Handling Your Stud Males 
When we first started using our own male over our females I found that I often ended up in wrestling matches with the male.  Whether it was because I wanted to shorten the mating session so I could use him over another female, or because we were doing a spit-off and the female was spitting so it was time to separate them, it always seemed to me that I was having to man-handle a 100kg hormone crazed male and I decided there must be a better way or else I was going to get hurt one of these days.

A simple solution presented itself and I could have kicked myself for not having used it right from the beginning.  Now, before I let my male into the pen with my females, I make sure he has his halter on.  I unclip the lead so that it doesn’t cause any problems, but when it’s time to separate the pair, I just clip the lead back on then handle him from the other end of the lead - giving him some room and time to disengage, then lead him away.  He is no less willing to be separated from his “girl”, but I can achieve the desired result without all of the man handling which is much better for all of us. 

This obviously only works for "hand mating" / "pen mating" and where your stud has been halter trained - which makes for a really good reason for halter training your boys early.

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 The information presented here is from our own experiences, adapted from others to suit our situation, property and our animals. We don’t claim to be experts and you are welcome to disagree, if you find something useful – great. Everyone is welcome to comment and provide feedback – see Contact Us.