Stallion News

[BaroqueAgain1]

Paulick recently published an article addressing how the way stallions are isolated is not good for their mental health. Being social herd animals, being unable to naturally interact with other horses can increase their stress levels.
From the article:
"The vast majority of stallions are housed and turned out separately from all other horses, spending their time alone and sequestered from other horses, which is not good for their wellbeing...."
"...because of lack of manpower or staff training that most stallions end up confined to their stalls nearly 24 hours a day; some stallions receive no exercise other than the walk to and from the breeding shed. Stallions are often thought to be high-strung and dangerous, but how they are managed—with confinement and isolation–may perpetuate this behavior."
"If a stallion is turned out alone, it's imperative that he be able to see other horses, though mares in heat should be kept away from the fence lines.
Interestingly, stallions kept in stalls near other stallions don't feel safe. Stalled stallion's cortisol levels were higher than those stallions that were housed in a group. The increase in stress hormones is likely caused by aggression toward other stallions that they can see through the bars or mesh in their stalls.
Living in a herd situation allows the horses to get away from an aggressor; being housed in a stall leaves the horse nowhere to escape; he is forced to constantly see other stallions. One option to lower stalled stallion's stress levels is to offer them a wall that is either solid or only partially filled with grids that allow for nose-to-nose contact."
https://www.paulickreport.com/horse-car ... cessarily/

[Northport]

Interesting news on young stallion Bolt D'Oro.

Having serious aggression issues, to the point he missed 2 days in the shed in February, and sent his old racetrack groom to hospital after attacking him.
I see they've downplayed the effect these massive books may have on young stallion's minds. Bred 214 mares last spring in this 1st season at stud, then went to Australia and covered another 100....where he started displaying aggression issues.

https://www.racingpost.com/bloodstock/b ... sL4Vyd8b8M

I wonder if this will affect his inevitable sale to Korea, Turkey, South America, or a regional market in 3 years.

[Mylute]

Interesting news on young stallion Bolt D'Oro.

Having serious aggression issues, to the point he missed 2 days in the shed in February, and sent his old racetrack groom to hospital after attacking him.
I see they've downplayed the effect these massive books may have on young stallion's minds. Bred 214 mares last spring in this 1st season at stud, then went to Australia and covered another 100....where he started displaying aggression issues.

https://www.racingpost.com/bloodstock/b ... sL4Vyd8b8M

I wonder if this will affect his inevitable sale to Korea, Turkey, South America, or a regional market in 3 years.

O O F.

[Green Desert]

Hopefully these precautions will stop him from turning into another Festival of Light.
I've always wondered what happened to him after they gelded him. Did he become safe and sane, or did his aggressiveness persevere?
As for it affecting any future sale to another country, I was recently reading that a few tough stallions were sent overseas, and the difference in the way they were handled over there really seemed to do the trick for them (and I don't mean handled in any rough way. )

[TapitsGal]

I do have to wonder if overbreeding is contributing to his aggression I DO think that Spendthrift is doing the public a DIS-SERVICE by downplaying the connection between overbreeding and aggression..this horse bred 300 mares between the two seasons... PERHAPS bolt is trying to get across the message that he's not up for that...not every stallion can physically or mentally handle breeding 300 plus mares between two seasoms.I'd hate to see bolt have an incident of agression that results in him seriously injuring or killing a handler and the farm then responding by having bolt euthanized

[Mylute]

I do have to wonder if overbreeding is contributing to his aggression I DO think that Spendthrift is doing the public a DIS-SERVICE by downplaying the connection between overbreeding and aggression..this horse bred 300 mares between the two seasons... PERHAPS bolt is trying to get across the message that he's not up for that...not every stallion can physically or mentally handle breeding 300 plus mares between two seasoms.I'd hate to see bolt have an incident of agression that results in him seriously injuring or killing a handler and the farm then responding by having bolt euthanized

If that ever happens, euthanasia will be the last resort. He'll first be gelded.

[CorridorZ75]

I would think it would be very hard to find an air travel company willing to transfer a dangerously aggressive animal the size of a horse. You could keep them sedated, but that would also cause an astronomical rise in likely colic problems. I believe it was Ribot who was so aggressive they were never able to send him back to Europe as they were planning on doing.

