I am not originally from the equine industry and originally did not have any connection to horses. - Except that I have always liked animals very much. I have a Matura (Swiss admittance to university) and my parents were both biologists. After the Matura I wanted to emigrate to the US as a young man and thereby worked as a horse groom and in doing so, got to know and love horses. After returning to Europe after that, I didn't want to do anything else anymore. All in all, I worked about 3 years as a horse groom in this manner in the US, in Germany and in Switzerland.

To my surprise it sometimes occurred thereby that stallions (and sometimes also mares and geldings) reacted sexually towards me. This is a well-known phenomenon among professionals in the care business. This happened for instance when I was grooming or massaging horses for their owners, when I wanted to clean their box stalls, or when I just said "hello" and let them sniff my hand. Sometimes even completely without any doing of my own, for instance once when I was supposed to take a stallion for a walk.

I explain this behavior, which often doesn't show towards the horse's owner, or not so clearly, by the fact that I have or had another position towards the horse. Animals, especially horses have antennas for such. Sometimes very sensitive ones. As the not-owner, perhaps I am perceived as less dominant and commandeering by the horse than the owner who is responsible. That strongly accommodates especially male sexuality, which has a big problem with dominance. In addition to this there's my empathy, my big respect and lastly also reverence for horses. I believe that horses feel all this, and that sometimes they like it, or rather that they can react to it.

Stallions are my passion and making animals happy, especially also horses I always experienced as a deep satisfaction, as a big enrichment and as an actual calling. That doesn't mean I can't assert myself towards horses. Especially with stallions you must be able to do this, especially if they are kept wrongly and not appropriate to the species. Otherwise they might walk all over you or things might even become dangerous. Despite this, I always said: "If horses had money, I would be a millionaire by now!"

When I was in a massage parlor a little while ago that also offers erotic, or rather sexual massages, just to try it and have myself get "served" for once, I asked the young masseuse who had laid her hands on me (a 26 year-old Romanian that had not been chosen by me), if she didn't mind making unknown men happy in this manner? She replied to me: "No! This is my passion! This is what I like to do. In life, you have to do what you have a passion for!" I believed her when she said that, because when I told her that I sometimes ask myself whether or not women actually have as much pleasure and enjoyment from sex as men do, she told me that she herself also likes sex very much, and that she actually wants sex every day!

I'm Swiss, I live in the area of Schaffhausen, am well-educated, a vegan / vegetarian, and I've always felt very strongly for animals. I campaign for animal protection and animal rights, and for nature conservation. I was the first (in the world) who wrote and published an article (or rather a very detailed instruction) how to keep adult stallions appropriate to the species in group instead of castrating them. That provoked the Swiss National Stud to do a scientific study on this about 2 years later, which in the end confirmed everything I had written in my article: Namely, that adult stallions need not be castrated, but can very well be kept appropriate to the species in a group, together with other stallions. Just like in wildlife, in so-called "bachelor" bands (in which there are also old stallions). I added the link to the study below.

When I first claimed this everyone and everything that had a rank or name in the horse industry, well-established horse breeders, veterinarians, riding instructors, etc., even Monty Roberts told me that were completely impossible! I were crazy to even think about not castrating stallions and keep them appropriate to the species in group with other stallions instead. With such an idea I would only prove that I don't know anything about horses. I should better be quiet! In any case, I proved with this that I'm not native to the traditional horse industry or equestrian world and that I don't hold traditional "knowledge" in high esteem that is directly at the expense of horses.

Pattern of Social Interactions after Group Integration: A Possibility to Keep Stallions in Group
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0054688