French Roast

These are the Jack barns. The first one has two water cooled stalls, the feed room, and the tack room. The second one holds five jack stalls and is cooled by fans in the summer and insulated by the big hay loft above. It has a dirt floor and cedar shavings. We still think the jacks do better in dark barns. They are let out summer and winter in the morning to get sun and exercise. We have horse walkers and corrals for all of them. When the flies come out or it is cold and wet they are returned to their clean stalls to hear country music. All stalls have their own piped in water and feed holders. Although the big jacks can not reach each other they enjoy the company. We think that they are sociable and learn to breed from each other. This s not to say that they would not fight if they were allowed or that some of them might not bite and rough up teen jack foals. All our breeding is done by hand. We don't think jacks do as well at their job of breeding jennets, being collected for cooled semen, breeding our mares, and that huge jenny herd is always there for future generations, if they are stressed by heat, cold, or flying critters.
The young jacks are kept over by the horses and have their first experiences with them. We feel that all young jacks should be taught to breed horses first. We often send them to Kelly's. Her place is an all horse property and her experience with breeding animals will teach them good manners. We can eventually get most jacks to breed mares and jennets. However it is a professional's job. The jacks develop a relationship with the handler and will cooperate with all the games. They are the most intelligent of the equines and will do things with people if they have never been mistreated. It takes patience and they don't like changes. They do not naturally breed mares if there are jennys around and easily available. For the beginner I think you would be better off to have a jack for one purpose or the other. If I can tell you one thing that will help you with jacks it is that they know exactly what is going on. They knew it the first time you let them find out about it. They will always be able to do it if they want to. They will be able to do it better all the time. As they mature they have great understanding and patience. This is not to say that they will put up with every thing you want every day but perhaps most of it. The only one we have had trouble with was Pacer and he just wanted to add to the program all the time. Instead of pulling the cart over the bridge he jumped cart and all. If we wanted him to breed a mare (all right but I want to have A-Males") I don't want mine. He is very fiery and was five before he matured enough to win in Louisiana. This is the time when most of them finally begin to be dependable. If they have bad habits someone taught them by allowing it to happen the first time and to correct them you must give them new ones that are more interesting. This is a large operation and they are on regular feed schedules. We feed whole oats, coastal hay or oat hay, and a bit of Horse and Mule. We like the Morman or Growstrong quad blocks. We raise all the oats and sudan. The floors are sprinkled daily with a new product that kills odors and bacteria. We need to be careful with feet. One of our men has been with us for 18 years and the other for 20 years. I guess none of us like changes. We shoe and trim ourselves and use one of the best equine vets in this area. He lives right across the road from us and collects our cooled semen, keeps shots up to date, sews up occasional tears, does horse and donkey reproductive work and generally sees that we know enough to keep these herds healthy and fertile.