I hope you are not offended by this question, and that you will find time to answer it if you know anything about it or maybe could refer me to someone else who might have heard of this fairly unusual advice. My boyfriend was afraid to write to you about it, so I will.

Recently my boyfriend met an old-time horseman who found out we had a 2-year-old stud colt. This guy was eager to share some man-to-man advice on horsemanship and getting this colt started out on the right track. My boyfriend said that this old-timer was the kind of guy who talked the talk and walked the walk of “the cowboy who has done and seen everything,” but at the same time made you wonder, if you know what I mean. What this guy told my boyfriend had to do with controlling tough studs–like getting them to settle down and submit. He said that the best way was to just tie them up, and somehow flip them over onto the ground so they can’t get away. Then he said you “get into them pretty bad,” don’t worry about hurting them, and when they give up from exhaustion, you stand over them and urinate on them. My boyfriend’s first reaction was to tell the old guy he was nuts. The man explained that he was serious, and that it works because that is what stallions do to each other in the wild–beat up on one and urinate on him as the ultimate humiliation.

What do you think ? Have you ever heard of such a method? Is it true that stallions beat up on another until one can’t move and then urinate on him? It sounds like a sick “man” thing if you ask me.       via e-mail

First, I am not offended by your question. Until a few years ago, I had never heard of a method that included the urination, although the immobilization and beating is a sad old-timer technique. At that time, I met a guy like the one your boyfriend met. He had a similarly shocking method. I found him both interesting and physically intimidating to me personally. A twist to his soapbox was that this was yet another reason why women were ineffective at training and handling stallions, in his opinion. And let’s hope our experiences are in fact with the same man, and that he doesn’t successfully convince any horsemen to carry on this method with a colt or stallion