My experience here has been thus:
I purchased a young stallion, who was the same age as a colt born here. The colt born here I wanted to geld, but both his little testicles disappeared sometime between the age of 1.5 months and 4 months (he went with his dam for her to be re-bred and they were "there" at birth and soon after, but gone by the time he was 4 months. I could not have him gelded and had to wait, which was undesirable to me.
The purchased colt was 4 months old when he came here, and only one testicle felt. I was assured that they were both down at birth, and had a guarantee of sorts, nothing specific, though in hindsight, the price was right even for a very nice gelding (I should have done more homework).
The purchased colt, colt "B" for further discussion, had several full siblings, many of whom were male. NONE were crypt or monorchid like he appeared to be. His sire was not, nor was his grandsire. As far as I know, his dam or sire made no more like mine. All the more frustrating to me. I consulted my vet many times, and one of his responses was that he felt there were times when the occurrence was a "fluke" but that would be hard to determine compared to genetics.
Meanwhile, Colt A, the one born at my farm that I wanted to geld, dropped one testicle at 19 months old. The other came within a week. Both were quite small, the size of small walnuts and grew within a few weeks to about kiwi fruit size. I subsequently sold him and he was gelded normally.
Colt "B" had dates with two mares at two, out of my own uninformed curiosity, and misguided as it was in hindsight again.
One mare settled. She had a colt. Both testicles down, and they stayed down until he was sold, starved and returned to me. Then he had only one down at 11 months, but the other quickly descended once he began eating enough to keep him gaining weight. So. A normal colt, and was gelded.
Next year Colt "B" had two dates again and both settled. Two colts born, one died in the sac, though both testicles were easily apparent. Same with the other. The surviving colt had them available until about 6 weeks, then they were hard to palpate and he was sent to a trainer, again with the intention of being a gelding, eventually, though we were advised to wait as he was "so nice" and I might be looking to sell him. I took into consideration the sire's problem, though, and figured I had best geld that colt and NOT sell him as a stallion, and if I DID, I would fully disclose the issues.
I was firmly decided that colt "B" would be a gelding if I could help it, and got several quotes on the procedure. He did, however, settle the same mare one more time and the following year a beautiful little palomino colt was born. He is also now a gelding, and was always normal in his testicular development.
That fall before the last colt was born, "B" had his surgery to the tune of $240 at my vet's clinic, a week's stay, and it was obviously not a fun procedure for him. He took about four weeks to recover unlike his son, who recovered within days and they'd been gelded the same time.
Vet said his testicle was very highly retained, and he'd had to look for it up to 12" inside his abdominal cavity. After all I'd researched on this, been through, I knew that I would NEVER breed another horse with dubious testicle issues such as late droppers, one not dropping, etc.
IF I sold a horse like this, I would do my best to make it right, though I can understand the problem. It's part of why I am very reluctant to sell an intact colt from my breeding.
There are some amazing horses out there with everything in the right place. This is a big part of the picture, obviously, even if they work, it's a conformational issue like bite, etc.
Sorry to re-hash something many of you've already read about my experiences, but I thought I'd go back over it for some that might be new. This all happened about 9 years ago, give or take, and has been a part of my learning curve.
What carol (Vertical Limit) said here has really dictated a dissatisfaction with breeding as a whole. There are some doing great things, but it's watered down by this feeling that it's so difficult to sell a truly well-bred horse honestly when you go against the enormous tide of ineptitude we all suffer from. I don't know what the answer is, and I have been part of the problem, though I hope I've passed that, it is probably at the end of my mini breeding "career" that I have reached this accord:
"I have seen some horses that have won on the National level have some glaring stifle problems (as well as others) so I guess those people think they have got something wonderful without thinking that maybe sometimes judges just have to pick the best of the worst. I don't know the answer. But until the entire general mentality of "breed everything with sexual apparatus" changes these problems will continue to run rampant. But the bottom line is nobody seems to realize that these conversation could possibly be related to them."
Liz
