# Pros and Cons of gelding a horse?



## TheAQHAGirl (Aug 10, 2012)

Right when 'they' drop, thats usually when you geld the horse.

The longer you wait, the more hes going to act like a stallion later on (even if you geld him).

Pros-
Not have to worry about accidents.
Not contributing to the over-population of unwanted horses.
Not having to have a testosterone-crazed horse around a mare in heat. 

...Basically, anything is good when you geld a horse.

Cons-
Not putting it up for stud and getting money...Depending how good the horse is.


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## Golden Horse (Feb 20, 2010)

Pro's..

Happier horse, he doesn't have urges that he wants to act on, he can live in a herd environment, rather than so many studs who live in solitary confinement.

You don't have to worry all the time about where he is and if any mares are teasing him. 

No risk of accidental breedings.

When to geld, I do it ASAP, Stewie was done at 3 1/2 months because he was dropped and ready, I prefer to do at 6 months, but if they haven't dropped then as soon as they are ready they are done.

It doesn't affect their growth, in fact some argue that gelding grow taller, but stallions put on bulk, trouble is that bulk often goes on the neck and front end, not always where you want it.

I can't see any downside to gelding, I am very very unlikely to breed or buy a youngster of breeding quality, so it as never been an issue for me, my question is always WHEN should I geld him rather than SHOULD geld him.

And yes I had people ask about one of my colts, I could of sold him several times as a stud, but was far happier selling him as a gelding, he was a nice colt, a very nice colt, but he never made me go WOW, and if I don't go WOW then he's getting cut:wink:


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## stevenson (Sep 12, 2011)

I dont think there is any negative aspect to gelding. There are many 'stallions' out there that would make fantastic geldings , and they are mediocre or less stallions.


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## BubblesBlue (Jun 29, 2010)

I guess the one con of it is that the surgery could cause death or infection, but that is very unlikely if a professional vet preforms the surgery.
Everyone else has named the pros. :lol:


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## DuffyDuck (Sep 27, 2011)

I bought a 3yo stallion last month.

Superb lines, fab gaits and great conformation. He did however look like a TB which isn't great for a hanno. 

So we gave him a month. My YO has studs, and she is extremely knowledgeable.

I did my research, gave it a go.

He is broke to ride, but with the mares in extreme heat at the moment, I was waiting to ride later, people were making excuses for their horses bad behaviour because of my boy.

Honestly, Dubai is so relaxed if he were more relaxed he'd be going backwards. The testosterone hasn't quite kicked in.

I listed the pros and cons of stallion vs gelding, found out the requirements to register him as a stallion.

AND THE COST.

Bejeebus.

Then you have to market him as a stallion to mares.

Never keep a stallion for the sake of keeping a stallion. Its lazy ownership.

Unless I had the finances, the background, the 'name' and the facilities to have a stallion, I would geld.

Dubai is going to the clinic tomorrow to be castrated. 'Snip snap eier ab' is what they say here.

Then I'll be able to turn him out in a herd, hack out with my friends mare and go to comps with her.


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## maura (Nov 21, 2009)

The only con is that you can no longer breed the horse. That's about it. 

Everyone else covered the pros pretty well. 

I live in the American South, and it's the convention here to wait until fall and cooler weather to geld. There's usually a fair amount of drainage from a castration, so flies can be a problem. So the ideal time to geld is anytime after both testicles drop and after cool weather arrives. That tends to mean more colts are gelded at 6 - 9 months than 4, assuming spring babies. 

Favorite gelding story - When I worked at a large breeding farm with a vet clinic next door, one of the vets had a couple of young TBs that she was breaking and galloping herself before sending them to the track. It's unfortunate practice with racing TBs to wait to geld until the horse is too rank to train, and sometimes wait longer than that. Pretty common to see my friend, the vet, out on the track in the AM galloping while I was doing morning chores. So one day, we're chatting while she's palpating a mare for me and this was our small talk: "How's your colt doing?" "What colt?" "The bay colt I see you on every morning on the track." "Don't have a colt. Have a gelding." "Really? Since when? " "Since 7AM. Went to get on him, he saw a mare, all his brains went between his hind legs, he dropped to her, reared and started walking toward her on his hind legs with me on him. Got off him, pulled my tack off, got my kit out of the truck. Don't own a colt. Own a gelding." 

I fervently wish her attitude were more common.


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## walkinthewalk (Jul 23, 2008)

In this day and age of abandoned, starved and abused horses, there are no cons to gelding a stallion.

