We do pasture breeding and hand breeding.. i prefer to do hand breeding for more accurate dates, but have let mare and stallion pasture breed. But of course mare was in full standing heat.

We only breed one mare at a time. mares and stallions can get hurt too easily when they are all trying to get the 'attention' they want.

we try NOT to breed on foal heat. first we see if the mare is receptive with baby at her side, if not, we wait until she is completely comfortable and then hand bred them on the next cycle.

Our stallion is our babysitter. when the foals are old enough to play nice we put them in with the stallion. He loves babies and he has NEVER hurt one yet.. of course that is not to say he won't because they are so unpredictable, but he is a big luv bug.

We keep our stallion out with the mares and geldings and babies. i have always heard it is the worst thing you can do to pen them up in a stall by themselves. They are herd animals so are used to being in a herd situation.

We do leave the mares out with our stallion. he has been present for each of the foalings... we moved a mare out from there about three days ago now because she is close and he knows it and won't leave her side. better to be safe than sorry...then we will put her back out with him when the baby is a couple of days old.

hope this helps.