Study: Pasturing Stallions Together is Possible
Pasture breeding mares is something of a dying art in the equine industry. Yet this technique can bring with it benefits for breeders large and small. | Photo: Photos.com
Long-term study results from Switzerland continue to show that under certain conditions, stallions can successfully be pastured together, and the researchers supervising the experiment have issued recommendations on how breeders can implement this practice safely.

In 2010 The Horse described a bold, pioneering experiment at the Swiss National Stud, in Avenches, which dared to pasture five breeding stallions together during their off-season. Handlers were ready with equipment to intervene in the event of conflict, but that was never necessary. The stallions established their own hierarchy in their little “bachelor herd” and lived together in apparent contentment for six months.

Three years later, the national stud farm is still keeping a herd of “bachelors” every year (the herd even grew to eight in the second year), which continue to get along just fine, according to Sabrina Briefer Freymond, DVM, MSc, a researcher at the Swiss National Stud. In fact, she said, even though her research on the herd is now complete and was recently published in the journal PlosOne, the National Stud has made the process “routine” and will likely continue pasturing their stallions together each year.

“None of the stallions ever had to be removed from the herd because of injuries resulting from interactions between them,” Briefer Freymond said

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