In the latest chapter of When a Pony Calls, there's a bit of dialogue that indicates stallions are second-class citizens where legal rights are concerned. Something about gelding and a month in the stocks for hitting on a mare who didn't appreciate it. Yeah. But it got me wondering: what is the deal with stallions in Equestria? So I turned to Science! (or statistics, in this case).

General observations from the show:
-Stallions make up about 20% of the adult population in any representative crowd shots, both in Ponyville and Canterlot.
-Stallions make up 80% of the construction crews in Ponyville.
-Stallions make up 50% of the Wonderbolts
-Stallions make up effectively 100% of the Royal Guard (or Army?) rank and file

Case 1:
Assume Equestrian families follow those of actual horses, as in Xenophilia and other fics (no link, as it's NSFW). Mares make up about 20% of ponies with dangerous occupations. Stallions are part of herds containing 1-4 mares per stallion (allowing for the monogamous families shown on screen) or may be single (or gay). If this averages out to 2 mares/stallion in herds, and we assume that stallions make up 30% of the adult population (1.5x those shown in group shots) we get this:

In a sample of 100 adult Equestrians
-20 stallions live in towns
-10 stallions live in barracks, mining camps, etc. for most of the year
-68 mares live in towns
-2 mares live elsewhere for most of the year

-12% of the population is monogamous (accounts for families shown in episodes)
-6 stallions are not in herds (20% of stallions, 6% of the population)
-10 mares are not in herds (14% of mares, 10% of the population)
-47% of stallions have especially hazardous or demanding jobs, as compared to 5% of mares

Case 2: All ponies are monogamous. The sex ratio is around 2 stallions to 3 mares.

In a sample of 150 adult Equestrians
-20 stallions live in towns
-40 stallions live in barracks, mining camps, etc. for most of the year
-80 mares live in towns
-10 mares live elsewhere for most of the year

-at least 30 mares are not married to stallions (20% of the population, 33% of mares)
-74% of stallions have especially hazardous or demanding jobs, as compared to 12% of mares

Case 3: As in case 2, but with a human-like sex ratio of 45 stallions to 55 mares

In a sample of 175 adult Equestrians
-20 stallions live in towns
-60 stallions live in barracks, mining camps, etc. for most of the year
-80 mares live in towns
-15 mares live elsewhere for most of the year

-at least 15 mares are not married to stallions (9% of the population, 16% of mares)
-80% of stallions have especially hazardous or demanding jobs, as compared to 17% of mares

TL;DR: The more human-like we make Equestrian society, the more life has to suck for stallions to account for what we see on-screen. The pegasi are relatively egalitarian (mares are more maneuverable, so they do dangerous stuff too), but unicorns and earth ponies aren't. Be glad you aren't in Equestria, especially if they have messed-up laws.

There may be a story in this. To paraphrase Fight Club: "We plow your fields, we gather your resources, we defend your borders, we give you foals. We guard you while you sleep. Do not fuck with us."

I statistics

Going off the assumption that they're anthropomorphized to the point of being monogamous humans trapped in strange bodies, I feel like it's not a matter of being second-class citizens, what with Equestria being a magical land in a child's TV show. Equestria is just a magical land in a child's TV show in which all the women are badasses and all the men are more reserved versions of Saxton Hale.

Pic related, is Rule 63 Fluttershy.

Or it could just be a children's show targeted towards little girls? The majority of characters are female, because females can relate to other females(Oh my, that was redundant).
Or maybe all your crazy statistics are true, and Lauren Faust is a genius who puts too much detail into her creations.

460593 460648
LOL. I just got wondering how to make the numbers work with the observed sex ratios. Seriously, they can't maintain a stable (ha!) population with the show's numbers and family makeup. Unless they breed like rabbits (and they obviously don't) there have to be more stallions somewhere, and the Guard and REA can't hold all of them. If we don't run with the herd idea, there has to be a lot more stallions around, even though we almost never see them, and that makes for some interesting social issues. If I throw in the cracks about "finally giving stallions the vote" and gelding that a lot of fics like to toss in as off-hand jokes from characters, it gets even more interesting*. Assuming I can come up with a good ending, I've got a dark-ish story kicking around in the back of my head to flesh them out, based on Case 2. No, I don't think show!Equestria is secretly some sort of dystopia. It's just that over-analyzing fictional universes is fun!

*Seriously, women's suffrage got interesting enough, and they weren't the backbone of industrialized civilization at the time. Imagine a world where they were running transportation, defense, manufacturing, commerce, etc. and got as pissed off as they did in our timeline. That's a serious case of Not Good.