Personally I feel that ultimately the decission to geld or not is up to the person who is footing the bill for the care of the horse and investing their time raising and caring for the horse.
I don't care who does or doesn't geld because it isn't any of my business. I don't disrespect people who geld and i don't disrespect those who don't.
I will admit I have seen some beautiful gelding that I'd love to raise and I've seen some great looking stallions I would love to raise.
I am a stallion type of person. I was raised-raising stallons and I have always loved them. I have also raised geldings and mares; sometimes all three at the same time. My preference has always been for the stallions. I have never raised a mean or hard to handle stallion. I have never raised a gelding that was hard to handle either. Most mares I raised were very sweet with the exception of one mare, she was as highstrung and mean as they come, but I blame that on the fact that I lived in the city and had to board her so I wasn't with her all the time to work out the bad habits she was forming on the farm where I kept her. She's the only horse I ever had that I was happy to see go to a new home. Again, I don't think it was so much her as it was where she was being boarded. Honestly, I had no business even buying her since I lived so far from the farm but sometimes we make choices that just don't work out. As it turned out she became an excellent horse for a teenaged girl who was able to spend more time with her.
I really don't believe most are here to brag about gelding, I think that the topic is more an area of conversation for those who have gelded. Sure some come across as bragging but like someone mentioned earlier, it is difficult to tell through written word. I also agree with the comment about people who brag about their new baby (Look at my post brag-brag-brag LOL), but I also love reading the post about other's new horse and I especially love looking at the pictures. I'm not so sure most of us are actually bragging as much as we know that since the forum is about mini horses and we all (or most) have mini horses that we are mostly sharing excitement about our interest. My father loved to geld and since I have known him my entire life, I can say that he talked about gelding and at times it may have seemed as bragging but he wasn't bragging, it was just another part of his farming and my father loved his farm and would talk to anyone who'd listen about how he farm whether they liked it or not.
At times I read post that make me get a little hot under the collar but that's the way it goes on forums. Personally whether I agree with all post or not, I feel that I do learn from most.
It's funny how it goes when you become a member of a forum, the people who you might most disagree with are also the people you might learn the most from. Liz is one of those people. I have disagreed with her in the past (and may again in the future) yet I also find myself reading closely what she has to say. I also find myself looking at her horses and realizing she should be proud of her horse, they certainly are darn nice looking to me.
Another person who I really respect is Marty, she is the very first person who sent me a PM and welcomed me to the board. She has been nothing but sweet as can be and helpful. And in case some of you have never had a one on one conversation with Marty, she is so down to earth and funny that she really is one of those people who feels like a best friend even though you've never met her face to face.
I think part of learning is debating even if at times it gets frustrating. I like learning about my interest and I don't know that I have learned about anything without a little frustration involved.
There's a lot of really good members here who have a wealth of knowledge to share and wheteher they geld or not doesn't take away the fact that each of them have something to share that we can most likely learn from. It aslo doesn't matter how big or small their farm is or how rich or poor they are, we're all here to share an interest.
I'm going to start treading lightly because I am starting to like and respect too many people here :saludando:
