# Pasturing gelding with stallion?



## torthorse (Mar 23, 2015)

I have a mature stallion, 5 years. He was bred to my mare and the gelding in question would be his son. The colt will be gelded in July and I was wondering if it would be better to keep them separate or if they could stay in the same pasture with no trouble. They don't fight now and the mare is in there with them. I have heard horror stories of stallions and geldings when mares are involved, and I have heard the other end of the spectrum also. Any advice welcome, thanks.


----------



## SueC (Feb 22, 2014)

If they are already together, play it by ear. If horses have already socialised in a particular group for a while and there is sufficient room for them not to be cornered if one chases the other, the prognosis is often good, as long as you're not trying to run two stallions in a herd (in wild horses, it's generally one stallion per herd of mares, and the rest of the males form bachelor herds).

Just observe them very carefully as the gelding grows up. Trouble usually doesn't develop in one big bang, but gradually, if it's going to develop. Keep the stallion occupied and in physical work if you can, too - this helps prevent aggression fuelled by frustration and boredom, and overly boisterous play with other horses.

Generally problems with stallions develop because they are under-socialised from the start, and never learn how to behave cooperatively in a group. Your stallion sounds like he already knows how to get along with his little group.

One of my areas of interest is rehabilitating stallions who have been kept in social isolation and don't have social skills. It involves gelding the stallion unless you want to breed from it. My riding horse is a late-gelded stallion (at age 11) who some people who knew him as a stallion were betting would never run peacably with other horses. It was a gradual process, but he was running with other horses without major incidents within 18 months and is now perfectly congenial (although also herd leader) in a mixed group of four horses and three donkeys. The group also includes another late-gelded stallion (at age 17).


----------



## Cherie (Dec 16, 2010)

No way to predict. Some stallions develop a great animus toward gelding and will literally 'chew up' any gelding they are put in with. Other only pick on one gelding out of a group. They are all worse if mares are around to keep them stirred up.

I have a little palomino stallion here now running in with 5 mares -- three of mine and two belonging to his owner. [He is a son of Dunit With A Twist out of a Doc's Sug mare.] You cannot run him with geldings at all and have to have an electric fence to even have them across a fence from any geldings. This is a little strange in that he was run with geldings as a 2 and a 3 year old after breeding mares both years. He was fine. He is 'broke to death' and has been shown a lot on Ranch Horse and Foundation shows and is perfect under saddle. You just cannot run him near geldings in a pasture. 

My old stallion (now 17 years old) can be run with one or ten of them when it is not breeding season. He just acts like another gelding out there. He never even lays an ear back at a gelding across the fence from him in the middle of the breeding season and I could probably run him with them year 'round.

There is just no way to tell. But, I do know they can be nice and just turn on a gelding overnight.


----------



## Saddlebag (Jan 17, 2011)

The stallion is just coming in to sexual maturity so there's no predicting how he will react the next time the mare comes into heat. He has no idea his son can't perform and will see him as another stallion to drive off. You do run the risk of the gelding getting crippled or killed because he won't have the strength to fend of an older stallion that is driven by raging hormones. Even in the wild herds of many species the time comes whereby all the younger males are driven out.


----------



## SueC (Feb 22, 2014)

If a colt is gelded very early it won't display sexual behaviours for the stallion to react to, for one thing. Sometimes it is going to work and sometimes not, and there are things you can do to make it likely to be a good outcome - such as keeping your horses in roomy pasture. Most often the problem is that domesticated situations don't allow enough room or distractions for the animals to accept each other - and that animals aren't raised socially.

It is very unlikely that your colt will be killed or maimed by the stallion if you play things carefully, and in our experience, there are cues you can pick up for early intervention to make sure trouble doesn't escalate.

If you'd like to have a look at actual social research on horses that covers these kinds of questions, I recommend Marthe Kiley-Worthington's "HorseWatch - What It Is To Be Equine." Kiley-Worthington is a trained biologist working in animal behavour, and our own experiences with horses pretty much match hers.


----------

