Fall came and ... well, it was 2006, so the fall stayed through the winter. Thira slowly calmed down, although the family often agreed that if Valentin had been gifted with Thira's temper, a castration might just have been preferable. In the meantime Valentin really blossomed. He got a bit braver and more adventurous, though he still followed closely behind Thira. As the non-winter came to an end the time approached for the anticipated surgery, and in mid-February Valentin was sent with Thira for company to Ansager Animal Hospital for his vasectomy. The price of this was quite affordable, at only three times the price of a castration, and a week later the little ones were returned home.

I have in connection to writing this article attempted to contact Ansager Animal Hospital again to get their description of how the surgery went, but they have not replied back yet.

It was two somewhat shocked foals that came home from the hospital. Their stay in a strange stall, among strange people, and the transport back and forth had been a bit more than they could handle. Valentin all but stopped eating for the first week after coming home, and Thira only nipped at her grain now and then. It wasn't unusual to come out and find the food buckets virtually untouched. Hay went down a bit easier, but they both managed to lose several pounds before the mood and appetite returned. By mid-March they were a pair of trouble makers again and gaining weight.

Valentin was ordered stall rest by the vet, which would mean he'd be all alone and abandoned for ten days, since Diana's hocks swell if she stands still for too long. And since Diana is the herd's leader, the others would follow her out. Eventually the stable was closed off with all four inside, so they could at least walk around a bit, and since there was total peace in the herd I wasn't afraid they'd start kicking each other. Ten days later the doors were opened again, and the joy of the reunion with pool of mud we called the pasture was great. Like I said, this was the winter of 2006/2007, where every pasture in Southern Jutland was flooded.

Finally spring came, with longer nights, warmer days, dry weather and sprouting grass. The horses were allowed to stay out longer and longer. During this time the roles started switching between Thira and Valentin. Where Thira had so far been the dominant of the two, had always set the pace, had always decided when to play and not, it now started to be Valentin leading on, and unfortunately that power got a bit to his head. To start with he just nipped her a bit at random, but it turned into him chasing her around the pasture. Funnily I never got out to separate them - because every time I started putting on my shoes, Diana appeared out of nowhere to pry them apart, sending Thira into the stable and Valentin out to the pasture. Then they could each stay there and cool off, while she blocked the stable entrance. This repeated itself two or three times, and hasn't been observed since.

Near the beginning of April Diana, still the undisputed leader of the herd, decided that now she didn't want to sleep indoors anymore. This came suddenly after the big pasture, which had been allowed to stand untouched while the grass grew, had been re-opened. April offered wonderful weather, warm and dry, and as the month went Valentin started showing interest in the girls, if still not a lot. A bit of flehmening here and there, but that was all. On the 28th Thira celebrated her first birthday, and just a couple of days it dawned on Valentin why the mares suddenly seemed so interesting. Now the whole show was put on, with great interest in tails and what lay beneath, flehmening constantly, and three days later, on April 23rd, he lost his virginity to Diana late at night.

In these days, as Valentin truly found out his own gender, everyone paid close attention to his behavior. Did he get rougher? Did he turn aggressive? Did he fixate his thoughts on covering? Did he turn impossible to handle? Did he stop eating? No, quite the contrary:

He was still just as gentle; one night I went to check on the horses, he ended up sleeping in my lap for 45 minutes - and even after that long I had to force him to move, because it was getting late. While I sat with him in my lap he started dreaming, and it turned out he talks in his sleep, so to speak. At least the hurring, low nickering, which is usually used to convince a mare to raise her tail, revealed what he was dreaming about.

There was no aggression to find in him. The closest would have to be when he chased the dogs out of the pasture, but that was a game they'd played for months by then, so I didn't care much about it: He chases the dogs out of the pasture, the next second they chase him back towards the middle of it, and they can go on back and forth several times like that. They never hurt each other.

Fixated on covering, then? Countless times, the first day Thira was in season, she'd stand ready for him with her tail raised, and almost just as many times he'd walk right by her. It wasn't him, who could think of nothing else, but her, which again came as a bit of a surprise. Any concerns that he'd be rough during mating were put away as well, as he turned out to be both gentle and careful.

How about impossible to handle? ONE of the prejudices had to stick! But no, for the first time ever he was taken on a little trip in a lead rope outside the pasture, and he actually behaved better than Linda had done the day before. The mares were taken out after turn to teach him that they could leave the pasture without him being allowed to interfere, but to avoid him feeling overlooked, he also got a little walk.

But the food? Stallions forget all about eating when mares are nearby, right? Actually not. In reality it made me very unpopular with Thira when I stole his attention by asking if no one wanted breakfast. Valentin immediately forgot all about her and came trotting in to find his food bucket.

So as things are now the dream really has come true. If his gentle nature doesn't change drastically as he grows older, which I have a good feeling it won't, then Valentin, Diana, Linda and Thira now all have a life far closer to what it'd be in the wild. They have a herd as it would've looked on the plains, and they each of them seems the happier for it.

In time the herd's life will possibly be different from life in the more traditional domestic herds, which only consist of mares or geldings, who have nothing to do with each other, or in still rarer cases mares and geldings in the same herd. Valentin's life will most probably be far different from what most stallions are used to. I can say beyond doubt that I will be watching for any changes and developments as they happen, that I'll document them, that dreams just might become reality - and that castration is no longer the only solution.

If there are specific questions, problems or points of general curiosity you would like to have answered, you are more than welcome to send me an email - they will be answered in the next article.
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Huertecilla schreef op zaterdag 7 juli 2007, 9:52:



Het paard belasten voor plezier, overbelasting van het paard leidt tot ijzers. Een goed bedoelde kwaal alleen vóór het plezier van de mens.
Wat is het belang van het paard? Vraagt de persoon in kwestie dit zich wel af?

Jacqueline v d Berg schreef op zondag 8 juli 2007, 23:20:


Gevaar van internet en forums. Laatst nog iemand persoonlijk mogen ontmoetten die door iedereen als kwaadaardig en dierenbeul werd omschreven, in feite een goedhartige vrouw die precies weet wat ze met haar paarden doen en die zeker niet haar paarden beschadigd. Schrijven op een forum, achter ieder bericht zit een mens.

Vele vergeten dat.

Hey Piet,

Ik ken iemand die op Carlos heeft leren (manege in Purmerend) rijden en die graag met je zou willen mailen. Zou je er bezwaar tegen hebben als ik je mail adres doorgeef? Nog gecondoleerd, hij heeft een mooie leeftijd behaalt en heeft het zeker goed bij jou gehad.

Groetjes Chantal