So I know what straws are, but why would you use them? The only use I could see for them would be to have after the stallion can't breed or is gelded, but otherwise why not just do live covers? Unless there is a limit to the amount of live covers a stallion can do per year/season or doing live covers affect their showing performance or something?

There is a limit to how many LC's a stallion can give. (20 is the limit)

That's one reason, others include more money, determining who/what gets to breed him, no more LC's. Some stallions are never up for LCs as well, so those are only straw use. The only downfall is that they are sometimes hoarded (Not used) and the owner of the stallion doesn't get the full amount of straws at retirement.

Oh ok, I understand now. Thank you all for the help :)