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Collecting off of a
mare |
Collecting off of a
phantom This is a 16 hand stallion on
a 5 foot long phantom. Our SMS Breeding Phantom is 6
ft long. |
The above pictures
show the two main ways of collecting a stallion. There is a
third method , which is from the ground. Someone either holds
the stallion or you can cross-tie the stallion to collect him.
I don't recommend collecting off of the ground unless your
stallion is physically unable to collect off of a phantom or it is
done only occasionally. As with any method of training, your
stallion responds to certain stimuli and responds accordingly.
In a normal breeding environment that would be the mare. With
the phantom, he learns to respond to the phantom and possibly mare
urine if you use that. If you ground collect what do you think
that stimuli is? It is you and what you hold in your hand (the
AV). My stallion began "talking" to me, even if he saw me
walking by his pasture carrying a gallon shampoo jug. Looked
good enough for him. Needless to say, this became very
annoying, so several breeding season ago, it took 3 of us to
"retrain" his brain. He would get reprimanded for any
reactions he made to us "the collectors" and was only allowed to
react to the phantom. As he had been ground collected probably
100 times it took a lot of repetition and collections for him to
start having the proper responses. He is now a breeze, and I
collect him by myself again, but it took 3 of us to retrain him.
Collecting off a
phantom is BY FAR my preferred method. Start him right
and keep him right. By having a phantom to use, the stallion
has a stable support for his body which makes it much easier and
safer for the person doing the collecting.
When you collect off
a mare, you always are taking a chance of getting kicked by or
accidentally stepped on by the mare. Several times I have been
collecting off of a mare, and she repositions herself, right on my
foot, with the stallion on her. Talk about heavy and
impossible to move until they are done. I have also been
kicked several times by the mare especially during the dismount when
the stallion is done. For these reasons, I feel the Breeding
Phantom is the only way to go.
If you would
like to see some breeding areas set up and ideas on footing -
click here.