Stallion Group-Keeping in Theory and Practice
Version: 2009.06.10
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Part I: Theory and Requirements [4]
Basic Requirements for Stallion Group-Keepings
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Of course there are stallions which, in some phases of their life, the year or even just the day prefer to be alone than together with other stallions, but that's the exception and you can only be sure of this if your stallion is standing right next to a stallion-group keeping and you have the opportunity to flexibly test this again and again.
But let's go on to the basic requirements for a stallion-group keeping:
The Horse Owner
To keep stallions in a group, horse owners are needed which stand out not only by a special love for stallions, but this love must fulfill certain qualities.
A totally egoistic love as our consumer society seems to foster, in the sense of "I see something that I like, but I'm not ready to change myself", is not enough. It hast to be an authentic love. One must love stallions in such a way that one can leave one's egoism behind oneself and that one can accept them the way they really are, without pitching around or even cutting around at them, in order to make them, such as with castration, something else than what they are.
It's just like the story in the bible about the two mothers who were fighting over a child and wanted to split it in the middle. True love prefers to go without and abstain from something than to inflict any kind of harm onto the loved subject.
The love which I am talking about must be able to accept stallions the way they really are, with all their good and bad characteristics. It must be able to accept that it's love will have a scratch or a bite from scraps and quarrels every once in a while. Fighting among stallions to clear the ranking order is the most natural thing there is. It belongs to stallions so naturally, as it belongs to little boys that they like to play in the dirt more than girls and get accordingly more dirty. Who does not want to condone and admit this to his stallion, rather amputates his testicles than allowing him at least sometimes to have few bites or scratches, will probably not admit him a group-keeping with other stallions either.
Let's keep in mind that beautifully dressed-up dressage- and breeding stallions with an absolutely perfect coat indeed look wonderful, but that this condition is not natural for a stallion from the perspective of the horse.
Also one must really not worry about bites or wounds, because they always heal much better than one expects, especially if one disinfects them with a disinfectant or a little alcohol, and I am almost willing to vouch and say that there are no bite wounds on horses which are still visible after 4-8 weeks!
But what's much more decisive: A stallion, especially in dressage or another sport in which he must perform, will most likely not perform less because of a few scratches in his coat. Quite contrary: Most prizes are not won with a nice coat, but with the performance of the stallion and the natural keeping of the stallion and the possibility to move freely among his kind in his spare time will give him an enormous compensation and balance to the demands of his human. This compensation can in any case only have positive effects on his motivation and therefore also on his performance.
The Supervising Person (Person in Charge)
Besides the horse owner, the supervising person of a stallion-group keeping most of all must meet several important qualifications: At least during the habituation phase of a new stallion-group or during the integration of a new stallion into an existing group he must live in immediate proximity to the stallions (within earshot!) and be present all day. Only thereby can the supervising person apply the process which I describe as "Stallion Nine Men's Morris" in the section "Know-How" (this consists mostly of isolating the stallions and letting them back together again, depending on their behavior, if possible at every time of day and night).
Furthermore, in order to be able to fulfill this requirement, the supervising person must not only not be afraid of stallions, but must also have the ability to assert himself to the extent of being able to take a position of higher rank towards all stallions on the ground and not only in the saddle, if need be with the aids or tools which are appropriate for it (who is incapable of this must learn it - there's plenty of literature about this).
Comment: In regards to learning the human should actually be the subordinate pupil of the horse and should let himself be taught by the horse in all areas, but in regards to the ranking position the human must always and all the time be able to have the last and decisive word, in other words must have a higher rank than all horses!
Only thereby is it possible not only to forbid stallions the fighting in close proximity to humans (danger!) and to be able to separate fighting stallions in order to be able to separate and isolate them during the habituation phase, but generally to be able to effectively take action anytime in case of an emergency. - And don't let yourself be led astray and robbed of your common sense by Hollywood-phrases such as "One must never hit a horse" from self-proclaimed gurus! Everything is relative, but a castration, viewed at the final count, is always much worse and most of all more unnatural and not understandable for the horse than the most brutal punch and the worst kick!
Remember that horses "horseanize" humans even more than humans humanize horses. So if you, as a small human being want to make an impression on two fighting stallions like a higher-ranking stallion in order to separate them, you must sometimes be able to cause quite a big stir and perhaps sometimes even use aids such as whips, rods or wooden bars...
Just don't make it a custom to hit your horses or to even dull them against pain with mechanical aids, but in repeating cases go for psychological tricks and ground work such as many "horse gurus" apply it extremely successfully even in front of critical audiences. - That might raise your level of popularity considerably, not only with your horses, but also in your nearest neighborhood.
Last but not least it's also absolutely required that a supervising person of a stallion group-keeping can endure the sight of fighting stallions without "wetting" his pants. - Whereby with fighting fights for rank and not ceaseless chasing of subordinates in order to exclude them from the group is meant. Who cannot endure the sight of fighting stallions will at the very most perhaps be able to let his stallions together for grazing, but will never be able to keep them in a group, because there can be no group without a ranking order and this must first be established and also needs to be revised time and again.
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