A Baby Boomer Dreams of Arabian Horses - The Maiden Season Part 2

Part 1 of the Baby Boomer Series

Part 1 of the Maiden Season

That's what I was thinking all right! "Geez, MiKael, just get it over with!" as I opened the stall door and proceeded out with the young stallion. Just standing in the stall holding the young Arabian horse wasn't making me feel any better. The only thing that was going to get my stomach past doing the flips was to just get this thing done.

The vet and his wife had already gone over a list of breeding do's and don'ts. I wasn't supposed to go straight up behind the mare, in case she might kick out. Instead I was to approach at an angle towards her left hip. When leaving the mare for whatever reason, I was not to turn the young colt in such a way as to have the two horses butt to butt. That was to prevent him from kicking the mare. Those seemed to be the biggest issues I could remember.

There were also the things like not letting him get in front of me where I might get kicked. All of the usual safe leading issues applied. So, or course, that meant I shouldn't let him drag me to the mare. I wasn't supposed to let him take a flying leap at the mare either..The whole idea was to take the young horse quietly up close enough to the mare he could maybe talk to her a little and then mount on cue. Sounds good, doesn't it. If it only worked that easily, I would be most relieved.

You see, young stallions raised on farms rarely, if ever, get to see other horses breed. For those people who think horses don't learn by watching other horses, well, I can tell you they most certainly do everything from bad habits like cribbing, to opening stall doors. They absolutely do.

So when young horses don't get to see other horses breed, then they really don't know what they're supposed to do or how they're supposed to act. All they have to go on is their instinct. For maiden mares that can mean being afraid of the stallion rearing up over the top of them to mount. For maiden stallions ,to put it bluntly, they're not even sure which end to breed. All they know for sure is their instinct is to jump the mare. Get close and jump! That leaves a whole lot of holes in the information and can make for some exciting and sometimes dangerous drama.

As I said in the last post, I was worried about Legs's enthusiasm. I was pretty sure the young horse was ready to take on this new aspect of his life. He'd been talking like one of the big boys for quite some time. So it did surprise me a little when he walked cautiously up to the mare.

The vet and his wife were both there giving me instructions. Jodee was holding her mare, Kurra. Dave was, well, Dave was someplace else. He didn't want to be involved if he didn't have to and he was hoping he would never have to.

So it's all looking pretty good except for Dave hiding out. The horses were in close proximity to each other and neither was trying to kill the other. For me, that was a big plus.

While Legs started off cautiously, Kurra's acceptance of his attention had bolstered his ego a bit. The young stallion began to get a bit wiggly as he dropped but wasn't really being pushy yet. I could see all that energy bundled up inside as the horse barely walked in place.

The distance and position from the mare were right. Legs was still being good and listening closely. I decided to raise up my hand and move it towards the mare just like we'd discussed, the cue to mount the mare.

Well, the young Arabian horse mounted all right! Only not quite how any of us had ever imagined. The maiden stallion was so excited he leapt onto the mare. And I do mean LEAPT! Even today in my mind's eye the scene plays in ever so slow motion as I see "the horse leaps up high into the air and ever so slowly sails..........through the air..........."

Yes, that's right. He leapt so high and so far he completely cleared the mare's back and body and landed well......strattling her neck. That's right, her neck. There the young Arabian horse was piggy back on Kurra's neck of all places, two legs on one side and two legs on the other with his face right about even looking down at hers.

That poor mare looked at Jodee, then turned her head ever so slowly and cautiously and looked up at the horse on top of her and then l just as slowly and cautiously she looked at me, all with a look of pure disgust! Plainly written on her face for all to see,
"Oh, no, not another one of those stupid, stupid maidens!"

Slowly she turned her head back into the forward position and stood there patiently waiting for us to "get that stupid maiden stallion down" from his perch atop her neck.

Now, Leg's might be a stupid maiden stallion just like Kurra thought! But he wasn't so stupid he didn't realize he'd done wrong here somewhere! The expression on his face was as priceless as the expression on hers! He looked at her face to see if he could read what she was going to do. He looked at me to see what I was going to do and then he looked at the ground. With a deep sigh he rested his head on Kurra's neck and waited to be rescued.

Have you ever thought about how you would get a horse extricated from a spot like that? Probably not, you say! Well, none of us had either. The logistics are pretty unusual, to say the least. Fortunately, the young stallion was no longer excited enough that we had to worry about an extra appendage. But getting him down off of the mare, what would we do?

To be continued.............

Part 3

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