21/06/2026
Before Blu was gelded (and before he became mine) he was kept in two unique settings. The first was on his own in a paddock because, despite the YARD being ok with a c**t, the other boarders weren't prepared for him to be kept with their gelding because he was "intact and would be aggressive". He became more and more of a handful. We then sent him down to Heartfelt Horsemanship who had three stallions in a herd together with plenty of space to roam. He spent two years there growing up - happy as Larry and such a pleasure to be around. All of the "issues" he had had when he was kept on his own disappeared. Unsurprisingly. My thoughts on this... if you're going to have a stallion, please make sure his needs are met - friends to play and connect with, freedom to move and explore, and a variety of good quality forage to munch on 24/7. I promise you'll have far fewer hassles than if you keep him on his own.
It’s a pretty unique experience getting to watch stallions interact in settings where they’re around lots of other stallions, entirely unencumbered by human control and expectation.
Watching the Alberta Wildies and their herd interactions has been incredibly educational and reaffirming.
I’ve already had a lot to say about people’s perception of stallions and how they should be kept in domestic settings.
Domesticated stallions are often isolated and live lives where their most basic needs go unmet. This lack of socialization creates problem behaviours that are then used to justify their isolation.
In natural environments, stallions live amongst each other.
Fights may occur due to resource guarding, but they coexist a lot better than what many people tend to think.
I think a lot of horse owners have become so far removed from witnessing natural horse behaviour and how horses are actually meant to exist that their perceptions of horses aren’t actually rooted in the reality of how horses exist as a species.
Instead, their belief systems are rooted in perceptions that are influenced by abnormal behaviour and inadequate care practices.
The view of what a horse is meant to behave like becomes centered around the human experience of interacting with so many stressed horses who are kept outside the realm of species appropriate care.
TLDR, here are some things I witnessed in stallion interactions in the many hours I spent watching these herds this weekend:
▪️ lots of play and friendly interactions
▪️ bachelor bands with bonded stallions
▪️resource guarding of mares that resulted in posturing and VERY short lived “fighting”, largely comprised of warning shots with very little contact made
▪️ Biting and kicking and contact made during some squabbles but this wasn’t the go-to even in non-friendly interactions.
Of course, I witnessed a small picture of their lives and I’m not speaking as an expert on the whole of all of these horses experiences .
But, studies on free roaming herds also reaffirm this perspective.
Horses in free roaming herds fight a lot less than people think.
Stallions befriend other stallions and coexist amongst other bands without as much “blood bath” as what people think.
They don’t just resort to an immediate blood bath when they come across another male horse.
They often try to de-escalate.
Closing thoughts:
The only reason stallions in domestic care are so commonly kept in isolation is because of human belief systems and the problems that they influence in stallions.
NOT because it’s normal for stallions to be alone.
We need to do better and we could improve practices by using free roaming herds as a reference for horse behaviour and herd interactions.
Horses are meant to exist in groups.
This is an indisputable fact, even if it makes some uncomfortable.
Pictured: a stallion with fabulous hair who was living in a pair with another stallion who he was friends with.
I have so many pictures and videos to share from this weekend and will be doing lots of behavioural mark ups in the coming days but wanted to share something tonight.
I think that a good learning experience for ALL horse people is to spend a generous amount of time just watching horses exist in a variety of settings.
Watch stabled horses and see how they interact.
Watch poorly socialized horses and their behaviour.
Watch established domesticated herds.
Watch free roaming herds.
Develop a more informed perspective of horse behaviour that does not solely exist in the vacuum that is the insular community of horses you’ve grown up in.
