Not that horses are all that consciousness about privacy, but when horses are being bred it seems handlers are all over them.
Like this video. (warning horses doing it)
Why can they just let the two horses alone? Why all the ropes and human involvement ?
Well, left to their own devices, horses do occasionally injure one another whilst taking care of business. Sometimes those injuries are severe - and some horses are very valuable. I sure wouldn’t want my $100k horse to take a horseshoe to the face.
Also, there’s probably a big “control factor” for the human end of things… I mean, if you just turn 'em loose in a pasture together and hope for the best, you’re never going to be 100% certain of the date of conception (making it harder to predict when a foal will arrive, another dangerous occupation for a horse) and indeed, you can’t be 100% on “who’s the daddy” if you didn’t see it go down.
I think it’s really more of an issue with high-end horse breeders, though. The more valuable the parents (and the potential offspring) the more pomp and circumstance the owners will go through for the mating.
Ever heard the expression, “hold your horses”? Well there you go.
Instead of posting here, maybe you should ask Sarah Palin why you shouldn’t let your mares loose with the studs.
Things don’t always go as planned.
As much as anything else all those handlers and helpers are for the safety of the stallion. It’s not a horseshoe in the face you worry about, it’s a kick in the balls. It is way too easy for a mare that is not quite in the mood or a bit resentful about the neck biting or just feeling a bit kittenish to strike out with a hind foot while here partner of the moment is climbing on or climbing off. A stallion with a ruptured penis is pretty much cat food.
Or the leg, or the belly.
It’s my understanding that most high-end horse breeding these days is accomplished via artificial insemination. This is done, in part, because it means that you don’t need to have manage two large, potentially dangerous animals in close proximity to each other. A really cranky mare can even be sedated before the procedure.
The safety factor is an important one, but there’s one other thing to take into consideration: there are some equine associations that refuse to register offspring unless it’s the product of an observed, live covering (that’s why all the reports of “Barbaro was kept alive only long enough to get viable semen samples from him” are false). This primarily comes into play with TBs, particularly those that race at Derby levels. So you can’t artificially inseminate mom, can’t leave them in a small enclosed area for some private time, and definitely don’t want mom or dad hurt during the process, hence human involvement. Much faster that way, plus helps with the ‘date of conception’ thing.
I always wondered about whether they could have gotten sperm from him or eggs from a female (are they mares before gibing birth?) about to be put down. It would be possible to surreptitiously inseminate a horse and then cover her a day later with a stallion, right? Do they do genetic tests these days?
If I can tack on a question, I have heard of two male horses being used to impregnate a mare. The first- sometimes a gelding (castrated after puberty so he still has the urge but can’t impregnate) is used as a “warm up” to arouse and make her lubricate, but he’s removed before she climaxes. (I can’t imagine removing a horse mid coitus is that easy horse even if he’s a gelding.) After this warm up, the actual stud is brought in to seal the deal. Is anybody else familiar with this practice and if so what it’s purpose is?
I’m familiar with something similar being done when breeding a mule. Donkeys and mares aren’t naturally sweet on each other so the use of a gelding as a starter horse could get her juices going and convince the donkey that “an ass is an ass is an ass alas”. (Other times the mare is stimulated by hand to attract the donkey.) However, horses are naturally inclined to mate with other horses so I’ve wondered what the point of the the warmup horse in a stallion:mare coupling is.
Exactly.
In the horsey world, the girls are the ones in charge. They decide when, and if, they’ll mate with a particular stallion. Mares are smaller than stallions, on average, but they are still large, powerful animals–they’re good at running, they’re good at kicking, and they’re good at getting their own way.
Thoroughbred racehorses must be bred the old fashioned way or are ineligible for racing. So that’s definitely one area where AI is NOT used.
How would they know, I wonder. Does the breeding have to be documented or filmed or anything?
Love the guy holding the mare’s tail taking the cel phone pics.
“This is so going on Facebook!” 
What would be the point? Most of the money you make racing a stallion is in selling his services.
The only articles I’ve read that mention teaser stallions mention them as being used to judge the receptivity of the mare. That is, the mare and “an inferior stallion” are placed in adjacent enclosures. There’s a sturdy, high fence between them and they’re walked along near each other. If the mare isn’t interested, won’t even look at the stallion, she’s not at the right place in her cycle yet. They don’t waste the superior stallions time with a mare that’s not ready.
This is just articles, though, I don’t have any personal experience breeding horses.
Just watched that video. Damn, I feel sorry for that guy’s kid when he asks about the birds and the bees. “You’ll meet a nice girl and you’ll want to do stuff, so that’s when she gets a friend to hold her hair while one of your friends makes sure you’re in the right position then holds your manhood and directs it and…”.
The most graphic depiction of a horsebreeding I’ve read in literature was in the novel- Tom Wolfe’s A Man in Full. It goes for about 15 pages. In that one the mare’s head is held in a stock, the teaser horse is a fully hard stallion who’s being held at bay by stablehands (extraordinarily dangerous job obviously) so there’s no penetration but they bring in the stud only after she urinates on him.
There are pages missing from the online version, but if you’re interested it starts at about page 278.
“Foaluffers”
…
Why the restrictions on conception? What difference does it make to the horse-folk how the little runner was conceived?
“Teasers” are horses they pass by the mare to see if she is receptive. Only a mare in heat will conceive. When a mare in heat is near male horses they display their recepivity in certain obvious ays (lifting the tail, “winking” the vulva and squirting goo).
The teaser definitely DOES NOT mount the mare, just stands near, and uh, the female equine orgasm is not an important part of the process.
Its to control production. A stallion can only cover so many mares in a season before he’s plumb exhausted; an much larger number of foals are possible via AI.