One sex only yards?

[Hallo2012]

i think its more individuals than sexes.

we always had mixed groups of approx 5/6 horses and never had any serious injuries.

then we ended up going to individual paddocks as my gelding was bullying my sisters gelding and our new livery preferred her pony in an individual paddock.

have to say the MOST settled out of the 4 we have now is the stallion..............doesnt care if he's out last, in last, out on his own, ignores what the others do, he just eats............all.day.long!

we do have boys only by choice now though as like others have said is the squirty flirty mares that are harder to police and now having a very happy settled stallion , i dont want to upset the apple cart.

 

[Crackerz]

YO has a couple of stallions so our yard is boys only, we do have one veteran mare but she is no trouble.

I prefer boys anyway, not a mare fan!

 

[Tnavas]

I worked at, then leased a riding school that had a no mare policy - it worked well, no liasons, no fighting bar the initial rearrangement of the pecking order when a new gelding arrived.

 

[wiglet]

I know of a couple of yards that had a Geldings Only policy. When the recession hit, they both backed down and took any livery, mare or gelding - business is business!

I also think it's more individuals than sexes - my girl used to be in a group of 4 mares. All was good, all was quiet until the YO moved a group of geldings into the field next to them. All hell broke loose - mares all in season and being very flirty, geldings sniffing and breaking fences to get to them. Everyone was struggling to take their horses away from the group. It took weeks for them all to settle… but then they never really settled because the mares were always coming in season.

I'm at a different yard now. My girl is in with one other. Paired turnout is lovely. She's in with a…. GELDING!! The field next to them has the same mare/gelding setup and it works beautifully.

 

[eggs]

I never understand this. My horses have always been in mixed herds and there's never been any trouble in the field. The current group consists of my three horses and my friend's four, five geldings and two mares in total. I would honestly challenge anyone to find a happier and more settled herd. But then again, they don't have anything to fight over: they have plenty of space to move around, plenty of horses to choose between for company, and plenty of forage all year round. I think that's the magic recipe, not dividing by gender.

Agreed. I have five mares and four geldings all out together at home. However it has been a stable herd for years with no other horses turning up whenever and they are out in big fields. I think of lot of yards have small turnout paddocks which is not the same thing.

 

[Annagain]

We're a geldings only yard. The YO used to have a stallion and broodmares and didn't want to risk the stallion getting to livery mares in any way so all liveries were geldings only. She sold the stallion and mares a few years ago but hasn't changed the rule as the boys are all really happy and settled so if it ain't broke don't fix it.

If there are 4 geldings, could they all live together in one little herd and the mare live in theirs?

 

[milliepops]

i think its more individuals than sexes.

^^ this. My older mare is happiest in mixed groups, doesn't EVER cause a problem but likes the company of boys
Younger mare will make it her business to scrap with anything, including older mare who she is besotted with!! Grr.

A mares-only livery sounds a bit specialist... I've seen one near me advertising gelding-only spaces which is a shame as sounded like it would have suited my girls. I think they can all be managed together with a bit of sense and an appreciation of their individual habits and preferences.

 

[Merrymoles]

Everyone is going to have different experiences and different views because all horses are different.

We have three geldings and two mares at our yard. The mares are on individual turnout due to different nutrition needs, one gelding is on his own and two geldings are together. In our case, the mares are stressy and badly behaved if out of view of one another, the smallest gelding is a thug which is why he's on his own and the other two, one of which is mine, rub along with no problems generally. The second gelding in my field does occasionally kick mine if he thinks he's out of line and last year there was an incident where mine when for the others jugular but that's about it in four years together. The lonesome gelding is also no problem.

Previously I was on a yard with a mixed herd and it was always the mares that caused problems, usually by being over-dominant, but I have heard since I left that they had problems with a gelding subsequently.

The problem is that the blooming horses have all got personalities, whatever their sex! Wouldn't have it any other way

 

[Annagain]

A mares-only livery sounds a bit specialist... I've seen one near me advertising gelding-only spaces which is a shame as sounded like it would have suited my girls. I think they can all be managed together with a bit of sense and an appreciation of their individual habits and preferences.

There's a yard near us that was mares only as there was one very dominant livery who refused to have geldings anywhere near her mare. The yard struggled and was never full but this livery had YO, an older very kind man wrapped around her finger so he wouldn't go against her. Then her mare died and she bought a gelding so yard is now mixed. In fact, I heard the other day that they're now looking for geldings as she's worried he's the only one there and needs some male company

 

[Ddraig_wen]

We've got quite a at ours and found the mares are more of a pain in the backside than either the stallions or the geldings.
We've had more incidents of a mare taking a chunk or two out of a gelding or turning her bum on someone going into the field. We tried having this mare and her pals in a same sex field but her and her pals became a nightmare so we put my fairly dominant gelding in there and it's all sweetness and light.
The stallion/colt grazing is the quietest field of the lot. The mixed herd of mares/geldings is pretty quiet but they split off into friendship splinter groups as the field is rather large.

