We are a culture that loves "best of" and "worst of" lists. Recently the thoroughbredchampions.com bulletin board had a thread/discussion on who were the 
meanest stallions in history. What a fun read! Here are the worst of the worst from that thread. No doubt there are other evil studs that weren't mentioned. Do you know of any?
The baddest boys in racing
- Beau Monde "killed a horse on a flight, bit someone's thumb off, broke a hotwalkers arm in three places, picked his groom up by the middle of the back held him in the air and shook him like a rag doll, and bit me in the chest so hard that I could feel the blood running down my shirt."
- Bold Bidder
- Catrail "pulled a stallion man over his paddock fence and tried to kill him"
- Corslew (attacked his owner)
- Danzig "killed birds in his stall"
- Devil His Due
- Display "worst post horse in history"
- Dixie Brass "bit groom, took a chunk out of him"
- Dust Commander
- Dynaformer "has bitten off fingers"
- Festival of Light "put manager in the hospital." Gelded due to temperament.
- Grey Sovereign
- Halo "psychotic.."
- Hastings "terror of the studmen"
- Nevele Pride (interview -- see last question)
- Personal Flag
- Ribot "only one groom could go near him"
- Round Table
- Scarlet Ibis "took off a groom's thumb"
- Seeking the Gold "a brute"
- Silver Ghost handlers "carried baseball bats"
- Sir Tristam "tossed a man over a fence"
- Southern Halo
- Spinning World (pictured above right)
- Watch Your Step "lived in a steel halter"
- Woodman
Bad boys in action
Sometimes pictures capture the badness, sometimes they don't.
Grey Sovereign
Close up of Grey Sovereign's head. Look at all the hardware!
Devil His Due. Naughty naughty.
Seeking the Gold
Dynaformer looking all sweet and innocent (don't believe it)[picture from Ballerina on TBchampions.com]
BTW, can we say "over at the knee?"
Wow, that was fun reading. I guess I have been really lucky with the stallions I have worked around!
ReplyDeleteSupposedly, my horse's (Toby's) sire, Pappa Riccio had a really bad reputation...dangerous biter, etc. His offspring often inherited his temperament too. Story was he either threw really bad ones, or really good ones. My Toby is a true gentleman, fortunately for me, although he does have flashes of temperament now and then.
ReplyDeleteHe is definitely a alpha horse and will not tolerate a challenge from another horse. But, bless his heart, my vet calls him "The Prince," and the name suits him when he's being handled.
LOL, I'll bet there's a list of nasty mares out there too! Mine was sure a mean girl!
ReplyDeleteToo bad temper isn't an important characteristic when breeding race horses. It would improve their lives after the track if they weren't superstars if they have a good disposition.
Some of those stories are brutal.
ReplyDeleteOne of the mares at work is a nasty piece of work, she took a chuck out of one of the grooms face once, and she would lunge at you when you walked past her box. The funny thing is, when shes in season shes and absolute sweetheart, but races poorly, when shes at her meanest she races her best.
My heart is breaking that Devil His Due is a bad boy. I loved that he was a hard knocking hard trying horse. I wonder if hard working horses seem to be the meanest of the bunch, limited turnout, pumped full of grain, and stallions don't get the interaction with other horses that they need to stay sane.
ReplyDeleteI worked a breeding farm with TBs and SBs, and the TBs were the higher strung of the stallions, but only one was a biter, but usually strangers were the target. The SBs were just big puppy dogs wanting scratches and carrots.
We had a big stallion leasing our stall for a while...besides all the biting and lunging he would climb into the feed bin, try to climb out of the stall, and all these other crazy antics. Boy was I thankful when his owners finally gelded him lol.
ReplyDeleteHe may not have been the meanest stallion ever, but he was no angel... Jet Pilot, a horse on my mare's pedigree, topped off his Kentucky Derby win by... kicking a policeman in the pants.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,855684,00.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvjULYAZNUs
ReplyDeleteMakes me sad to see so many bad boys. I wonder what got them to that state. I saw this amazing video clip featuring Klaus Ferdinand Hempfling. He seems to have quite a following and I like the way he works.
