that is well over 3 ft high when our female dog fussed at him about getting too close to "her" water trought.They both were getting pretty sweaty.Mostly what the stallions did was push and bully each other. J R seemed to have weight in his favor but Memphis kept dropping to his knees and nipping at J R's legs. Then he would latch onto J R's jaw but not really bite hard. Finally my husband forced Memphis to one end of the pen and I put a halter on J R and lead him out. It was almost like he accepted a draw and was more than willing to be lead back to his quarters. I don't know how he got himself inside the other pen but I know I don't want that to happen again. Does it sound like they were about to fight seriously or just some establishing of dominance going on? I have already built another pen originally for weaning mares. I am wondering if putting J R in it might help the two get better aquainted or at least show Memphis that J R no longer gets to live too close for comfort to the mares. It is actually butted up against the same building that makes one side of Memphis' pen. The building is between the two pens. Horses in the two pens cannot see each other but they are in close proximity. The down side of the unused pen is that one side of it is actually down by the highway and I don't want nutty people stopping down there and being able to reach in to a horse. The up side is that anything going in or out has a fence to deal with that is way over 5 ft tall. Also if J R is the jumper I suspect he is, he stands a good chance of jumping over the fence where I currently keep him and getting in with the mares and that would certainly cause chaos. I know I need to downsize and I am trying to. Meanwhile what might I do to see if father and son could live together in harmony? I realize this could have become quiet dangerous. If you must fuss at me go ahead.
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