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 Guys Just Wanna Have Fun
Posts: 5530
  
Location: OH | hotpaints - 2018-10-24 7:26 PM
I understand owners wanting to breed their young 2yo stallions to get foals on the ground quickly. However, I have a nice 3yo stallion and I'm not sure if I will even breed him as a 4yo...........WHY??? because I want to make sure I have the training/hauling in him FIRST before opening the "stud" door. Some stud colts can handle starting their breeding career plus staying in training/hauling and some can't. I think it depends on the colt and how studdish they act from a young age.
IMO, if a stallion can breed a lot of mares and be a stud, he is not going to act like a gelding. A mild mannered stud will have a hard time collecting and "surviving" the breeding season. It drives me crazy when mare owners state that they only want to breed to a stallion that acts like a gelding..............they have obviously never tried to get through a breeding season with a stallion....the stallion sure as hell better not act like a mild mannered gelding.
You brought up a very good point. When we bred our boy as a 2 year old I had no intentions of campaigning him, if I had wanted to my thought process may have been different as you suggested. Once you go to breeding them, there is a change, they learn what they are about. I also get a kick out of the "acts like a gelding" thing. I will NEVER EVER and I mean never trust a stud therefore I will NEVER treat him like a gelding. PERIOD. |
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  Champ
Posts: 19623
 
Location: Peg-Leg Julia Grimm | Mighty Broke - 2018-10-24 6:37 PM
hotpaints - 2018-10-24 7:26 PM
I understand owners wanting to breed their young 2yo stallions to get foals on the ground quickly. However, I have a nice 3yo stallion and I'm not sure if I will even breed him as a 4yo...........WHY??? because I want to make sure I have the training/hauling in him FIRST before opening the "stud" door. Some stud colts can handle starting their breeding career plus staying in training/hauling and some can't. I think it depends on the colt and how studdish they act from a young age.
IMO, if a stallion can breed a lot of mares and be a stud, he is not going to act like a gelding. A mild mannered stud will have a hard time collecting and "surviving" the breeding season. It drives me crazy when mare owners state that they only want to breed to a stallion that acts like a gelding..............they have obviously never tried to get through a breeding season with a stallion....the stallion sure as hell better not act like a mild mannered gelding.
You brought up a very good point. When we bred our boy as a 2 year old I had no intentions of campaigning him, if I had wanted to my thought process may have been different as you suggested. Once you go to breeding them, there is a change, they learn what they are about. I also get a kick out of the "acts like a gelding" thing. I will NEVER EVER and I mean never trust a stud therefore I will NEVER treat him like a gelding. PERIOD.
I have two stallions, a coming 24 year old and a coming 4 year old and both act very nice when it's not time to breed. They act very nice all the time but you get what I'm trying to say. lol
I've been around stallions that are horrible and mean. Others are very mild mannered. Both types will still breed. Libido and bad behavior aren't really the same. I can lead my older stallion to the wash rack by the mare barn and he might talk a little. Until I pick up the hose and start bathing him. He realizes his job isn't to tease mares and he shuts up and takes his bath.
The coming 4 year old is out being ridden and the lady says she can pony off him, he acts very nicely. Not studdy at all. He's only been collected, never live cover. I think that's important with a young stallion as well. It confuses them less. So far he's handling it without any issues about wanting to breed everything he sees. The difference is we've been very careful to differentiate between when it's time to breed and when it isn't. I KNOW that not all stallions can handle this. I've had one of those as well. He hadn't even been bred to a mare and he was horrible. But some do fine and isn't it better to know what you have before you get 5 years down the road. I bred one mare to the coming 4 year old. I don't want to wait years to find out if he's stud worthy.
This is the 3 year old resting in the shade next to a mare (heads together) on a day they were moving cattle with him AFTER they collected him to ship semen back to me to breed a mare.
 (Zoom in a crowd 2018.jpg)
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 The Color Specialist
Posts: 7530
Location: Washington. (The DRY side.) | If a stallion can't behave and do another "job" besides breeding mares, (If the owner wants him to have another job) he needs to BE a gelding. There are PLENTY of stallions out there that are competing or working on the ranch AND breeding mares at the same time. If he isn't going to be able to handle this, I would rather know sooner than later! |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 898
Location: Mountains of VA | RacingQH - 2018-10-26 6:55 PM If a stallion can't behave and do another "job" besides breeding mares, (If the owner wants him to have another job) he needs to BE a gelding. There are PLENTY of stallions out there that are competing or working on the ranch AND breeding mares at the same time. If he isn't going to be able to handle this, I would rather know sooner than later!
I do agree with you.
However, the breeding/collection facility that we have worked with collects/trains all breeds of stallions. Their main complaint is stallions that have been "overtrained" or do not have enough libido to collect more than once in a week or that are intimidated by a handler or tease mare. Doesn't matter how well that stallion did in competition if he can not perform in the breeding shed hence the over extending of semen for shipping or the "substition" of semen which is now being caught through DNA testing.
It is a FINE LINE when training and handling stallions/colts.
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