Stallion Group-Keeping in Theory and Practice
Version: 2009.06.10
|
Part III: Know-How [2]
"Stallion Nine Men's Morris" - Habituation and Integration of Stallions into a Stallion Group
|
As already described in the previous section there is a method though, or rather a principle which can manage the life of stallions together with other stallions very successfully. So successfully, that I am convinced that with it, one can keep any stallion in a group with other stallions, at least temporarily. This principle determines and sets the correct moment for and the duration of the habituation to other, foreign stallions, of the integration into the group, but also for the isolation from it, totally in accordance with the simulated natural conditions in wildlife, which lastly means nothing else than the satisfaction of the will and the needs of the corresponding stallion for contact to other stallions in a manner which is geared to the conditions under which we keep him.
I call this principle, or when it's used consciously by humans, this method, "Stallion Nine Men's Morris", in reference to a "double mill" in the board game "Nine Men's Morris". (In the Nine Men's Morris game one must try to get three stones in line. If one has two times two stones in a row, one can move a third stone back and forth and thereby again and again achieve three stones in a row, which allows one to take away a stone from one's opponent every time... This is called a double mill, a very "potent" machinery!)
The deciding factor and the biggest difficulty of stallion group-keepings would usually most likely be the habituation of adult, difficult, aggressive and socially stunted stallions coming from box-stalls, or the assembly of a new stallion group from several such stallions.
Of course there are many lucky cases in which stallions by coincidence get along with each other good, especially with Arabs one hears this time and again, but then there are many stallions, especially older ones whom are not used to living in a group and who do not get along with each other right off the bat. That's why I will here try to provide some helping basics and instructions for it with the "Stallion Nine Men's Morris" method.
Before I explain the underlying principle of the "Nine Men's Morris" method, I would like to briefly return to wildlife and theory so everyone can see where it comes from and why it works:
In wildlife stallions which cannot stand each other would go separate way and just meet again when it comes to resources: Mares, a common water hole or even just not having to be alone. And, when they have met again in this manner often enough, they almost always get used to each other (it's not uncommon for rivals to become very good friends or allies who, together as a team try to steal a mare from a harem stallion!). Only very rarely are there stallions who at least sometimes cannot abide the presence of other stallions so much that they team up with other animals such as a buck (authentic wildlife observation with mustangs, USA). Of course, often a lot of time passes in between and the stallions theoretically have unlimited space to go out of each others' ways. - In reality, in wildlife as well, they are packed together by common interests, whether that be water, mares or also simply not wanting to be alone.
In captivity we usually don't have one of the natural ingredients of wildlife, almost unlimited space. Instead we have human intelligence and can try to simulate and imitate those conditions which lead to stallions getting closer to each other in wildlife as well. And if possible we simulate these conditions in a much tighter space and also "accelerated" in a "time machine". (Actually, with this one has to say though that it's the horse who decides how fast time moves forward in this process, not the human.)
The principle of the "Stallion Nine Men's Morris" method is in my eyes exactly the same principle as Monty Roberts uses in his "Join-up" in the round pen, Hempfling in the Picadero or Pat Perelli in the round pen also, when getting a horse habituated to a human, in other words welding horse and human together to a functioning community in a short amount of time: Only that this time two horses are habituated to each other, which makes things a little more difficult, but not impossible.
The principle behind it is just like in wildlife, simple perhaps, but incredibly powerful, that the stallions themselves can choose whether they want to be together or not (or at least believe this!) and keep on meeting again and again, but also can or even must separate again and again, anytime. With the only difference that it's in our "simulation of wildlife" in a smaller space, meaning not in the prairie but in a common pasture or the common paddock and by necessity much more frequently than in wildlife. With the frequent repetition of meeting and separation that is realized by the human being in dependence of the good nature and behavior of the stallions, the habituation takes place much faster than in wildlife.
To me, this "game" as Ferdi's description of Indio's integration just sounded, namely repeatedly separating an aggressive stallion that is not suitable for a group and then allowing him to rejoin a group again and again, depending on his behavior, like the same situation as in a "double mill" in the game "Nine Men's Morris": With every move the stallion learns something: Bad behavior increases isolation, good behavior increases social contact and available space. Every "move" therefore takes one one step closer to the goal of making the stallion suitable for the group, just like using of a "double mill" takes one one step closer to winning with every move.
The first time I heard of the integration of Indio and heard that up to a year after his first joining of the group he sometimes still was separated from the group when he behaved particularly bad, I thought but this is an incredibly tedious method! Who has the time to run after every horse for years, only to make it suitable for the group?
Surely nobody!
But this is a completely wrong way of looking at it. This method does not consist of one "piece of work" or "operation" which one performs on the horse and which comes to an end one day, it is much more a "way of life", a daily instruction for group-keeping of stallions. The process which gets stallions used to each other and makes them suitable for a group comes to be all by itself thereby and it then really is the case that with a high probability many, or even all stallions which previously could not be, can then at some time be declared suitable for a group thanks to it. It's also not correct that one has to run after every single horse separately. Most often it's all just about separating just one single stallion who is behaving especially bad from the group, until he behaves properly again. And since with a stallion group-keeping, just like with any other horse keeping, someone should be around at all times anyway, this separating and letting back together again is no special effort if the stabling facility is equipped for instance, with a simple electric wire which can be put up or tightened between existing fence posts.
