Mating behaviour follows a clearly recognisable pattern: the mare is courted by the stallion with behaviour designed to impress, such as a prancing trot, galloping, whinnying and pawing the ground. The initial greeting is followed by sniffing of the flanks and genitals, whereby the stallion assesses the mare’s breeding status. This process is known as checking. The flehmen response allows him to draw scent molecules deep into the vomeronasal organ and thus to analyse them. If the timing is right, the stallion mounts the mare and covers her, completing the mating act.

The long mating foreplay with driving, posturing, genital checking and the flehmen response takes much longer than the mating act itself and optimises its timing.