OMG!

Yeah I just read this. I have to say my first thought was that he was mistreating the stallion or that it had some sort of mind-altering illness (obviously proven not to be rabies).

We all know stallions can be dangerous in the wrong hands etc but to be holding him in his mouth seems very odd behaviour for any horse!!!
 
WTF-It tore his arm off?
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How shocking. I have a friend who own's a stud farm, his great grandfather lost his arm to a stallion many many years ago. I wouldn't imagine it had been mistreated like this one appears to have been, as they are very kind to their horses and I'm sure they were all that time ago too, but it goes to show how they can be dangerous and unpredictable!
 
What I find most shocking is that this sounds like a prolonged attack. Horses, being flight animals, would only normally attack if they felt threatened, and once the threat was no longer threatening, surely the horse would stop? And if a stallion was really 'mean', I certainly would not want to breed from it.
 
I can't remember the exact details but a woman working on a Kentucky stud farm was badly mauled a decade or so ago. It's not common but it does happen.

No one is saying your average stallion is a powder keg waiting to explode but aggression fuelled by testosterone is no joke.
 
That is a bizarre tragedy. I wish the horse might have been spared the gunshot, and studied to determine what 'snapped', so that perhaps it might be prevented in future. Problems of this nature can seldom be judged by autopsy alone.
 
A enraged stallion doesn't operate on "flight animal" mode. I was at a yard where a stallion that was normally very quiet lifted a man up by his arm. Fortunately his dad was there to bash him with a broom to make him let go.
Pat Parelli tells a story of seeing a lady killed outright by her stallion, which struck and ripped her throat out in front of him. A friend of mine who owns two very nice stallions always says that he never turns his back on them.
I think that it is easy to underestimate the experience needed to care for stallions, but also, many of them live a hugely stressful lives because of the way they are kept. You're going to see extreme behaviour if an animal is cooped up 24/7, only comes out to cover, and is always approached with a stick.
 
Back in the early 1990's a friend worked at a famous Newmarket stud and one of the girls had her left breast ripped almost all the way off by one of the stallions she was leading out.

And the ex wife of a well known SJ trainer I know had her ear ripped off by one of their stallions who had been a perfect gentleman for the whole of his life then something just flicked a switch and he went for her when she was tacking it up. She was lucky to have her face.
 
I don't get queezy but the "some distance away" made me feel really ill. I'm surprised too, not be be too morbid, but your arm is pretty well attached, ball and socket, tendons etc fleshy bits ripped open I can kinda understand how that happens.... I thought people attacked by horses were more pummeled/stood on/ crushed though. Poor bloke all the same, would be an interesting one to find out the rest of the story though.
 
Gosh, that is horrid
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Having been picked up by a stallion and thrown across the yard (via my arm) I can verify their strength but this horse sounds unnaturally violent.
 
A friends teenage daughter in America was attacked by their normally placid Morgan Stallion - it was only the fact that the farrier happened to be there and was able to beat off the stallion and drag her out of the stable that she survived.

All entire male animals can act like this e.g. Bulls and Rams so its no surprise really that stallions can do the same.
 
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How shocking. I have a friend who own's a stud farm, his great grandfather lost his arm to a stallion many many years ago. I wouldn't imagine it had been mistreated like this one appears to have been, as they are very kind to their horses and I'm sure they were all that time ago too, but it goes to show how they can be dangerous and unpredictable!

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TBH I don't believe this stallion has been mistreated, the guy in question seems to have cared enough about the animal to make sure it was looked after properly. Stallions can be aggressive when their testosterone is up and this attack, although unusual, is not unheard of. It is the fact that the animal carried on after he had disabled the man that makes me think 'brain tumour' tbh.

A breeder I know, who in no way would EVER mistreat a horse, was killed by his favourite stallion, so don't surmise that it was the poor guys fault for 'appearing to abuse' this horse. TBH if I had to feed a stallion that was as aggressive as this one was, I would take a whip in with me!

I do have to wonder why they had kept this animal though, in no way would you want to breed from him.
 
Catch 22 I guess. You carry a stick because the horse is known to be "mean", but you have to be able to handle the consequences. Very, very sad.
Don't you think that, sometimes, when we say a horse did something "for no reason" there was a reason, but the people present at the time didn't recognise it?
I was watching a training session with a brilliant trainer a few years back, working with a young gelding. The horse was coming a bit close and on top of him, so he turned and just lifted his hand up to the horse's head to turn it away. The gelding did a little rear, boxed him to the ground and knelt briefly on his back. The trainer got up and explained it was his fault. As he raised his hand he instantly realised that he was acting in a way very similar to the way young male horses play with each other in their boxing games. Even the kneeling wasn't to hurt him (or he would have been hurt), he had triggered play. I think something like that may happen in these stallion attacks. The person inadvertently challenges the stallion and he reacts as stallions are hard wired to do.
 
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Don't you think that, sometimes, when we say a horse did something "for no reason" there was a reason, but the people present at the time didn't recognise it?

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No, I think that's ALWAYS the case. Animals don't act without a motivation, we're just not always able to tell what they're thinking. More often people extrapolate backwards, inferring a reason from the result (many people would read your example as the horse "meaning" to hurt the handler, simply because he might have been hurt) or anthropomorphise - pretend the horse was thinking like a person. (Considering we people can't always guess at the motivations of our fellow humans, I always find this an odd practice but whatever.
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The twice I've been seriously bitten - both times by a gelding - the horse had his reasons, although they were not evident at the time. And I've handled many lovely stallions but I understand there are pressures (motivations) on them that other horses don't have and act accordingly. When these motivations back up an already questionable temperament, bad things can happen.

