Stallions Live cover v AI?

[Bananaman]

Following on from my musings in bbmats post in Competition Riders, I am interested to know of peoples experiences with stallions that only cover AI. Are they any less 'mare aware' when they compete than stallions that cover naturally.

Over the years I have worked on many studs, handling and competing the stallions but this was in the days before AI was widely used.

I'd love to hear peoples experiences/thoughts on this as I am hoping to keep Spider entire and I have to make up my mind what is best for both of us.

I do not have the facilities or staff to stand him at home so have to look at my options very carefully.

As I see it atm I could......

1. Take him to an AI centre and have semen frozen and stored. Then he could live at home as normal, competing etc but with the prejudice against using frozen semen would it be worth it? And that's assuming he freezes well, of course.
2. Let him go to a commertial stud for say 3 or 4 months of the year to stand.
3. If I could find a localish stud, take him there when required.
Do stud owners allow this sort of thing? A walk in stallion?

Personally I think I'd prefer 1 or 3. Then he could stay here and still be my comp horse with little interuption.
And of course, he has to be good enough to stand and mannerly too. If he ceased to be a pleasure to take out then he will be gelded.

Hmmmm, decisions, decisions! Any help or advice gratefully recieved!

 

[mat]

Before we had our stud facilities we used to take our boys as walk in collections..

The problem was that the teaser mare was a coloure horse.. every time we went out and there happened to be a coloured horse being ridden they became very randy!

We are considering getting a small pony mare as our teaser as we are less likely to meet one of those on the circuit!

We do walk in collections and it seems to be a popular choice. I think however that quite often it takes a special sort of stallion to be able to cope with covering and competing at the same time... it is NOT a reflection of their temperment, but the hormones can be just too much to deal with!

I took Merlin for a pootle down the roads a little while ago, and he got sooo stressed and just didnt know what to so with himself. He ended up planted to the spot shaking as he was trying so hard not to misbehave!

I think it does get easier as they get more mature, Merlin is only 5, our older stallion does not suffer nearly as much, and the most he will do is get it out for a wave if he is stood still for any amount of time!

We have decided for next year to collect from him through March for frozen, and then give him a break and then bring him back into work in May.

 

[Partoow]

My stallion was a real arse before i sent him off to Tullis Matson and his dummy mare!!!!
Now he seems to really understand that that is one job in one specific environment, and nothing to do with me. His life for me is dressage and he totally understands this and for me it means his life is really not that stressfull. We have mares on the other side of the yard and his field looks into another yard with mares and he has no problem at all.
In Holland where i worked when a stallion went to cover he wore his chifney and went out through a specific door. When i rode they went in their snaffle and another door and a child could have taken them. That clear definition in boundries seems easy for a stallion. I have also worked at a couple of studs in the uk where this was not clear and they could be difficult at shows and quite often had problems with stress and keeping weight on.
I have also found that with the dummy mare it reduces strain on their hocks as it can always be set at the best height for them and if they are serious dressage/ sport horses this has to be important too.

 

[htobago]

My young stallion was dummy-trained by Tullis too, up at Twemlows - and Tullis even came down to help us get our own dummy-mare set up and positioned properly, and did a bit of 'refresher' dummy-training with my boy, as we had been collecting using jump-mares for a while. He's now happily mounting the dummy 'on demand' (the stallion, I mean, not Tullis) with no need for an in-season jump-mare.

I'm lucky enough to have him at a stud which is also a very good schooling/training yard, so he stays there all year round. He'll be backed this autumn/winter (he's only 3) and can be competed from there as well when he's ready.

This seems to me to be the ideal solution - but such places may be hard to find.

Having said that, even using a similar method to the one partoow mentions in Holland - chifney for stud duties, different bridle for other activities, etc. - he is still generally quite excitable and 'stalliony', although very sweet-natured and wouldn't hurt a fly.

But then he's only a 3yo, it's his first season at stud, and tbh he wasn't exactly a laid-back sort of horse in the first place - he's just a bit high-strung by nature.

We ended up having to cancel all his shows (in-hand shows) this summer, as he simply had too many mares booked, all wanting chilled semen, usually at about 3 minutes notice - so he had to be constantly available for collecting.

If only more breeders and their vets were willing to use frozen semen, life would be much easier and less stressful!

 

[Anastasia]

Both my stallions do/did live cover. Royal Geneve could cover a mare in-hand naturally in the morning, and then go to a dressage competition and win in the afternoon!! Never a problem in or around mares, in the arena or warm up areas.

Next year we are setting up for AI to do chilled and fresh semen with our young stallion and we hope to get frozen off him before he heads off into competition.

I think doing in-hand cover does give a stallion a realistic view of what mares can be like and learns them some life basics.