Buckskin gal
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Apr 27, 2005
- Messages
- 2,628
- Reaction score
- 0
Well said :aktion033: :aktion033: :aktion033:
Is it possible that Nathan and Rabbit are both right?
In many large horse breeds a successful stallion could have dozens of mares booked to him every month during the breeding season. Asking a immature horse to handle that kind of workload might indeed bring ethics into play. When there is a the possibility that the young stallion could have reduced fertility due to his young age... that might bring business ethics into consideration as well. When breeding season is in full swing even keeping a fully mature stallion in top form can be a challenge.
What the discussion seems to be about here though is breeding a young stallion to a few of the stallion owners mares. If the owner owns a stallion, they obviously feel that they can deal with stallion behavior, so that really isn't an issue. No money has passed hands, so it can't be business ethics.... that leaves the issue of workload. Is the stallion able to deal with the stresses of breeding?
I would never try to breed sixty plus mares to a two year old stallion. Even if his motile sperm count was off the charts, ethically I have a problem asking an immature horse to do that much work. Would I breed my two year old to one or two of my own mares? Sure. I don't feel that would harm my horse at all.
Like anything else the care that the horse receives, the experience level of the owner, and the quirks of the horse itself should all influence ethical decisions. Please remember that research is necessary to make informed decisions, but research cannot determine ethics. By the same argumet, someones description about what they are doing an ocean away doesn't decide it for me either. Ethics are personal decision. We should expect to be able to discuss, argue, and rant about them but we cannot prove or disprove something like an ethic. We can make rules to regulate behavior, but the best we can do with ethics is reasonably state our cases and hope to win over others to our way of thinking =).
Regards