Handling Stallions
![](/img/posts/020/img_420_1603875972.png)
HANDLING STALLIONS SHOULD BE NO DIFFERENT THAN OTHER HORSES!
People get all stressed out when talking about stallions, and everyone has this fear that they will be
trying to bite, kick, and attack you! There is a huge misconception that stallions are born vicious and
unmanageable. You simply need to treat a stallion like any horse you work with, you must establish
trust and dominance over them. It doesn’t matter if your training them, lunging them, showing them or
breeding with them. Your horse never takes his attention off of you and you should not take your
attention off of them. They look to you to tell them what to do, whether it is to walk, trot, stop or
something else. There also is a myth that men can handle stallions better then women. It just is not
true, working with horses is a mental game, you want the horse on your side so he listens to you!
If you have taken the time to create a bond with a stallion, he sees you as a friend, so you have the
same bond as with any horse whose respect you have earned. It doesn’t matter if your working in the
round pen or the breeding barn. When you handle a stallion you hold his lead rope close to his head so
he sees you and you keep his attention. If you lose his attention and you are holding the end of his lead
rope, he will be distracted, and you will lose control over him. You must have his full attention,
especially when you are going to breed a mare. The stallion can not be overpowered, he is to strong, so
you must keep his attention and respect. There’s no winning a fight with a stallion, if you don’t control
him, he sees you as a challenger for the mare. I have worked with lots of stallions over the years, and it
doesn’t matter if you raised them from a colt, or got them as a senior stallion. Its all how you treat
them, if he starts acting out walk him in circles till you regain control. I suggest you use two different
halters on a stallion, one for training and the other for breeding. We added fleece to our breeding
halter, so there’s no confusion about what his job is.
Stallions tend to react to situations the way human males do, they attack when they feel threatened
and pout when they lose. If you have a stallion that has bad habits you have to break them. I never have
to use a stud chain on my stallions, but if you have a bitter you may have to use it to break the bad
habit. If a stallion misbehaves it is because he is poorly trained, and does not understand what is
expected of him. You yelling at a horse or hitting it accomplishes nothing but make it react to your
actions. When your going to breed your stallion you need to keep him at your shoulder and under
control. You will be able to judge if you need to tease him at the head or by the withers. You need to
give him time to drop down and get hard before you allow him to mount. A limp noodle gets nobody
anywhere, it frustrates both the mare and the stallion. He needs to use all his strength to mount the
mare and stay inside until ejaculation has occurred. A common mistake is letting the stallion get down
before he has completed ejaculation and went down. You might see a stallion get in to much of a hurry
and he gets to big to enter the mare. When you breed with him three or four times you both learn what
to expect from the other when your breeding.
Another myth is that stallions can not live together. We have 13 stallions and they see each other
every day and they play with each other through the pipe fence all day, everyday. They are all friends,
some are closer to some more than others, but they all get along without any fighting or bickering. Our
stallions are all treated the same, and they all have learned what is expected of them, but most
importantly they know I’m the Master, and what I say is the final word.
![](/img/post_authors/dr-dana-price_img_29_1591008056.jpg)