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  Discussion on Young stallion out to pasture
Author Message
New Member:
Sylvy

Posted on Thursday, Jun 16, 2005 - 2:47 am:

I am concerned about a friend who has decided (after a bad experience with a rider)to leave her 17h, 5year old stallion to veg in a pasture for the rest of his life. The owner is not a rider. This horse is very valuable as he has training and jumping ability and she was offered a large amount of money for him. I'm wondering if this is such a good plan as in my mind, a horse is an athlete and this is not fair to him. She doesn't like the life that goes along with horses of this caliber. Will he not become frustrated and become hard to handle? Any thoughts?
Member:
Paardex

Posted on Thursday, Jun 16, 2005 - 6:00 am:

Sylvia,As after many not so good experiences [and a few good] I have come to the same conclusion as your friend i have a 5 year old gelding and a 7 year old mare walking as pets.They have been doing this for 3 years now and seem quite content. For the last few weeks I have been lungeing the both of them as the mare seems to suffer from pica[ see post small colics or pica] The lungeing although they seem to enjoy it has made no difference on their behaviour. I must add they are groomed daily and in winter put in a stable at night and with bad weather they are blanketed they are and will never be as hardy as for instance a Haflinger. Further more a stallion would present the difficulty of having to live alone in a pasture which I would never do. Then he would be bored and frustrated. In short if you give them attention and an environment suitable to a horse they will be happy in my opinion. On the other hand if I would leave them in their pastures without having contact with them they will grow unhappy[even a vacation of a week or so has this effect]Hope this is of some help to you.
Jos
Member:
Mrose

Posted on Thursday, Jun 16, 2005 - 9:54 am:

Stallions are very social animals and need to be where they can see and interact with other horses,if only from a distance. If he had a gelding or sterile mare he could get along with (it happens!) he would be much happier.

I would be very concerned about a young stallion kept all alone. Also, can the owner interact with the stallion? Stallions are just horses after all (albeit with "special needs") and need all the attention other horses need. What about his grooming and health care needs? Who will attend to those? You can't just turn a horse out 24/7 and forget about it.

IMO she would be much better off to either put the horse in training/showing situation somewhere, or sell to someone who has enough ability to use and appreciate the horse.

Or.....why doesn't she geld him???
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