That was fascinating. Thanks for the compiling all those tid-bits.
ReplyDeleteHas anyone ever heard of a bad standardbred stallion?
I love Grey Sovereign - he looks mellow in the photo but the hardware shows his potential.
My mother met War Admiral in the 40's and she said he was very sullen and quick to anger.
I remember Devil His Due!
ReplyDeleteHuh, I thought, historically, Man O' War was known for being a very nasty bit of work, and passing on his bad attitude to most of his get.
This is crazy, who on earth would keep a horse like that around!?
ReplyDeleteIt makes me nuts listening to all the excuses and allowances people make for "studly behavior"; there aren't any. We bred our Lady to a gorgeous paint stud with an amazing temperament (the main reason we picked him). Every last one of his babies has the same easygoing and friendly demeanor.
ReplyDeleteI've watched Kempfling's video too Wolfie; he's awesome! (the DVD is on my wish list, but I do have his book: "Dancing With Horses").
Nevele Pride was a standardbred, but I think Standardbreds are known for a calmer temperaments in general?
ReplyDeleteWonder how much of that came with the horse and how much was put into the horse by mistreatment? Since temperament isn't taken into account with breeding racehorses, that's what you get.
ReplyDeleteI suspect they were confined a lot during their racing career, which can't have helped. Still, some of these guys are just bad to the bone.
ReplyDeleteThe thread also talks about nasty mares a little, at least they can't add that quickly to the gene pool.
I read the biography on Man O' War and he was a doll to his grooms and jockeys, it was his grand sire, Hastings who was the devil, see above, and father-Fair Play, who was also difficult. But as for MOW he was relative good for a stallion. And prob the greatest racehorse of all time considering he on every single race but 1-and he was sick when he ran that one. PLus he was never let loose fully-always ran with his head tucked to his chest. Crazy awesome!
ReplyDeleteI don't begrudge a stallion attitude, but I draw the line at out-and-out aggression toward humans. Spinning World makes me think of Hannibal Lecter. It scares me to think that the handler has a billy club -- the thought that his handlers/owners/managers allow it. It's not like the riding crop that you carry so that the horse sees it (and therefore you never have to use it). It must have been recognized that the guy might actually have to use it!
ReplyDeleteI just have to say that thank goodness at least one owner realized that the risk of passing on such aggressive temperment may not be worth it, kudos to the owners of Festival of Light for gelding him!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the info on Nevele Pride - that's the first bad tempered SB sire I've heard of in a breed renowned for being calm and kind. Nevele Pride was not a fertile sire, so he didn't have much chance to pass on his crankiness.
ReplyDeleteWe have to make some allowance for how the stallions are kept, and how it can warp their natural behavior & territorial agression, but we all know some horses are just MEAN. John Henry was gelded due to his temperament and he was crabby even in old age. So many TB's are total sweethearts, in spite of some "evil" stallions (and a few mares). Something is working out OK.
I like the anecdote about a groom who said Dynaformer made him "cry like a girl". Yikes!
ReplyDeleteWow, I had no idea some stallions could be so mean! ::shivers::
ReplyDeleteMakes you wonder why they're so mean....I've never seen a horse come out that way. Of course, maybe I'm just spoiled (or lucky). All I know is I sure would never breed to something with that kind of temperament, regardless of how much they win.
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile, over at the dairyman's blog, is there a list of the meanest dairy bulls? And at the sheepman's blog, a list of the "buttingest" rams?
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of Dynaformer "looking all sweet", check this lovely photo:
ReplyDeletehttp://tinyurl.com/y88qdl5
Here is the photographer's blog:
http://rockandracehorses.wordpress.com/
I know this is an old post, so it's probably too late to comment, but I can't resist. I knew one of the so-called 'meanest stallions ever' personally. We stood Catrail at the end of his breeding career (he passed away at 20 a couple of years ago). I don't know how he was handled in his former life, before he came to us, but a savage he was not! A stallion, yes, and I have a healthy respect for any stallion, but he was certainly not vicious when we had him and I hate hearing people say how mean he was. When we got him we didn't know he was meant to be nasty, and would never had know had we not come across it on some website forum. Go figure! I can't help but think that how horses are handled and the environments they live in have a huge effect on their temperaments. I can only be satisfied to know the 'Cat' lived his last years in a large paddock, in sight of other horses (not isolated like so many stallions) was handled by empathetic humans and respected for the magnificent creature he was.
