Would you turn your mare out next to a stallion?

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Little_Mare

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As it says really!

The situation is that this year a young pony stallion is running with a few mares in the field adjoining our most suitable winter paddock. Am I being over-cautious or would I be asking for trouble if I turned my mare out in this paddock?
 
He is quite nice but equine Little Mare needs to be concentrating on school and forget about boys at the moment!
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Are you able to run a line of electric fencing along the adjoining fence? Just to stop any flirting? If thats possible then id do it without worrying to much, if not possible then id do it with a bit of worrying lol
 
Would depend how tarty the mare is at this time of year, my mare is terrible in the summer but winter time you could turn her out in the field with a stallion and she wouldnt bother, another mare on the yard only has to look at one of the geldings and she starts squirting and tarting at any time of year!
Is the fencing good?? if so i would try it and see what reaction both horses have.
 
Our next door neighbours have a stallion and he is often turned out next to our mares without problems. However we do have post and rail and a tall hedge between them, plus electric tape either side.
 
A few years ago we had a 2 y.o. colt who had never covered. One of the mares was such a tart and she reversed up to a gate for him. He tried to cover her from the other side of the gate and she moved away - poor lad was suspended for hours with his front feet one side and his back end in the air. Fire Brigade had to cut him out! After box rest (necrosis and infection) he was turned out 3 fields away - he was such a tryer that he went through 2 blackthorn hedges and cleared a post and rail fence to get to the ladies. I suppose it all depends on when the sap starts to rise and how horney he is
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OR: Thanks for your thoughts everyone.

With the adequate fencing and added electric the "risk" would be eliminated but could I still expect the agro caused by their lust for each other (I'm presuming - Little Mare seems to be irresistible, I think its her curves...) or generally if they couldn't touch would they give up and get on with life?
 
My two girls are so tarty I have problems turning them out with geldings at times. Personally I wouldn't put a mare anywhere near a stallion without very high stud rail fencing between them!
 
depends exactly how young he is, and how he's been handled.

A pony stallion i knew had manners to die for, and could be turned out with geldings with just thin wire between him and mares. Another (young) pony stallion (unhandled) came up and had his ba**s cut before being turned out, and promptly went through the fencing in with the mares and couldnt be caught. Stallions aren't the dangerous beasies people have them down for, it's only the fact they don't have the voice of reason which says "sure, she's hot but I've gotta play it cool", they just want to do what their natural instict and hormones say they should do. If handled properly and treated with respect they're fine.
As he is young I would expect him to be ultra horny and would err on the side of extreme caution as far as mares are concerned.

The fact he can't touch her means nothing lol, he can still see her, still smell her and will want her.
 
He seems to respect the ladies he's out with - does that say anything or could that be because they've put him in his place? I assume mares too persist with a stallion even if they can't touch?

I think I'm erring towards using one of the crap paddocks...
 
depends how 'slutty'
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they are.

How old is he? Is he well handled, taught basic manners? How many mares is he with?

I can't see it being a major problem (unless your mare suddenly comes into season when none of 'his' mares are) but would make sure there was good solid fencing.
 
I don't know how she'd be with a "real" man - during the summer she flirts with the geldings over the fence but quickly tells them to bu**er off! I don't know anything about the man in question other than he doesn't seem to like to be caught but he seems friendly towards people using the nearby footpath and he tolerates dogs well! He's with 3 mares.
 
We have a situation like this at our yard. The adjoining farm turns out a colt next to one of our winter fields, so the geldings have to use that field as the colt has managed to get into the field a few times even though it is well fenced and has a good hedge between them, we now have electric fencing a few feet in from the hedge. There's no way I'd turn my horse out in a field next to a colt/stallion as she is such a tart I wouldn't want to risk it
 
Yes we do it all the time – at present there is a 2yo colt in one field, a 15 yo stallion next to him, 4 yearling colts in the next field with 5 mares in the field above them and 4 mares in the field below them. All my colts/stallions know that a fence is something they do not cross!! Especially when they see electric fence. We have been turning them out next to each other for years now with no problems. You should be fine as long as you have adequate fencing.
 
I think you just need to take sensible precautions where fencing is concerned.

I ran my stallion with his band of mares and his field shared a boundary fence with a field full of fillies and geldings. Once the fillies became yearlings I moved them to another field which didn't share the boundary just in case. I was sure my stallion would not mount them over the fence but they did become quite tarty with sticking their bottoms through the post and rail, so as most of them didn't belong to me, I simply moved them away from him.

My stallions mare band were put in the adjacent field from him when they came into season, apart from the 2 I was planning on breeding and he never once did anything inappropriate with the mares in the adjoining field.

Not all stallions are hellions - my experience is that the stallions I've dealt with have all been absolute gentlemen but the mares are something else!
 
One of my concerns was that it might send her all hormonal and stroppy to ride and handle - is this likely/possible at this time of year?

I think we'd be ok with regards the fencing.
 
Well it depends on the mare to be honest. My mares that I wasn't breeding didn't bother or be silly when next to my stallion, however he is a very quiet horse and not excitable in the least, so I guess they took their lead from him.
 
Hmm, I think I'm going to see if I can try her in it and see how it goes before we move into winter paddocks permanently then we can reallocate if needs be. My old mare was turned out in the same paddock when there was an old stallion in the next field and they had such a sweet relationship - no funny business, just looked like an old couple having a chat!
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Not like these kids...
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Our resident stallion is a total gentleman with his mares, but it didn't stop him jumping three gates to find a bunch of mares who were several fields away and totally out of sight. I guess it depends how highly sexed the stallion is, and how much work (I mean mares) he's got already. As for tarty mares - reckon they're all tarty when the time is right. If it was me I'd try to keep them well apart.
 
I think the OP is only looking to use this paddock over the winter, so theoretically her mare won't be in season during this period...
 
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