Or at least it’s not a good idea.

Amy tried it on the TV series Heartland, and it didn’t work out well for her either.

My girlfriend was a little crazed after watching it.  “What is the matter with the writers?  Don’t they know that it’s just pure craziness, and no one in their right mind would do that?  Amy should have quit after she got the one stallion in the stall.”  Well it’s TV and that’s what happened to work for the show.  But, not necessarily in real life.

I’m not going off on how to handle stallions.  Some people just shouldn’t have them, because they are not knowledgeable enough.  You need to be a responsible stallion owner, and some people aren’t even a responsible horse owner.  Some stallions are wonderful, and you wouldn’t even know they were stallions.  Some are just bad, and need to have some body parts removed, so the brain can return to its rightful place.

But this really isn’t about stallions at all.  It’s about using the right equipment for the right job, and learning how to use it properly.

When I was a kid I asked the woman, who owned the barn where I grew up, what a certain piece of equipment was used for.  I had seen it at one of the major tack stores in Manhattan.  Her words stay with me today.  “If you don’t know what it is, you don’t need it.”

So many times I see people rush out and purchase the latest contraption for their horses.  They have no idea how to use it properly, don’t know if their horse actually needs it, and can do more harm than good.  As I’ve said before, a simple snaffle can become abusive in the wrong hands.

If your horse is having a problem, seek professional help.  Get the right equipment, and learn how to use it the way it was meant to be used.  But mostly educate yourself, and your hands, to use any piece of equipment properly, to the best of its intended use.

Years ago as I was driving along a busy interstate, I saw a “cowboy” (a person who watched too many westerns when he was a kid, obviously not Gene, Roy or John Wayne) riding along the road.  It was a really bad situation, and my heart went out to the horse.  He had a severe bit with a curb chain, bad hands that were hauling on the horse’s mouth to hold him back, a very short tie-down with a brain chain, which the horse’s head was up to the limit, and rowel spurs that were constantly digging into the horse’s side.  I just stopped and yelled (I was young and stupid and nobody carried a Uzi back then) “if you would get your heels out of his side, and get off his mouth, you wouldn’t need all that garbage on your horse.”  He just kicked his horse, and ran off into the sunset.  I don’t yell anymore, I’m more into making suggestions like “let’s try this and see if it works.”  People do shoot people over road rage now.

Bottom line is, don’t go buying the latest fads.  Determine what may help your horse to be better, and borrow this “thing” before you buy it.  Learn what it’s supposed to do, and learn the proper way to use it.  If it doesn’t work, you’re not out any money.  If it does, by all means, go out and get yourself one.

If you don’t know – ask.

If you don’t know what it is – you don’t need it.  Thank you Adele Franzreb.