Those with stallions..

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LIL PJ

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Thought id post on here as always have good feedback from you guys! (watch me get no replies now lol) Those of you who own stallions, how do find having them on a livery yard, ie peoples attitudes towards them, do you graze them alone or with geldings?
Do you find it a lot more demanding (excluding those stallions which are at stud or serving mares) I.E at shows and gradings ect? Any input welcome x
 
Our stallion lives next to mares or geldings and grazes alone. This is because having tried our other stallion with geldings they can be fine one minute and attack the next, especially in covering season.Our mini shetland sometimes joins him in his field but escapes under the tape fence when he gets nasty.
In winter he is a calm type who gains weight easily and can be left outside all day, but in summer he runs his weight off easily s has limited turn out of half a day most days.
As a few from the forum will testify, at shows he is perfectly behaved.
We are however about to try him travelling with a mare, so that may not alway be the case.
If you want to have a stallion as your horse at a livery yard, you need a specialised one with the correct facilities. Turn out must be very well fenced and no nose contact with other horses if possible over fences.
Expect to pay more for your individual grazing.
Stabling is fine provided your horse is treated like a normal gelding but with an awareness your stallion may reach out and grab a passing horse with his teeth with more force than usual!
hacking/schooling they should be no different to a gelding, neither of ours have been.
It is more difficult without a doubt, and unless there is an exceptional reason to keep a horse entire they are happier gelded, but usually your problems come from people who don't understand stallions more than the stallion himself.
 
Hmm, when I wanted to bring my stallion to the UK (in 2005) I made a list of about 20 places close enough to my house and phoned them to ask about prices, grazing etc.
Some were quite rude telling me to geld my horse and then bring him over lol, most simply said 'absolutely no way we can do a stallion', one agreed but the price was way out of my budget.
I tried places further away too but with no luck - some people were actually genuinly surprised I was looking for a livery for a stallion (as if equine species consited of mares and geldings only
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I would be quite interested to read more replies to your post
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Yes, that is what I was told most of the times and I do see the point now. It was a bit of a shock to me then though as I always worked with stallions abroad and although it was obvious they needed certain management it was just a part of the service and nobody ever charged anything on top.
Both my stallions were also travelled with mares to competitions and there was no problems with that.

About grazing - up to 1yr old all the foals together, then colts seperately, fillies and those gelded together. Adult stallions always alone but fields were divided in a way that they could see other horses.
My Anglo-Arab stallion was kept for a year fence to fence with another stallion and they had 'arguments' for the first month
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Then they just stayed away from the part of the fence they shared as if they gave each other space. They would also have those funny rituals waving their necks and showing off in the mornings
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Oh I miss my boy.
 
I have stallions at livery with me, we have seperate stallion paddocks and we keep the 'boys ' at one side of the yard; i have a 3 sided yard around a central gravel court yard. i do not charge extra for stallions. All my staff are well trained and no stallion is lead without a correctly fitted stallion chain.
The mare owners are also made aware of the correct way to handle their horses in the presence of the stallions especially when in season. They know for example to wash down the yard if they happen to'squirt' with Jeyes fluid as this kills the smell and stops the stallions from being upset.
My stallion is actually a working stallion but correct management means we have very happy and relaxed chaps and chapesses!!
As for funny rituals ; well the 11am willy waggling always makes me laugh!!
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Our stallion is in a quiet corner box next to one of our geldings (they lick each other through the bars which is very cute) but is opposite mares and geldings. He is turned out everyday on his own but in in a field which runs adjacent to mares and geldings. He is treated just like any other horse but we do respect the fact he is a stallion.
He is turned out and brought in in a chifney and is always led and handled on the yard in a chifney and chain - not becuase he is wild just becuase it is there if we need it.
We always cross tie him to groom and tack up but he is fine to skip out, hay and water.
He ties up on the yard when it is quiet and if the yard is busy we do him in the box.
He stands on the yard to have his legs hosed off, be washed down or bathed even when there are other mares and geldings on the yard.
He never makes a fuss and is worked in the school with both mare and geldings. He has travelled with another gelding but as yet we haven't travelled him with one of our mares
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We are lucky as our yard is used to dealing with stallions (although he is currently the only one) and other liveries are not phased but equally are very sensible around him.
He is incredibley friendly with a fab nature but he does like his 'own time' and comes in after being in the field and has a kip at the back of his box.
We have tried hard to educate him properly and it has paid off although there are some idiots around. At a competition last week one woman saw fit to plonk herself on the middle of the walk way of the entrance to the warm up so she could read her score. Our boy was the perfect gent and took no notice but an empty rear end could be seen as far game for another stallion!
It is definately more time consuming as we now do things the real BHS way! (Glad to see all my training paid off.) You need to think ahead a bit more and it can be a bit of a logistcal nightmare travelling to shows - we often take the lorry and a trailer but eventually I hope he will travel with mares. Once you get into a routine it's fine but you generally need to be one step ahead.
We couldn't imagine life without him but if I'm being entirely honest I think we felt a bit like new parents coming home from the hospital with a baby when we got him home. We put him in his stable looked at each other and said "What have we done?"
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Well for me you just got in one. Abroad, stallions are not treated any different to any other horse. Every one I have come across (from Europe ) just seem to know the rules. My stallion has covered mares but does not even think about misbehaving when he is out showjumping. I have 2 x 2yr old colts from a fellow HHO member Anastasia who are also very good & just about to take delivery of 3 more 3 yr olds from Holland. My OH has gone out on the ferry to Rotterdam tonight & will travel them back on Friday night with mares! Heres hoping I havent tempted fate.
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As a YO i have been asked twice re stallions being stabled on my yard - both times i have considered it.
for one - a mini shetland there was no issue at all (apart from they didnt want to pay standard stable rent as his was small - but he was going in a 16 X 12 box and having seperate paddock - so i wasnt going to charge less than the standard 18 for that type of stable with graxig!)
the other - was a 15.2 stallion owned by a friend - now - we felt we could cope with it, we have the facilities and i know this stallion from a few years back when he was stabled on a busy riding school - he is a true gent, can be tied up on a yard with mares walking by etc etc. well - the reason he never moved on - my other liveries! they were worried that he could escape and have his wicked way! that he would 'wind the mares up' that they wouldnt be able to go down the driveway with their horses (as it was near the field he would have been using) so as a result, my friend said it didnt matter and he was chucked in a field in the middle of nowhere!
we have however, had 3 year old stallions just turned out for a few weeks and liveries have been fine with this (these are sallions who havent got the manners of the others!)

