I sold a very handsome little jack, Brisbane ( Brizzer ) to June C..... from Virginia, a very experienced horsewoman and a breeder of Exmoor ponies. She had him for almost two years..
One day, she was leading one of her rare Exmoor mares ( maybe, 500 left in the world ) from a paddock to the barn, when Brizzer got down on his belly and crawled under his well constructed fence. This was a four board 2 x 6 with heavy wooden posts. 
Brizzer jumped the mare, and when June tried to get him off , he bit her.. Severely, bit June and the mare.. It was so bad, she had to go to the emergency room for stitches.. Her husband called and said that Brizzer was no longer welcome, and what did I want to do about it? I had sold the donk to them with the "right of first refusal", so I told him to put the donk on the first van to Ohio, and I'd pay all expenses.. They are "good" people and could have sent Brizzer to any of the auctions sales to get rid of him.
She had no indication that the donkey was anything other than the sweet little guy, she played with every day. It came as a total surprise.. June handles her stud and hand breeds her mares with him, so, she is no rookie in the breeding business.. Still in all, she'll carry the scars on her arm, all her life. 

The thread to all the stories is, the incidences come as a complete surprise to the owner..
 

**********************************

Kathy

Savage means with malice aforethought.  When they savage they intend to kill, not mame and they will go for the neck.  Jacks are not for everyone.  They are not like a stallion who could be bullied into submission.

Here's an example:
A friend of mine was attacked by her jack as she was bringing her gelding horse out of his stall.  She thinks now that the jack was going for the horse but got her instead. 
He crushed her vocal cords and her jaw.  After many surgeries, she is doing OK now.  She used to like to sing but can no longer do it because of her voice changing.  She is lucky to be alive as the paramedics had a hard time controlling the bleeding from her throat.

This story has a double sad ending as the next day the lady's husband shot the
jack. 
 

*********************************

Sandra Connely,The Donkey Store

(.......)even with Paycheck, we are very careful and always respect his masculine tendencies. We have had 15 hand mammoth jacks make pretzels out of heavy pipe corrals. We had one large standard jack that had killed a saddle horse before we owned him. One large jack put some serious teeth marks on a young goat that slipped under his fence and invaded his territory. And one standard jack had made a routine of killing javelinas in his pasture before we got him. 

Do we respect them? You bet.  Would we keep a jack because they are more active and energetic? No. The only reason I can see for keeping a jack entire is if they are breeding quality and going to be used for that purpose and owned by people that are experienced and understand the responsibilities of maintaining a breeding animal. There are too many jacks that are not breeding quality that wind up being used for that purpose

**************************

Subj: jack attack
Date: 6/26/99 
From: Lee Schuler-Workman

One more jack story.
I went over to play with Festus this morning and the farmer who is keeping him told me about what just happened to another farmer that I buy hay from.  He has a gorgeous mammoth jack that he uses to make mules with. 

He had brought home an appaloosa mare and was taking the jack to the breeding pen to breed her when the jack got excited and bit down on his right shoulder and refused to let go.  He was by himself and had a heck of a time because he had just broken some ribs on the left in a 4 wheeler accident and couldn't even hit the jack with his left hand. 

He ended up biting the jack's lips and got him off of him.  The rest of the breeding proceeded smoothly.
He has a heck of a huge nasty bruise and some nasty bite marks.  First time the jack has ever done anything like that, usually a real nice boy.

It can happen
Lee

***********************************

Leslie, Shady Lane Farm
 

My husband and I have had Quarterhorse, Belgian, Percheron, Haflinger, Large Standard and Mammoth breeding programs over the years and  the majority of our  studs were loveable, sweet and easy to handle until BREEDING SEASON!!! 

Then they turned into entirely diffent animals.  Fortunately, we raised most of our studs and spent a lot of time on ground manners and breeding manners and almost always hand bred. 
Still, I have been run over, slammed into a wall and bit by testosterone-laden studs.  I have even been chased around a corral by an adorable, take-treats-out-of-my-mouth-jack when he escaped the "teasing pen". 

But the scaredest I ever was when we took our mammoth Shady Lane Pistol Pete out of his enclosure and approached the breeding area for his first time.  He went ballistic and I thought I was a gonner.  Even with a stud chain and breeding muzzle he became so aggressive and threatening that he was retired from fatherhood after one foal and was gelded.  He now is my most favorite equine on the place and has regained his lovable reputation. (......) 

Our vet was personally attacked and injured by a jack and he has related many stories of jack/stallion attacks.

As we too are now just Mom and Pop breeders, we always geld the jacks before selling them.  They are much more likely to stay at their new home.

Leslie

********************************