Hi Monty,
I would like to know how you work with stallions and how you keep them focused on their job, not breeding but competitions. I have worked with stallions most of my life and am very knowledgable about them in the breeding aspect and riding/training but I am just starting now with competing on them. I have a 6 year old stud who came off the track last year and I am looking to futurity him in barrel racing, here is the problem while he works great at the barrels he often gets distracted like any normal stallion does, when a new horse comes in to the arena. I would like to know how you would keep him focused in a new environment and how you would work with him to stop him from calling to every horse, and possibly dropping when he is not asked to. I know these are all natural behaviors and for the most part do not bother me but they do bother other people. I have heard many people say to jerk on him with a chain around his nose and to whip him when he drops! These things are mortifying to me! My stallions are in the dually halter alot and respect me very much but I'm looking for some more guidance in respect to competitions, like shows or futurities/derbies. Thank you very much for any advice that you can give.
Jen
Dear Jen,
I don't know if my ideas can be of any help to you, I too used to work with stallions,(I am based in the UK)and competed a couple of them in Endurance up to International level. I was fortunate in that I had several of them from birth(a distinct advantage).
I do not like a noisy stallion and believe it upsets other animals,of either sex, that are in in close proximity, so whether in-hand or under saddle whenever my entire called I would "school him" backwards for several paces or spin him tightly in both directions. (this was long before i had heard of Monty or his methods, but was still non-violent). Either correction acted as a distraction and brought the entire's attention back to me and what I was asking of him. Equally when being ridden out if his attention was taken by a near-by horse I would regain it by asking him to leg yeild or give me a transition of pace.
As regards an entire dropping I was told many years ago that it was impossible to maintain an erection and back-up, so once again he would just be asked,not schooled, to back-up. This worked fine, I guess it was just another way of re-directing his attention.
Yet another trick I believe I learned from Linda Tellington Jones when standing in-hand, if the entire 'drops' one can insert a thumb into his mouth(in the position of the bit)keeping ones palm flat against his cheek and quietly massage the roof of the mouth-hey presto everything is put neatly away. All of these behaviours are much easier if taught as a foal, but older entires can also benefit from them.
My best entire would refuse to cover a mare if he had his 'riding' not his'covering' bridle on(really useful if one accidently parted company on the trail). Hope you are able to find something useful amongst my ramblings.
Val.
Thanks for your suggestions. My stallion is 6 (had him since birth) he is off the track and when he is saddled and working he is not distracted by any horse nor does he call out to any. It is only when another horse calls to him or he sees a new horse that he calls just like any other horse would if he's being led or tied, but because he's a stallion most people say that he should be disciplined and is not aloud to express natural tendancies. Also he does not drop unless he is relaxed much like a gelding would, it's not in response to a mare being around or anything like that he is just relaxed. He is being used for both breeding and riding and I would just like to know if there are easier ways to make him focus on work when there are other horses around in paticularly mares. When he was on the track he wasn't bother by them because he likes to work but now that he is off the track and doesn't have a huge focus and he is now breeding he can get distracted much like a little kid would. I would like to know some tricks that when he is taken somewhere new like a show or competition how to keep him focused on his task and not on the 100 other things going on around him.
-Thanks again!