If one does not rate this method by how fast it becomes possible to permanently and without supervision keep male horses in a group, but regards it as the natural way of how to even keep stallions in a group in the first place and at all - without any time limit, then it's incredibly powerful because there seems to be no other method to keep stallions, and by that I mean ALL stallions, even the biggest "tyrants", appropriate to the species in a group.
Now what does this "Stallion Nine Men's Morris" for the mutual habituation and keeping of stallions concretely look like? Quite simple: The principle is always the same: If a stallion behaves well, he is let together with the other stallions, if he behaves badly, he is separated from them (under no circumstances should he be fed or otherwise rewarded then!). When the stallion then becomes timid and calm again, he is let back to join the others after a few hours or at the most after one day. - This "game" then is just simply repeated until things are going well permanently.
One can also call this; with a stick and a carrot, or the way scientists call it; reinforcement and reduction of desired and undesired behavior through positive and negative stimuluses.
The really pioneering development in the training and handling of horses, what so-called "horse whisperers" have found out, actually is nothing else than that isolation is a much more effective and sustained punishment than pain. - And that one can apply this punishment during ground work, for instance in the round pen, almost just as precisely as pain with a whip.
So "horse whisperers" actually don't punish horses with pain, but with isolation. - And here we can learn something from them! During Monty Roberts' "Join-up" in the round pen for instance, the horse is chased away from oneself if it does not want to form a community or group with the human being in the center of the round pen, with the human as the leading animal. In other words, the horse is isolated.
In the Stallion Nine Men's Morris stallions who do not want to tolerate other stallions in the same group and ceaselessly chase and tyrannize them are separated in such a manner that they thereby punish themselves and put themselves in a worse situation: They are then consistently separated from the big group-paddock every time and put in a smaller, adjacent paddock. (That is one move in the double mill!)
As soon as the behavior of the stallion in the separate paddock has calmed down then, he is allowed back into the group (this is the other move of the double mill), until he starts again to tyrannize and chase the others. Then the first move is repeated again, etc.
The WHOLE THING is a game and the stallion learns something with EVERY move, no matter if he is chasing or calm, he always gets what he deserves. In this manner the game always goes back and forth, until success at some time perhaps, or rather even quite probably, happens all by itself - or also perhaps not. That is not a catastrophe either then, if an especially aggressive and asocial stallion even over extended periods of time simply does not want to tolerate other stallions near him. Then he simply just does not want to form a group with these other stallions and one should also not force him to do so, neither by cutting off his testicles. People, men and women, should leave an animal its own will wherever possible because it has a right to an own will. By keeping stallions in domestication we are already limiting their will enough, so don't also make your stallion be together with others with whom he does not want to have anything to do with.
A vanity with the goal that all stallions, without exception and at all times MUST be in a group is not only misplaced, but also difficult to justify with practical arguments. Keep in mind that solitary confinement contrary to group-keeping has been regarded as more practical, by now, already for several decades and centuries!
Such a vanity would also contradict wildlife and the nature of the horse because in wildlife also stallions always have the opportunity to leave a stallion group and to go their own ways until at some point in time perhaps they have had enough of solitude and once again join a stallion group. And perhaps in wildlife such stallions would also be in a stallion group in which the lead stallion (with us, the human) does not tolerate it when they want to chase other stallions away and they would temporarily be excluded from the group...
Tyrant stallions who do not want to tolerate other stallions near them should be kept as close to the group as in any way possible and they should frequently and on a regular basis be let into the group once in a while, only to see if their attitude has changed. One should play "Stallion Nine Men's Morris" with them all their life! But with such an open and flexible keeping there will not be many stallions who, after a longer period of time still do not want to be in the group, or rather who do not behave suitable for a group towards all members of the group.
In regards to the behavior on which one reacts with "Stallion Nine Men's Morris", the following must really be added: When applying the "Stallion Nine Men's Morris" you should under no circumstances misinterpret the ranking fights which are normal among stallions and which are often carried out most intensively and can sometimes cause severe bite wounds, as a will to want to be alone or separated from other stallions. The only safe clue that a stallion wants to be separated from another stallion is when he ceaselessly and mercilessly chases him even if the other has let him have the higher rank, has ceased all counter-resistance and signaled his inferiority a long time ago.
Such chasing or "tyrannizing" is not about ranking fights among stallions, those are absolutely normal and also mandatory in every group, but about the attempt to permanently chase the other away, which is simply impossible due to the constrained space available in the human keeping and only therefore unacceptable. Only in this case the "Stallion Nine Men's Morris" method is employed and the tyrannizing stallion is temporarily separated from the others and kept isolated until one can assume that he will refrain from such behavior for at least a few hours.
|
|
|
|
|
|
