# Is It Too Late to Geld?



## vivache (Jun 14, 2009)

Nope! You can geld ANY horse.

I wouldn't wait with him, personally.


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## maura (Nov 21, 2009)

Absolutely not too late. I've owned horses off the track who were gelded at 4 and 5.


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## damnedEvans (Jan 23, 2010)

I really don't think it's to late. We gelded a stallion who was 12 years old and he is very nice now, fairly well mannered, without any stallion behaviour at all. We gelded another one who was 18 years old. It's to soon to say something about him yet because we gelded him just 2 months ago and he still acts like a stallion.


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## qtrhrsecrazy (Aug 2, 2009)

It's never to late to geld.. good stallions make better geldings. Old timers will tell you that it takes one month for every year the 'new' gelding is for the testosterone to leave.. so him being 3 would be 3 months for him to be a complete gelding.. I'd give him 6 months lol


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## Creztina (Oct 1, 2010)

I've read some things and studies that there were times that gelding didn't have any effect at all but the chances were small. Can't remember the exact figure. Heard it would take a year for the testosterone levels to drop. Thanks. Shall be reading more.


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## qtrhrsecrazy (Aug 2, 2009)

As long as your vet is a good vet and gets the epididymis it will make a difference


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## corinowalk (Apr 26, 2010)

Even if it has no real effect on his mentality, isn't it worth it knowing that he wont break fences and breed without your knowledge? 

We had a stud gelded at 19-20 a few years back and his behavior stopped almost as soon as he was healed.


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## Soul (Nov 23, 2010)

It's not too late to geld. It will make a difference. Stallions that are gelded usually settle down. They still may act studly at times, but they will not be as difficult to handle and as aggresive as they were before. If he is gelded, the testosterone won't "take over." I think it's better to geld so nobody gets hurt.


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## Alwaysbehind (Jul 10, 2009)

Never too late to geld.


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## Yoshi (Feb 6, 2011)

My horse who is now rising 9, was gelded as a three year old. He was never bred from but sometimes he can get a bit excited and flirty, not with mares but when there are stallions around.
He holds his tail high, whinnies like mad and prances about and that's about it.

Your boy would take a few months to calm down I would have thought but the sooner you do it the better it will be for him, by the sounds of it!


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## loosie (Jun 19, 2008)

Ditto to the never too late to geld! While learned behaviour won't go away automatically, lack of hormones usually helps make it milder so you can work on desensitisation better. But whether or not he gets much better, it sounds like this boy's genes aren't worth passing on anyway, so definitely geld him IMO & he may make a nice gelding.


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## smrobs (Jul 30, 2008)

Yep, never too late, even on one that has covered mares in the past. One of our horses was gelded at 5 and he had covered quite a few mares before that. I can't say how long it took for him to start acting like a gelding as this was many years ago, but he ended up being one of the most trusted horses on our place. He would happily pack kids or beginners wherever they wanted to go.

My thinking is, why keep anything a stud if he isn't worthy of breeding or if you have no plans to breed.


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## wyominggrandma (Nov 4, 2009)

We gelded a 12 yr old stud this past summer at the clinic. He had been injured, we had to cut the tip of his penis off and reroute his ureter. He still wanted to breed the girls, so as soon as he was well enough from the first surgery we gelded him. He was acting like a gelding in pretty short order, and he had bred numerous mares before that.
Never too late to geld.


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## Cherie (Dec 16, 2010)

We gelded a 20 year old that had been used a lot for breeding. He was one of the best lesson horses I ever owned. I used him until he was 31 years old. It took him about 3 weeks to act like a gelding. 

We gelded a 9 year old ourselves a couple of years ago. He was our 'teasing stud' and he was useless for teasing within a couple of weeks. We gelded him in May and assumed he would keep teasing through June and he stopped looking at mares within a week. 

On the other hand, we gelded a 4 year old and he stayed too mean to run with other horses and we ended up selling him to someone that was going to stall and show him. He was perfect mannered even as a stud, but stayed mean in a pasture. 

We always turn out stallions, just cut and intact, with a herd of geldings we have. They are much better at mannering most of them than anything including bred mares. I works really well.


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