The oldest one I ever gelded was 17 years and that was back in the 80's when there wasn't as much technology. I took him to the clinic in case they would've had to keep him over night. <--Geldings are generally done in the barnyard, in the grass

It was memorable. I thought it was so sweet the vet's dog sat, loyally, nearby in the outdoor ring while the vet castrated my horse ------until the vet was finished, grabbed the my horse's family jewels out of the bucket and tossed them to the dog --- whom I'm sure happily swallowed them whole:shock::shock:

I, on the other hand, was pretty close to throwing up

At any rate, please geld the horse - the risks are minimal - my family's gelded a lot of horses "back in the old days" and made a lot of steers out of bulls. We never lost anybody.

Just watch him for excessive swelling which usually happens when the horse won't exercise itself, then the vet may have to come back out to re-open the drain area and give him some antibiotics.


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## texasreb (Aug 11, 2012)

There are virtually no cons to gelding a horse. 

The oldest I've gelded was 24 years. He had a great run as a stallion, but was getting harder to handle the older he got. Other reasons we gelding him so late: his bloodlines fell out of favor; his preferences in mares changed to only wanting to breed greys; our plans changed; etc.

He had a little more bleeding than a younger horse, but the procedure was not hard on him. He healed at a rate equal to the younger horses we had done the same day. It took longer for the studdiness to go away, but that was about it.

Geld. There is no reason not to.


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## deserthorsewoman (Sep 13, 2011)

DuffyDuck said:


> I bought a 3yo stallion last month.
> 
> Superb lines, fab gaits and great conformation. He did however look like a TB which isn't great for a hanno.
> 
> ...


Where do you live????that's German...schnippschnapp-Eier ab.......
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## DuffyDuck (Sep 27, 2011)

Live in Germany 
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## deserthorsewoman (Sep 13, 2011)

I lived in Italy ....there you don't geld colts, or neuter dogs or cats. The usually male owner of the male animal looks at you like he fears to be gelded/neutered himself. With horses they wait until they have severe handling problems. With racehorses it's even worse, they believe geldings have no desire to win. 

I think a good stallion makes an outstanding gelding.
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## Dreamcatcher Arabians (Nov 14, 2010)

99% of stallions ought to be geldings. Unless his bloodlines are stellar and rare, he's absolutely so sweet you have to check between his legs to see if he's still all there, and he's proven himself in the show ring (performance, not just halter) or as a stellar stock horse, and has impeccable conformation, cut him. There are no downsides. I know, I just cut my Arabian stallion, who has been used for breeding, and he's happier so so am I. He made nice babies, he proved himself, he was always so laid back you had to look to make sure he was a stallion and the horse market is in the toilet, so he wasn't being used. No need to keep him entire and in solitairy confinement if he's not being bred. He's now out with the 'girls' and still very studly in that he's the protector of his band, and he puffs up nicely when he thinks he's challenged, but he's not trying to mount, not hollering because another male is around, none of the things that make stallion keeping so much more work.


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## maura (Nov 21, 2009)

When I worked with racehorses, the reluctance of owners and trainers to geld was a source of great frustration and bordered on the absurb. No one wanted to be the equivelent of the person who gelded John Henry. (Though I wonder - would John Henry have had his fabulous race record had he remained a stud?) 

One colt had to gallop completely by himself, the only horse on the training track, and we had to bring the horses in in the paddocks around the track and give him a snout full of Vicks because he would attempt to savage other colts and geldings and act studdy around fillies. His owner and trainer were hoping that if we kept him by himself long enough he'd grow out of it. Yeah. That totally worked. Not. 

If I could draw/cartoon, I always wanted to do a cartoon of a vet doing a castration with the owner and trainer weeping, cringing and clutching their own jewels, and the groom and exercise rider dancing, high-fiving and asking the vet to give them the knife. Now, I think I'll add a dog lurking hopefully around the bucket to the image.


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## nrhareiner (Jan 11, 2009)

As a breeding farm there are a lot of reason I do not geld a stallion. That being said they are well proven stallion well bred stallions are very very very easy to handle.

However there is no con to not gelding. Like has been stated above. If you are not planing on showing promoting and breeding a stallion and they are not well bred and the whole package you are much much better off gelding. At the end of the day it will save you a lot of work and problems. Also you have to keep in mind that there is a lot of extra work that goes into training a stallion past the normal things you teach every horse. If you have not or can not do that you are going to have big problems. The stallions I have and do own you would never know they where stallions but it is a lot of work to get them there.


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## deserthorsewoman (Sep 13, 2011)

DuffyDuck said:


> Live in Germany
> _Posted via Mobile Device_


Hab ich mir beinah gedacht
Where? I am German, stranded here in the US....;-)
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## DuffyDuck (Sep 27, 2011)

NRW not far off dusseldorf!! Im british..my german is limited haha but i get by  where are you from??
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## deserthorsewoman (Sep 13, 2011)

Way south of Munich. Haven't been home in almost 9 years now.......home as in Germany. Home home, well....nearly 30 apart from passing through.
So you're near Duesseldorf...but that's Rheinland and Westfalen country....you have a Hannoveraner.....;-)
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