tough/rogue/savage stallions

majxmom · Postby **majxmom** » Fri Sep 14, 2007 5:25 pm

I saw another vicious stallion once, a QH named Naughty Dream Bar. He was a good sire of halter horses, and a husband and wife stood him at stud on their small farm. The husband had to handle him himself. They were super nice people, the kind of people with whom you'd really like to be friends. One day, the husband was wearing a smaller T-shirt than he normally did, and I noticed that he had seven or eight really bad scars on his arms, shoulder, and neck. They looked like burns, with the skin rippled up on one side, and abnormally smooth on the rest of the scar. Being a teenager and therefore lacking tact, I asked him about the scars. He told me that the stallion had grabbed him one day by the shoulder, picked him up off the ground, and started swinging him around. He let go occasionally just to get a better grip. The wife had to come beat him off. I went to go visit their place, and sure enough, he looked really dangerous. They made a good bit of money on stud fees and foal sales, so I guess they wanted to put up with it. I lost contact with them, but I always wondered if that stallion ever got ahold of the man again.

Lucy · Postby **Lucy** » Fri Sep 14, 2007 6:50 pm

There used to be a local stud named Trench Digger who could be downright nasty....I heard he bit off someone's finger. :shock:

Oddly enough, of the foals of his I knew, all the colts were complete mush pots. His fillies, however, were tough as nails. He must have had one seriously cranky Y chromosome. :wink:

geowarrior · Postby **geowarrior** » Fri Sep 14, 2007 11:56 pm

I think Dynaformer and Smarty (injury) are the only two at Three Chimneys that are not ridden.

Festival of Light didn't make it all the way through his first crop before being gelded as he savaged a groom (don't know how badly). My horse Gear It Up is by Festival of Light and he is a bundle of love, any other progeny of Festival of Light that I have heard of are also apparently very easy to handle and don't display their sire's temperament.

Corslew of course was euthanized. I was always glad they gelded Festival of Light. I would surely love to know if they found him a new career.

Orphan Girl · Postby **Orphan Girl** » Sat Sep 15, 2007 3:21 pm

Halo still had lots of attitude while at Stone Farm. You could not have paid me to go near that stall door.

Drone was a bad actor. According to the grooms, he would take a chunk out of you if he had the chance. Tom Rolfe was to be left alone while out in his paddock.

When I visited Darby Dan & asked Ribot's groom how he handled him, he replied "We have us an understanding". His big smile said it all.

Not mentioned here, but Nijinski II would keep you on your toes. He seemed to enjoy snapping at unsuspecting tourists.

Mood Swings · Postby **Mood Swings** » Sat Sep 15, 2007 3:52 pm

I too have heard that Siver Ghost is ferocious...

A Fleet's Dancer was recently euthanized after savagely attacking someone....

Still Dreaming · Postby **Still Dreaming** » Sat Sep 15, 2007 8:16 pm

I'm surprised nobody's mentioned Display. He's been dead for a long time, but while he was alive he scared the living hell out of nearly everyone he came into contact with. Especially gate attendants. While at stud, Display wore a muzzle and sometimes chains on his feet. It's a wonder he never killed anyone.
War Relic stomped a groom to death and nearly killed a jockey by trying to throw him onto the track harrows. :shock:

Native Dancer was a regular bundle of laughs. One day a barn dog wandered into his stall. The Dancer grabbed him, swung him around, and hurled him out with such force that the poor thing bounced off the outside wall.
I've heard nasty things about Halo, but nothing like the above three.
Apparently, St. Simon was given a cat as a companion animal. It didn't last long.
Bull Hancock had to beat off Nasrullah with a broom when the horse was 27. 27!!!
And finally, Monty Roberts wrote about a stallion he used to own named In Tissar. He did all KINDS of nasty things, attacking people, savaging mares, the works.

cewright · Postby **cewright** » Sat Sep 15, 2007 8:20 pm

Still Dreaming wrote:Native Dancer was a regular bundle of laughs. One day a barn dog wandered into his stall. The Dancer grabbed him, swung him around, and hurled him out with such force that the poor thing bounced off the outside wall.

This is natural horse behavior towards predators. My lead gelding has killed a couple coyotes this way. Stray dogs enter my pasture at their own risk!

Chuck

Maven · Postby **Maven** » Sat Sep 15, 2007 8:21 pm

Not to go off on a complete tangent, but I had a mare who once killed and ate a chicken. I kid you not.

sunday_silence · Postby **sunday_silence** » Sat Sep 15, 2007 8:25 pm

Dynaformer stopped being ridden after he bit off that groom's finger and then-stallion manager Wes Lanter said it wasn't worth the risk of effing around with him in that way anymore. The man who lost the finger to Dynaformer works at Adena Springs, last I knew. Don't ask him about that horse!