its very hard as you dont want to upset exsisting liveries, especially if they are settled, horses all get on when turned out, they follow yard rules etc.

its going to be quite interesting as i am covering two of my mares this season, and it may be that the pony stallion comes up to ours to cover my mare - not sure how liveries may react to this but we had him turned out up at ours as a yearling and a few remember him so fingers crossed - they wont all have a mass moan!

LIL PJ - do you own a stallion/colt or considering getting one? i would say shop around for livery and IMO - find somewhere that has some turnout for him as i hate it when they get stabled 24/7 just because they are stallions - i have seen it happen all to often and it breaks my heart! good luck with your search if thats whyou've posted
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(also - if you are looking - ppl on here are fab and prob could help you find somewhere suitable to try)
 
I have a colt, our yard owner is fine with having stallions and colts so long as they obviously arent turned out in the main fields with the main herd, they are however allowed to go out in the paddock to graze. I dont understand liverys problem with it, if the animal is kept away from theyre horses then whats the issue?
 
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I dont understand liverys problem with it, if the animal is kept away from theyre horses then whats the issue?

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i know - i think sometimes you get certian 'types' of horse people who as it was said earlier - think that there are only geldings are mares out there! and imagine stallions to be hormornal beast that will go thru anything and everything to get to their precious mares...
i guess at the end of the day - everyones views are different
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And as for people who think 'it will upset and whind up my mare' all i have to say to that is that you should be able to control your animal when its around a stallion, try riding out where i do when you have stallions running wild, your horses have to learn to behave around them, theres no telling the forestry commision that they cant turn the stallions out on the forest because 'it upsets your horse'
 
i think that if you obviously respect the fact that its a stallion, and will require a little extra (or different) handling but still treat it the same as all the rest of the other horses, and not treat it like a dangerous wild animal, then it wont turn into a crazy wild animal. its more likely to start behaving naughtily if you always treat it like a dangerous animal that isn't allowed to interact with other horses. i used to work on a yard with a stallion and although he was turned out alone, he worked in the school at the same time as mares and geldings, and traveled with them as well. although he did have a stallion 'guard' between him and the next gelding, and the mares were always loaded last, with him at the front. at shows he was fine, if a little frisky, but then aren't most horses? if i didn't forget to put vaporub up his nose before a show then we might have a few more problems! xx
 
We have one in full livery with us, he's very easy but still needs careful management- he always goes out on his own and is never able to touch noses with anything else plus he has a special high post and rail paddock. We try not to lead anything too closely past him as it winds him up.
He's very well behaved when he goes out as he understands what he's there to do and he travels next to other geldings in the lorry.
 
I have been very, very lucky! I searched for ages to find the right 5* yard for my young (3yo) Arab stallion. I found quite a lot of livery yards that were happy to take him, but I was being incredibly fussy and none were quite perfect enough...until I found Cliveden Stud! It's a mainly eventing yard, run by a BHSI and BE Accredited trainer, but with two stallions standing at stud, the YO's advanced eventer by Jumbo, and now my little show-Arab.

I could not have wished for a better place. It used to be a well-known TB stud (the Derby winner Reference Point was bred there), so has all the beautiful post-and-rail paddocks, huge stables on a pretty courtyard, etc. But more importantly the YO and staff are super - very experienced with stallions and stud work; and it turned out that the YO is a fully trained AI specialist, so I am able to offer my stallion by AI.

He is on a mixed yard with mares, geldings and one other stallion, and is expected to behave well. He is a very sweet-natured boy - the most affectionate horse I've ever met, without a nasty thought in his head, ever. He is however a very lively, bouncy, noisy creature - and they are very good and kind and patient with him.

He has become a big favourite with all the staff - keeps them all entertained with his playful antics - and gets lots of love and affection, as well as expert care.

I do realize how very lucky I am!
 
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