Stallion management on breeding facilities – a questionnaire

Abstract

Under wildlife conditions, stallions live in social groups whereas under domestic conditions, most breeding stallions live in individual boxes with limited social contact. This is a welfare issue and known to stimulate aggressiveness stereotypic behavior (De Oliveira and Aurich, J Equine Vet Sci 2021;107:103773). There is an increasing interest in improving stallion management and stabling with the aim to avoid such welfare issues. The aim of this study was to collect information on the worldwide situation regarding handling and housing of stallions used for breeding. We hypothesized that stallion handling practices and housing differ among regions. For this purpose, veterinarians and stallion managers were invited to respond to an online survey presenting several questions with regard to the breeding facility, stallion management, handling and housing. Statistical differences among geographic regions were compared by chi2 analysis (IBM SPSS 28.0). There was a total of 115 responses from breeding centers located in the geographic regions North America (12%), South and Central America (37%), Europe (41%), Middle East (5%), and Oceania (5%). The centers housed 1-3 (35%), 4-6 (29%), 7-10 (12%) or >10 stallions (24%) of various breeds. While stallions in 18% of facilities bred by natural mating only, the majority underwent semen collection (n.s. among regions). In most facilities, semen was collected from each stallioneither 3 times per week (37%) or on demand (46%). Stallions were housed in stallion barns (52%), or mixed barns (48%) with social contact being visual only (64%), visual and tactile (25%) or animals having no contact to each other (10%). Visual and tactile contact of stallions, however, was allowed in more (p<0.01) facilities in Europe (45%) than in other regions of the world (0 to 21%). On the other hand, the time stallions spent in their stables differed among regions with more (p<0.01) facilities stabling stallions all day in Europe (48%) and the Middle East (83%) than elsewhere. Stallions underwent training or were exercised more frequently (p<0.01) in Europe (89%) or North America (86%) than in other geographical regions (42 to 50%). In 64% of facilities, stallions took part in horse shows with differences among regions (p<0.01). Only 9% of facilities stated that they keep stallions together in the same pasture or paddock (n.s. among regions); 24% of the facilities had experienced accidents (some of them very serious) when stallions had been kept together (n.s. among regions). The results demonstrate that housing and management of stallions differs among geographical regions. Improving stallion welfare therefore requires different approaches depending on the country or geographical region and their tradition of horse management.