SlewCrew · Postby **SlewCrew** » Sun Sep 16, 2007 6:44 am

Foolish Pleasure was much worse than Dynaformer,and Capote wasn't as bad as either one of them,though you would never want to take your eye off him,or he try to knock you down and then get his knees on top of you.

casallc · Postby **casallc** » Sun Sep 16, 2007 11:06 am

Orphan Girl wrote:Halo still had lots of attitude while at Stone Farm. You could not have paid me to go near that stall door.

Drone was a bad actor. According to the grooms, he would take a chunk out of you if he had the chance. Tom Rolfe was to be left alone while out in his paddock.

When I visited Darby Dan & asked Ribot's groom how he handled him, he replied "We have us an understanding". His big smile said it all.

Not mentioned here, but Nijinski II would keep you on your toes. He seemed to enjoy snapping at unsuspecting tourists.

I have first hand experience with a son of Drone, Zinov a gradded SW was the meanest horse I have ever handled. Seriously injured 2 stud handlers at breeding farms and scalped a student at Colorado State by biting the top of her head. Dr. Pickett at CSU said the horse should be destroyed before he kills someone. I think he was eventually just turned out for pasture breeding.

summerhorse · Postby **summerhorse** » Sun Sep 16, 2007 12:51 pm

SlewCrew wrote:Foolish Pleasure was much worse than Dynaformer,and Capote wasn't as bad as either one of them,though you would never want to take your eye off him,or he try to knock you down and then get his knees on top of you.

Apparenlty Foolish Pleasure mellowed out a lot when he was sold for the last time and got his own pasture and herd of mares. In short, allowed to live like a normal stallion.

Alydar wasn't exactly a pushover. =)

Mahubah · Postby **Mahubah** » Sun Sep 16, 2007 3:24 pm

Still Dreaming wrote:Bull Hancock had to beat off Nasrullah with a broom when the horse was 27. 27!!!

I remember reading elsewhere about Bull Hancock subduing *Nasrullah with a broom handle, but it couldn't have been at age 27 because *Nasrullah only lived to be 19 (1940-1959). One of the other Claiborne stallions, perhaps? I know they've had a number make it to a good old age, and not all of them have been sweethearts. Among the current bunch, Seeking the Gold gets healthy respect from the stallion men; the groom conducting the tour I was on said he's OK outside but is extremely territorial when in his stall.

Hastings, the grandsire of Man o' War, was said to have been a thoroughly vicious animal. August Belmont certainly wasn't breeding for sweetness of disposition when he bred Hasting's son Fair Play (himself a difficult and strong-willed horse, but not a killer) to *Rock Sand's daughter Mahubah -- *Rock Sand was a maternal grandson of St. Simon and was an extremely high-strung horse on his own account. Fortunately, Man o' War himself was no more difficult than most stallions, but War Relic was inbred 3x3 to *Rock Sand, so had a lot of pretty volatile stock close up -- I can't recall seeing elsewhere that he killed a groom as a yearling as reported in Laura Hillenbrand's book on Seabiscuit, but he was by all accounts a nasty customer. I understand his full sister War Kilt was also quite a handful, as was his "aunt" Masda (Man o' War's elder full sis).

Derring · Postby **Derring** » Sun Sep 16, 2007 3:26 pm

[quote="geowarrior"] Festival of Light didn't make it all the way through his first crop before being gelded as he savaged a groom (don't know how badly). My horse Gear It Up is by Festival of Light and he is a bundle of love, any other progeny of Festival of Light that I have heard of are also apparently very easy to handle and don't display their sire's temperament. [quote]

Actually, I saw him in August of his only year at stud. The incident and consequencal gelding happened sometime between that and November or December. It wasn't a groom that was savaged, but I believe the Stallion manager at the time. Anyway, I am very glad he didn't pass on his nasty temperment to your lovely horse, Gear it Up. He looks like such a love bucket!

geowarrior · Postby **geowarrior** » Sun Sep 16, 2007 4:10 pm

Thanks, I didn't realize that he actually made it all the way through his first crop.

It seems that a lot of the F.O.L. progeny don't take after him either in temperament or size, but are more in the A.P. Indy mode.

BTW Mahubah, in your discussion of nasty Man 'O War relatives, I believe you might have omitted Hard Tack, the sire of Seabiscuit. By all accounts I have read, he was no barrel of laughs. Mind you if he had to eat the stuff he was named after, it's no wonder he was bad tempered.