[Flanders]

Hopefully these precautions will stop him from turning into another Festival of Light.
I've always wondered what happened to him after they gelded him. Did he become safe and sane, or did his aggressiveness persevere?
As for it affecting any future sale to another country, I was recently reading that a few tough stallions were sent overseas, and the difference in the way they were handled over there really seemed to do the trick for them (and I don't mean handled in any rough way. )

I always heard they "gave him away" and then nothing else, which is never a good thing but who knows maybe he lived out his life somewhere a happy horse.

I do have to wonder if overbreeding is contributing to his aggression I DO think that Spendthrift is doing the public a DIS-SERVICE by downplaying the connection between overbreeding and aggression..this horse bred 300 mares between the two seasons... PERHAPS bolt is trying to get across the message that he's not up for that...not every stallion can physically or mentally handle breeding 300 plus mares between two seasoms.I'd hate to see bolt have an incident of agression that results in him seriously injuring or killing a handler and the farm then responding by having bolt euthanized

Also I don't think there is any correlation between breeding 200+ mares and aggression. The shuttling and not knowing his surroundings could have made him feel insecure then you add that maybe there was another stallion in Australia that intimidated him. An insecure, anxious aggressive animal is a dangerous animal. Some stallions get more aggressive when they become breeding stallions. Halo didn't become dangerously aggressive until he moved to Kentucky from Maryland.

As for dangerously aggressive horses, they just learn to work around them. They need to really watch him and see what sets him off and then try to figure a way to limit that. If it doesn't then they'll treat him like Spinning World, who was handled with a muzzle and 2 grooms with 10 foot poles with leads on the ends.

[Flanders]

I would think it would be very hard to find an air travel company willing to transfer a dangerously aggressive animal the size of a horse. You could keep them sedated, but that would also cause an astronomical rise in likely colic problems. I believe it was Ribot who was so aggressive they were never able to send him back to Europe as they were planning on doing.

If they can't get his aggression under control they won't be able to shuttle him. Tate Gallery (full brother to Sadler's Wells) and Shark (Danzig - Surfside) were 2 stallions that had to be put down in flight because of freaking out on a plane, they were afraid the horse was going to cause the plane to crash.

[FlyToTheStars]

I guess i wouldnt understand why they would kill a horse when they r freaking out on a plane. I recall reading an article talking about that and that it is not possible for a horse to cause a plane to crash. Yes, the article said that....

Why wouldnt they give enough tranquilizer to knock them out?

[BaroqueAgain1]

Maybe they couldn't trank them because they couldn't safely get close enough to them to inject them?
I believe that there have been considerable improvements in the way air transport horse boxes are now constructed, allowing vets access to a horse's body without stepping inside the box

[Green Desert]

I guess i wouldnt understand why they would kill a horse when they r freaking out on a plane. I recall reading an article talking about that and that it is not possible for a horse to cause a plane to crash. Yes, the article said that....

Why wouldnt they give enough tranquilizer to knock them out?

There's also an issue of sedation working on a highly panicked horse with adrenaline pumping through its body.
As for a horse causing a plane to crash, it isn't quite that simple. Sometimes these flights have up to 30 horses on them, each weighing over a thousand pounds. As herd animals, if one horse is panicked and thrashing around, it could very well start a chain reaction and 30,000 lbs flailing around would very much affect flight safety.

[Flanders]

I guess i wouldnt understand why they would kill a horse when they r freaking out on a plane. I recall reading an article talking about that and that it is not possible for a horse to cause a plane to crash. Yes, the article said that....

Why wouldnt they give enough tranquilizer to knock them out?

I don't know that was just the reason I had read about both stallions. I don't know that there are even articles to find. Tate Gallery was before the internet and I didn't hear what happened to him until many many years after he died. It actually may have been Shark dying this way that led me to find out that was how Tate Gallery had died in 1990. Searching the internet for Shark doesn't work very well but it doesn't appear Bloodhorse has any articles.