I will say most of the very aggressive stallions I've met have been race bred TBs. The fact of the matter is, suitable temperament for racing is not necessarily suitable temperament for general riding about so the incentive to cut a good producer because he's not always a nice guy is simply not applicable. I've found this in other breeds as well, where looks/type are more important than general geniality or even ridability. (I started a very tricky colt for a breeder who told me with complete seriousness that at least half the stallion's get - from a colossal stud fee - never got broke and only a small percentage of those got in the the ring. But the ones that did, won. So people kept using him.) In a few other cases the horses have simply been owned by idiots.
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The good part is the rise of AI means there are fewer unpleasant stallions about now because there is no reason for anyone in the world of sport to use a horse based solely on ability anymore.

On the St Simon subject, I own a TB that's about a close to him as you'll see these days - he is nearly 30 and was the last crop of an old horse by Round Table. He is SERIOUSLY quirky and the most naturally aggressive horse I've ever seen, although his is targeted towards other horses rather than people. Round Table himself was a mutilator. . . Ribot apparently used to attack the trees in his paddock . . . so, yes, a very odd bunch.
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It is shocking, and I'm not surprised the horse was shot. Do we know what breed he was?

Interesting to hear of other people's experiences - being thrown across the yard by the arm, having an ear bitten off.

I read a book about stud farms in the USA and it seemed that more agressive the horse, the more successful racehorse he was, and success on the racecourse was the only thing that matters. What happens to the offspring who are not wnners though?
 
interesting stuff, TarrSteps. i've heard of a hunt horse who bit a groom on the top of her arm and broke it, and of a gelding who snaked his neck out and ripped his owner/breeder's top lip off as she walked down the yard. (don't kissy kiss your horses, kids...!)
i think because they're usually so docile, we forget their power and see/treat them as big cuddly teddy bears, 1/2 tonne teddy bears with muscles 40x the size of Mike Tyson's...
must say i always act very fast to squash the idea of any horse playing with me, most youngsters will try it at least once, and their idea of playing can be lethal.
fwiw i've found using my voice (loud, sternly and very fast) works really well, it reminds them immediately that i am NOT a horse (because horses don't verbalise like that), you can sometimes see the jolt of recognition of their error... this has worked with colts and stallions, even a bull actually, although they're not something i trust for a second...
i've been around a lot of stallions that you wouldn't know weren't geldings. imho that is how a stallion should be, to deserve to keep his nuts...
 
But then one of the things warmblood/sport horse stallions get assessed for is "stallion presence" and the feeling is any stallion that looks like a gelding deserves to be, well, a gelding.
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Hard to say if this is simply time honoured social conditioning (that "maleness" is an inherently desirable trait) or based somehow in hormonal status (a gelding like stallion may lack potency) or if there is actually something in it, performance wise. In fact, I'd have to say it's a least somewhat the latter and the best performance producers I know are definitely "stallion material". Which is not the same thing as being ill natured, obviously, but it does bring up the question of performance that dominates the TB world but is also a consideration in the sport world - how "nice" does a performance horse have to be?
 
hmm, i agree that a stallion should not look like a gelding, but i honestly think he should behave like one in the manners department. bright and lively yes, having 'that certain something' yes, rampaging/would-be-dominant loony no...
i've been in the stable with a few absolutely top performance stallions and they were very civilised. no problems with potency either...
a friend groomed at Bokelo (i think it was) years ago and her charge was partitioned next to Mayhill on the way over, she said he was as civilised as a gelding. i think there was a mare aboard too. nothing wrong with his performance record or potency afaik.
imho that's how they should be (but then, i'm not surrounded by professional horse handlers so i've always been aware that anything i compete also needs to be a civilised kind of horse that a muppet can lead around if necessary...)
if i was told i could have the most amazing horse ever but it would always be a total nightmare to handle, i don't think i'd dare go for it... but i can understand Pros that would.
 
I have heard of similar incidents before, about 5yrs ago a stud groom on a TB farm in ireland was attacked by a stallion and was pinned to the ground while the stallion tore into his throat - he was lucky afaik not to have any serious lasting damage to his larynx but had about 30stitches. the stallion was known to be aggressive and was always handled by 2 men and his "leadrope" comprised of 2 metal bars (to keep his head away from his handlers). He was at one time, quite popular but over the last few years his reputation has resulted in a decrease in his popularity.
I have had 2 serious bites, both by yearling colts in America- one was a complete coward usually and I can honestly say he was more shocked than I was - he was playing but it was my fault for not paying ttention ( I was strapping him and someone called me from outside). The other was aggressive and I was always conscious that he would have a go at you if he thought he could. Again, I was called away and as i was leaving his stable he stuck his neck out, grabbed the skin overlying my ribs and pulled back without letting go - I had to prise open his mouth to get him off. I had stitches as a result and have the scars as a permanent reminder of just how unpredicatble horses can be.

Also, I spent a while working with a racing vet in New York last year and he said the most common area for people to be bitten is on the breast - because people dont treat horses with the respect they deserve and also because people keep treats in their breast pockets!
 
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