Stallion is "Just Not Into Her"

[IronwoodFarm]

I am curious if other stallion owners have ever run into this issue while.

My stallion happily field breeds as well as hand breeds and collects for AI. Fjords come in different colors although most are the same color he is, brown dun. But he has bred red duns and grey duns as well. He was less enthusiastic about our late white dun mare, and he is downright indifferent to our current white dun.

I appreciate that horses do have opinions. But it is odd that she is being receptive on a 35 follicle and he is responding kind of “meh.” When the vet was out yesterday for her U/S. we tried handbreeding. He just wasn’t into it. No evidence at all that he is covering her in the paddock.

Today we took him for collection. I brought along a brown dun mare who is always delighted to see him since he was picky about the vet’s mare last year. He was thrilled with the brown dun mare and collecting went lickety split. His traveling companion was disappointed, but she does not need to be bred at age 22. Semen taken to the farm and put inside white dun mare who now has a 40 follicle. Hormone shot given. He goes out with her for company and is much more interested in grazing.

My vet says “he just doesn’t think it is a good idea to breed that color of Fjord.” I wish I could say the mare was mean to him or difficult, but really she is fine. Not slutty, but certainly not unwilling. But he doesn’t want to drop and take care of business with her. So it looks like I am doomed to doing AI with her since he is not cooperating. I am seriously thinking of trying shampoo in color next year to see if the color is really the issue.

He has bred all my brown dun mares (3) and has been working on a grey dun regularly. I just find it odd that he is so darn picky. Their 2017 (AI) foal is lovely and a white dun, too. He lives with his mares and foals and routinely babysits and plays with his foals. No issues with the foal at all. I guess the mare is just not his type.

Anyone had this happen with their stallion?

[Highflyer]

We had a TB stallion when I was a kid who wouldn’t breed gray mares. Someone else told me that they knew one with the same issue and that they believed that gray horses smelled different, which I sure haven’t noticed.

[IronwoodFarm]

Could be smell. He has been picky about what mare is used when being collected in the past. I have seen him look at the mare, then look at the vet and sigh. Last year he would not collect using the vet’s pony mare, a chestnut I believe, but definitely not a grey. We had to return with a brown dun Fjord then and that’s why we were prepared this year. He was very enthusiastic about her; no libido issues at all. Fortunately this is not a huge problem as white duns are rare and he is unlikely to see another as an outside mare.

[BAC]

One year while attending Rolex KY, I went on a private tour of a few of the top TB breeding farms in Lexington and we were able to watch several breedings. They mentioned that one of the stallions we saw would not breed to a particular color mare (I can’t remember what color he didn’t like) and that in order to get those color mares bred they had to use a sheet and neck cover in a different color. Since these are TBs, no AI allowed.

[khall]

Lol! Yes, stallions can be picky. Go figure. Have handled one that had definite ideas on color preference and REALLY liked a mare that had foal at side.

[skydy]

I have seen this problem as well. Though it was a long time ago, I worked for a breeder and was a junior rider and general factotum. Her Arabian stallion was very sought after (though belonging to a small private farm).

He would not mount a grey mare. Period. It was a difficult problem. No A.I. at that farm at that time so everything was tried, without success. There were so many grey Arabian mares…

[NancyM]

Yes. My TB stallion was not keen on chestnut mares. It took some convincing and encouragement to get him to get the job done. “Coloured” mares were his favourate… anything with flashy markings. He learned on an appaloosa, she was his first love.

[skydy]

I think the problem should be more easily dealt with now that A.I. is common.

With live cover there is only so much you can do.

I can’t blame stallions for having their standards.

Most of us have an instinctive and definite draw of the line somewhere, as far as attraction to the opposite sex is concerned.

[Scribbler]

Before I knew her my paint mare was bred to a grey Andalusian who apparently was not interested in pinto mares, and I believed they used a teaser mare and switched at the last minute? He had refused other pintos. There arent pinto andies but the quarter horse Andie cross is popular here. Foal was born pinto now grey.

[Lynnwood]

Knew QH stallion as a kid who would only breed colored mares. Paints , pinto’s app’s all ok. Plain solid colored were a no go. So they fooled him with baby powder and body paint as needed. Did the trick

[kt-rose]

A very long time ago I worked at a TB farm in Lexington Ky and took a lovely mare to Seattle Slew three times…he would have nothing to do with her…owners gave up and had to send her elsewhere to get her bred. Lovely bay mare, who knows, he just didn’t take to her. The boys are entitled to their opinions !!