 

[peanut]

A same sex yard certainly wouldn't work for us. I have an alpha mare who loathes other mares but gets on wonderfully well with geldings who in turn are incredibly well mannered and sweet with her. I would always a choose stable that has a gelding as a next door neighbour

 

[stencilface]

We've kept horses at home for nearly 30 years and never had a mare. I think we started with one idiot sec D followed by a Welsh cross who was riggy but not a rig, and now my sisters thug who we've had for 21 years.

My horses have always been the chilled lower pecking order bunch, the sec D used to relentlessly chase newcomers despite long over the fence introduction times, he was a prick, although my 13.2 nippy pony enjoyed running rings around him!

We are very slow to introduce horses these days, and even if mine goes to stay at the vets for 2 nights my sisters horse will bully him on his return despite living together for 12 years. He bullied him this summer as I put on the rain sheet he'd worn at Rockley as it probably smelt of over horses. Did I mention he was a thug?

Horses can be dicks no matter the sex!

 

[Merlod]

I have a small livery yard and I will only take geldings, all 8 boys turnout as a herd and are rotated between two large hill fields. I don't think it would be fair to suddenly throw a mare out with them when a space comes free so I only take geldings as I am not prepared to split up the fields into stupid little paddocks.

Before I had my own yard I was on a livery where turnout was with a mixed herd and tbh the mares were a total PITA to the geldings - mine has been squirted at, had his manly parts sniffed, been squealed at and then booted - all whilst he stood there bewildered.

 

[smja]

We only have geldings, but on previous yards they've been in mixed herds with no issues. Current yard, YO has no issues with people mixing sexes in the smaller fields, but the big fields are all mares or all geldings - ours are in the big gelding herd.

I would be very annoyed if forced to leave just because my horse is the wrong sex!

Whilst I can see why this would be frustrating, it's not your choice to make. The YO and YM are offering a service to paying customers; it's a business transaction. They've given generous advance notice of a change in the terms - i.e. geldings only once current ones gone. From your post, they're not saying "all geldings off the yard by next week" or anything ridiculous, so it's unlikely they're going to force people to move. It's up to you whether to try and negotiate, or take your business elsewhere.

 

[Neversaydie]

We only have geldings, but on previous yards they've been in mixed herds with no issues. Current yard, YO has no issues with people mixing sexes in the smaller fields, but the big fields are all mares or all geldings - ours are in the big gelding herd.


Whilst I can see why this would be frustrating, it's not your choice to make. The YO and YM are offering a service to paying customers; it's a business transaction. They've given generous advance notice of a change in the terms - i.e. geldings only once current ones gone. From your post, they're not saying "all geldings off the yard by next week" or anything ridiculous, so it's unlikely they're going to force people to move. It's up to you whether to try and negotiate, or take your business elsewhere.

When it's only because YM is stirring things up that the issues occur and it's being blamed on horses who aren't even in the same field then it becomes an issue for me. Is gelding owners are being made to feel like our horses are causing issues when they aren't and not one gelding has done wrong really in fact one may be getting PTS because of a decision the YM made. YO just lets us get on with it and all is liveries run along nicely actually, in all the years I have been on this yard I have yet to have a cross word with any other livery, and having been on a few yards in 25+ years of horses I can clearly say this is a first for me, we are all a laid back bunch who muck in with each other and help each other out.

If it becomes a formal thing as this is only supposed to have been said, possibly in anger, then I'm sure YM will have a few people and even the mare owners saying something.

I will add the fields are not small, the good doers have 4 on 3 acres just to keep the grass down a bit and the poor doers are 6 on 9 acres, the others are on tracks as they need proper weight watching but are in groups of three mostly.

 

[jaffa2311]

She has had her first season already, in July.
She's not a very playful yearling either. She finds it all rather boring when there's food to be eaten!
Fingers crossed it continues

 

[Crugeran Celt]

I know many people who will not mix mares with geldings but I have never had a problem with mine, saying that I have one gelding in with five mares so he is very happy. He is very laid back and will happily share his feed with any of the girls which is more than can be said for the girls, they are far less tolerant with each other but all love him. Not sure how he would react with another gelding though. I have a friend who, over the winter months turns all hers out together including her three stallions with no problems at all. She seperates them before spring with single sex fields.