Stallion husbandry: guidelines for a healthy and happy horse life

Why is the right stallion husbandry important?

Proper stallion husbandry is of central importance for several reasons. Firstly, it ensures the animal's well-being. A species-appropriate housing that offers sufficient freedom of movement contributes to the health and social behavior of the stallion. Furthermore, stallion husbandry plays an important role in breeding. Avoiding stress and ensuring a balanced diet are crucial for reproduction. The safety of people and other animals when handling the stallion should not be underestimated either. Correct husbandry minimizes the risk of behavioral problems and aggression. Ultimately, correct stallion husbandry is also an expression of animal ethics and respect for the living being, as it respects its needs.

What distinguishes stallion keeping from other horse keeping?

In the natural environment, stallions have the responsibility to protect their herd, both from potential attackers and from rival stallions. Unlike geldings, stallions are more hormonally and emotionally driven, which can make them more demanding to handle than mares or geldings. This can put some people off, which is why stallions have often been kept in isolation from other horses to minimize potential risks.

In the wild, other stallions are seen as competition that must be fought and driven away to protect one's herd and pass on one's genes. Keeping several stallions in a group therefore requires special precautions. Nevertheless, if all the necessary conditions are met, nothing stands in the way of contemporary stallions keeping in harmony with the horse's needs.

It is important to provide sufficient exercise, to consider the correct composition of the group, to use stable fences and boxes and, to minimize stress for the stallions, to avoid the presence of mares.

What can proper stallion husbandry look like

The correct keeping of stallions, especially when several are brought together, is a general challenge that requires extensive specialist knowledge. People who want to dedicate themselves to keeping stallions should have extensive experience and not underestimate this task. It is crucial to understand the natural behaviors of stallions to successfully implement them in a human-controlled environment. In addition, a realistic assessment of a stallion's character and the behavior of multiple stallions with each other is important to recognize potentially dangerous situations and promote a peaceful and harmonious group of stallions.

In addition, keeping stallions in groups requires a lot of space. The pastures where the stallions are kept together must be large enough to provide sufficient space for evasive movements and to ensure that no stallion is cornered. It is also important that stallions are not kept near mares, as this can cause considerable unrest in the group. In natural environments, stallions often come together in groups without the presence of mares. Young stallions in particular spend their time in bachelor herds after separation from their mother mare and only separate when they start their herd.

Box keeping

An example of an adapted stall posture is the social stall, where the rear area is completely shielded from the neighboring stall by boards. In the front area, on the other hand, there are dividers about 30 cm apart, which allow contact with the neighbor. Stallions housed in adjacent boxes benefit from social interactions such as mutual grooming and eating together. They also have the opportunity to withdraw for more privacy. A study by the Swiss National Stud in Avenches looked at the long-term observation of such stallions kept together. The study shed light on the animals' behavior under these conditions and provided insights into the benefits of keeping stallions in this way.

In this study, five groups of eight stallions from the National Stud are kept in social stalls. The fear that the stallions could injure themselves or each other as a result of this additional space has not been confirmed. During the trial, which lasted several years, there were only minor injuries such as hair loss, light scratches, or small abrasions, which healed on their own without veterinary treatment. Most of the injuries occurred above the eyes when the horses pulled their heads back quickly.

A stable with stallion husbandry that species-appropriate conditions allow the animals to develop their natural social behavior. The stallions can intensify their social interactions in such a stable thanks to the increased opportunities for exercise and contact with conspecifics. This promotes well-being and can contribute to a relaxed atmosphere. A stallion stable that carefully plans the acclimatization phase allows the animals to get used to their new surroundings and stable mates. After a certain period of adjustment, the stallions often use the available space to play and eat together, which is a sign of successful integration and species-appropriate stallion husbandry.

Social interactions are essential for the well-being of horses. Anja Zollinger from Agroscope underlines the relevance of improved living standards for breeding stallions, while at the same time minimizing the risk of injury. The social stalls introduced at the Swiss National Stud in Avenches offer a significant improvement compared to traditional stall housing - an advantage that benefits not only stallions but all horses. The optimization of the housing conditions is reflected in more balanced behavior and an improved quality of life. It is a central concern to promote such progress to ensure the well-being of our horses.

Grazing

Similar to geldings or mares, stallions can live together in small herds on pasture and be allowed to move freely. Horses need sufficient exercise and exercise, so daily grazing is very important for every horse. Ideally, the horses spend the night in normal boxes or social boxes and are let out to pasture during the day. In summer, stallions can also spend 24 hours together in the paddock and live in an open stable.

When putting together the herd, it is important to consider the individual characters of the animals to avoid conflicts due to incompatibilities. Young stallions often benefit from the integration of an older stallion or gelding into the group, who can take the lead and act as a stabilizing element. In addition, a new stallion should not be allowed to join an existing herd of stallions straight away. It is advisable to keep him in a neighboring pasture for one to two weeks at first so that he can get to know the other stallions over the secure fence and get used to them. Given sufficient space, a suitable combination of characters, and an appropriate acclimatization period, stallions can generally live together harmoniously in herds and meet their natural social needs. This promotes the stallions' well-being and satisfaction and also helps them to be more relaxed in their daily dealings with people.

Conclusion

Of course, keeping stallions in groups is no easy task. It requires extensive specialist knowledge, experience and suitable conditions in order to provide the stallions with a species-appropriate life. A decisive factor here is, above all, sufficient space. Unfortunately, a lack of space is a problem on many horse farms.

However, it does not always have to be open stabling. Even in conventional stall housing, there are possibilities for optimization that can significantly improve the well-being of stallions. So-called social stalls can be a possibility for improvement here.