Training a stallion to use a dummy mare. How do they do it?

[Enfys]

OK.Perhaps a silly question but after all this talk of AI and dummy mares I am curious, there are lots of people who obviously know their stuff here. It is not something I have any experience of and I am interested, anyone care to share their expertise please?
How exactly do you train a stallion to use the dummy?
Is a tease mare used at first?
Is a stallion less willing to use a dummy if he has covered in hand before?

Thankyou

 

[mat]

A teaser mare is usually used, we have found it more difficult to train a horse that has covered naturally. They can sometimes become slightly frustrated until they figure out what they are supposed to do and relieve themselves!

 

[AndyPandy]

Training invariably requires a mare is estrus.

The stallion is teased, with the mare stood in a stable or behind a teasing wall, so he realises that he's now entering a sexual situation. Some stallions with a high libido will only require a small amount of teasing before you ask them to attempt a mount, others will require a little more "encouragement", and taking them away and returning them to the teasing area repeatedly is often a good way of getting them ready.

Once you think the stallion is ready to try mounting, he should be taken away from the teasing area for a few minutes while the mare is repositioned. We then put the mare on the right hand side of the dummy mare, pushed quite close. She should wear covering boots in case she gets irritated while the stallion works out what to do. Return the stallion to the covering barn, and tease him at the back of the dummy and mare. At this point, he should start rearing in an attempt to mount the mare. He can then be encouraged towards the dummy mare. Sometimes, he will misinterpret this encouragement, and will get down very quickly. In this case, return him to the dummy from the left side, so that if he wishes to mount the mare, he must first mount the dummy.

When he mounts, it is ESSENTIAL that the AV handler deflects the penis straight into the AV. This will make sure that the stallion immediately associates the process with acheiving his first goal (i.e. penetration). Hopefully, if the AV is at the right temperature and tightness, he will ejaculate. He may need to make several mounts in order to feel comfortable and ejaculate.

There are plenty of reasons why things may not go to plan, and it is important that if you are going to train the stallion at home then you read plenty about it beforehand, and make sure you know what you're doing. It's just as easy to make the stallion associate the dummy mare with a negative experience, as it is to get the stallion trained so that he jumps up and co-operates every time, if you don't do it correctly or are impatient.

Stallions who have covered in hand before may take a little longer to jump on the dummy as they already "know" that the mare is the target, but they will get there eventually.

 

[Navalgem]

Lol, hopefully Cal will play ball when he comes for training, he's only covered one mare before. (hope you have an extra small av, he's not very well endowed at all! lol)

 

[springfallstud]

[ QUOTE ]
Lol, hopefully Cal will play ball when he comes for training, he's only covered one mare before. (hope you have an extra small av, he's not very well endowed at all! lol)

[/ QUOTE ]

aww poor boy, good job he can't hear what your saying!!!

 

[Navalgem]

lmao

 

[htobago]

AndyPandy has pretty much covered it, I think!

I only know about all this from my limited experience with my own 3yo stallion. He was dummy-trained at Twemlows, a big AI centre - and I would suggest that if you are inexperienced, like me, it might be best to send your boy to a reputable AI centre for training, rather than trying to do it yourself.

The Twemlows people were very impressed with my chap. They have a stable built into the collecting room, positioned in front of the dummy, slightly to one side. So they teased him with a mare over the stable door, then led him round to the back of the dummy, and he jumped straight on and did the job! Just figured out immediately what was required of him, and got on with it!

Mind you, he is an Arab, and they are very smart!

And he had never covered a mare before - just done one collection using a jump-mare - so probably much easier to train than a stallion who has been covering mares in hand.

 

[eventing_chick]

Mine won't 'do' dummy mares

......thoroughbreds really are intellegent

 

[Enfys]

Thanks everyone.

I don't envisage doing this with mine, but it is interesting to know, more or less what I had thought.

 

[maestro]

Ours wont do dummy despite Tullis best efforts so collect off the floor while he moons after a little coloured cob. Hope the next one will jump a dummy because its recking my daughters shoulder!

 

[htobago]

[ QUOTE ]
Mine won't 'do' dummy mares

......thoroughbreds really are intellegent

[/ QUOTE ]

LOL! I mentioned in another thread that when the Twemlows people were raving about how smart my boy was to jump on the dummy first time, my non-horsey husband said "Well actually, if he thinks that thing is a horse, he's really rather stupid!"

Quite a lot of perfectly intelligent stallions won't mount a dummy. My YO's stallion won't go near one - he just gives you a withering look as if to say "Excuse me, but that is not a mare - how stupid do you think I am?"

Mind you, he's been covering in hand for many years. I think probably the best candidates for dummies are young, over-enthusiastic adolescents like my boy, who will jump on pretty much anything that looks vaguely horse-shaped!