[Green Desert]

I looked up Shark on Pedigreequery after I read the above comment, and they list that as his cause of death. (Going to Valenzuela, I think?)
I'm wracking my brain right now to remember the name of one stallion euthanized in flight for trying to savage another stallion on the flight, but am coming up blank.

[Flanders]

I looked up Shark on Pedigreequery after I read the above comment, and they list that as his cause of death. (Going to Valenzuela, I think?)
I'm wracking my brain right now to remember the name of one stallion euthanized in flight for trying to savage another stallion on the flight, but am coming up blank.

Yeah Shark shuttled from Pin Oak in Pennsylvania to Venezuela. I thought he was a gorgeous horse. But then I've always liked that family, hence my forum name. I remember him collapsing on track after a race and really thought he was done for. But it ended up being heat exhaustion and they got him cooled down and he got up.

I know I read about Tate Gallery somewhere besides just the internet. Unfortunately I've read a lot of articles and a lot of books and the ones I thought it would be in that I checked, it wasn't.

This article mentions Tate Gallery was euthanized due to an airplane accident but was written in 2016.
https://www.blacktypepedigree.com/artic ... nine-years

[CorridorZ75]

I guess i wouldnt understand why they would kill a horse when they r freaking out on a plane. I recall reading an article talking about that and that it is not possible for a horse to cause a plane to crash. Yes, the article said that....

Why wouldnt they give enough tranquilizer to knock them out?

There's also an issue of sedation working on a highly panicked horse with adrenaline pumping through its body.
As for a horse causing a plane to crash, it isn't quite that simple. Sometimes these flights have up to 30 horses on them, each weighing over a thousand pounds. As herd animals, if one horse is panicked and thrashing around, it could very well start a chain reaction and 30,000 lbs flailing around would very much affect flight safety.

I think those travel stalls are not really that sturdy and a horse could do some damage to them in a panic. I don't know if this is still true, but at one point, I think the euthanasia decision was the pilot's. Depending on the length of the flight and the state of panic, some of the sedative would be wearing off pretty quickly as well.

[Green Desert]

I guess i wouldnt understand why they would kill a horse when they r freaking out on a plane. I recall reading an article talking about that and that it is not possible for a horse to cause a plane to crash. Yes, the article said that....

Why wouldnt they give enough tranquilizer to knock them out?

There's also an issue of sedation working on a highly panicked horse with adrenaline pumping through its body.
As for a horse causing a plane to crash, it isn't quite that simple. Sometimes these flights have up to 30 horses on them, each weighing over a thousand pounds. As herd animals, if one horse is panicked and thrashing around, it could very well start a chain reaction and 30,000 lbs flailing around would very much affect flight safety.

I think those travel stalls are not really that sturdy and a horse could do some damage to them in a panic. I don't know if this is still true, but at one point, I think the euthanasia decision was the pilot's. Depending on the length of the flight and the state of panic, some of the sedative would be wearing off pretty quickly as well.

The stalls are a lot different now. The horses travel in a reinforced steel box, much like a horse trailer, including windows on the side. The boxes have wheels on them and they are moved by conveyor belts, ensuring a smooth transition for them.
I had the chance to see the process when the WEG horses flew here and was in awe. (And 67 horses on the flight-wow.)

[FlyToTheStars]

I saw the article quite a while back and havent had any luck finding it. I came across one pacer that was hacked to death with a fire ax

https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=MT19650507. ... N--------1

[TurfLover]

Having followed this forum for years I joined just to post that link so I could hear everyone’s opinions!
I hadn’t heard anything about him being difficult from his time on the track...worrying that he’s only 5 and already showing behaviour that severe!

Welcome to the forum!

Yes, welcome! We hope you stick around and contribute to threads.

Thanks!
It’s interesting reading the behaviourist’s recommendations. It’s a shame that the best and brightest stars in our sport live most of their lives in semi-isolation when they are curious and social animals. I’m sure there’s a stud in Germany (possibly where Jukebox Jury stands) where stallions run with mares as some sort of quality of life improvement. It will be interesting how Spendthrift manage it and if it leads to any change in how they manage their other stallions.

[TapitsGal]

Freedom Child and Boys at Toscanova have become Korea's latest imports