Freedomhall and Future are Dogwood Sport Horses' stallion and mare who have been living together in their natural environment as a herd on 60 acres. Freedom knows instinctively when a mare is approaching estrus. He caresses and woos her, but lets the mare tell him when she is ready. As her most fertile time approaches, he may feign attempts to mount her, but always from the side. If she is resistant or unreceptive, he has put himself in no danger. If she is ready, she will swing her hindquarters toward him, and he will move into breeding position.
For twenty years Sherry Smith has imported champion dressage European warmbloods as a foundation for the dressage and jumping stock she breeds.
Dogwood Farm followed standard breeding practices until they bred a magnificent black registered Westfalen stallion colt that they named Freedomhall.
From birth he exhibited a particularly calm, sweet temperament, and Sherry and her sister, Monica Flynn, made a bold decision. They had always abhorred the constricted lives that breeding stallions live. And, of course, owners of expensive horses dread the possibility of injury resulting from a breeding incident. But they raised Freedom with the idea he would lead a natural life for a stallion. When Freedom was a yearling, they bought another yearling stud colt for him to live and play with, and when Freedom was past two they put him out to begin running with the mares that he was intended to cover.
It was all done on faith. Monica says “Our primary motivation in the “experiment” was to create an environment where our horses could live together on their 60 acres in as natural a setting as we could provide them. Right now Freedom has a herd of four mares, and he has never put a mark on any mare. When a mare is ready to be bred, he has never shown any aggression or dominance toward her. She tells him when she is ready; he watches and listens. He has never had the opportunity to 
learn from observing mating behavior, it is instinctive.
Freedom has been with these mares all along so they feel a real bond with each other. He enjoys his companionship with a mare. He licks her legs and breathes her mane. When he is breeding a mare he has such a soft eye, and he caresses her, standing afterward with his head lightly across her back.”
“My own mare, Future, was considered to be barren, and she had been running with Freedom and the other mares since last spring. She wasn’t cycling during that time. One day last summer, she was on lead in the pasture but got away.
Freedom tried to get her to stop running, but she ran from him all over the acreage until he eventually cornered her in the lake. All he was doing was getting her to submit to his direction; he never touched her. Standing there in the lake, Future started softening to him. It was truly a symphony.
Then he was attracted to our human activities near the house and walked away from her over to us. She trotted after him of her own will!
In December she finally allowed him to complete the mating cycle…in the lake where he first wooed her.
This is a sensitive mare who seemed to be frightened of the breeding act, but Sherry and I have both noticed that Future seems more confident in herself, with a certain new look in her eye, and she is behaving in a more assertive way with the other mares.”
Until Future and Freedom came together, Future was pronounced barren. Monica had spent several thousand dollars trying to inseminate Future artificially, and all attempts failed. Monica was very disappointed since she had been hoping Future’s superb athleticism could be passed through her foals. Monica and Sherry finally turned her out with Freedom so he would have her constant companionship when clients’ mares were taken home. Future’s former owners were apparently not 
aware that she had Caslick’s sutures in place, and at that time she had the traumatic experience of having a stallion whose frustration got the best of him, try to breed her with the sutures intact. Even years later, she understandably seemed afraid of the breeding act. But Freedom courted Future for nine months without pressing her, and she fell in love with him. Finally, they came together.
Wildlife and range ecologist, and equine behaviorist Mary Ann Simonds has studied wild horses in the field for 30 years, and comments that there is a 100% fertility rate in wild mares because they live with and know the stallions. She believes that when stallions and mares know each other and “pasture breed,” the equine conception rate is near 100%. Simonds suspects that many domestic mares are infertile to one degree or another because they haven’t been able to bond with the stallion before breeding takes place.
All photos are by Sherry Smith of 2007 Dogwood Sport Horses. Photos & text taken from article by Kip Mistral of The Horse Connerction.
Read the magazine article of Future & Freedomhall (PDF) - Love Truimphs,
courtesy of Kip Mistral of The Horse Connerction. See the first magazine article The Secret Life of Stallions: Fathers and Husbands (PDF), also courtesy of Kip Mistral of The Horse Connerction.