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