ReplyDeleteWE MET CATRAIL IN 2000 IN IRELAND. HE IS A COMPLETE GENTLEMAN
ReplyDeleteWow, WATCH YOUR STEP lived in a steel halter, and was killed when he was struck by lightning in his paddock. Mean or not...his name should have been "Tempting Fate." RIP poor boy.
ReplyDeleteYour FOB Fren Otherlyn
couple comments- STORM BIRD- i was at ashford this past november and heardthe horror stories about him. groom told me that one day, he went into the farm managers pffice and said"im going home, because if i dont, one of us, is going to end up dead"..referring to SB.
ReplyDeleteHALO- gorgous horse, ironic how many of his descendants appear on the list. what i remember bout halo was i saw him at age 30. he was in a paddock, with a old, worn halter. i asked the groom about it and he said,"we wont go in his paddock anymore, hes gonna wear that halter, in that paddock till he dies"
Many folk seem to question why bother to breed from a stallion that can be aggressive. Answer is simple in as much as if you are breeding a coloured horse, then you can pick and choose. However, in the case of racehorses, who would throw out the likes of Woodman and Ribot because of their temperament? As TB stallions get older, their temperament may deteriorate but it may be their latent aggression that made them so effective on the track. Cadoudal was no saint but one of the greatest jump sires of all time. Some of his mares were nasty but his geldings were well behaved. Cyborg was a tartar but he was a very good jumps stallion. Pivotal can be rough with his mares but what a sire he has proved to be. If you did not breed from all the stallions that can be aggressive, you would lose a large part of the gene pool and some of the very best genetic material for producing race horses.Would anyone seriously suggest that Grey Sovereign should not have been used at stud or Dynaformer? The list is endless and there are many excellent stallions past and present whose manners are far from impeccable.
ReplyDeleteMy first horse was gelded before he met his first mare so he was sweet towards all the animals but my dad and my brother couldn't go into the pasture without me otherwise my gelding wouldn't hesitate to attack them but when he was a colt he bit my dad and dad slugged him one. After that, Blaze hated my dad and never trusted men. He was Quarter Horse, Arabian, American Saddle bred. He ended up being put down because he busted his ankle in a riding accident and the bones wouldn't heal right. there's a youtube video of a girl who broke her neck during a lesson. i fell off the same way and landed the same way but i came out of it with a nasty concussion and road rash my doctor said it was a miracle i lived not to mention no broken bones. My horse stepped on his fron leg with his hind leg and he still had enough love for me to try and get me to the grass before i fell all the way off.
ReplyDeleteI cannot believe Devil His Due is a bad boy i met him in Allen Jerkins barn while he raced and had my pics taken with him also met him this July 2011 and fed him a mint and had my pic taken with him he didn't even try to nip at me. The other stallions on the list i never met so i cannot say though i heard horror stories about Halo i just love him though .
ReplyDeleteGot to see Dynaformer in the Fall of 2011 at Three Chimneys, and he was extremely well behaved for his groom. He is huge! I've read that but seeing him in person, wow. He's a big boy. I was surprised how calm he was, he never flinched as he was being gawked at and photos taken.
ReplyDeleteFrom all I've heard and read, Round Table was only mean to himself. Had a muzzle so he wouldn't bite at himself, but not particularly mean to people.
ReplyDeleteJust wondering if all of these horses were born "bad" or made through unprofessional handling. If a young horse behaves in an aggressive or "playfull" way and gets a particular response it very quickly learns to repeat it ? Foals should always be treated as horses and not cute babies as it is often when this bad behaviour starts.They need to learn to respect humans and stay out of their space , it worries me when you see photos of small foals with their feet up on peoples shoulders !
ReplyDelete