GELD HIM OR NOT?

[jeanniecogan]

I have a 4 year old stud. he has the most sweet, calm temperment. have driven him with mares and through fields full of horses and has no problem. barely pays attention to other horses unless they are crossing his path. he has no stallion tendencies.

I only got him in August, so i am wondering if he will have a personality change in the spring. i wonder if i could pick your brains about this. any advice is welcome.

My worry is that i heard a story about a gelded horse really changing for the worse after he was gelded.

please let me know what you think please

 

[Minimor]

I suppose it is possible that he could change sometime in the future, spring possibly--it would be most likely now, I would say, if he has never been used for breeding and you were to start breeding mares with him in the spring. Some stallions will have a personality change when they start breeding, others do not. If he has been well handled all his life and has learned his manners well then he will most likely continue to be a gentleman.

Are you wanting to geld him but are hesitating because of the one horse you heard of getting to be a bad acting fellow after gelding? I would not let that stop me from gelding a horse. Of all the horses we have gelded, not a one has had his temperament ruined by gelding, and it is not something that I would worry about. Most times gelding will have a calming influence on a horse--the most drastic change I've ever seen was in a Mini we got as an unhandled yearling stallion. That colt was so unfriendly and nervous--just a basket case when we handled him. We gelded him and in two weeks he was so calm--we could not believe that there was such a huge change just from gelding. Most times we don't see anything so drastic and never have I had one go the other way, from calm to obnoxious. I don't know why it would happen, but if it does it would be unusual; more of the 'exception that proves the rule'

 

[susanne]

Our Pastorius was like that as a stallion -- he acted less like a stallion than our gelding, Mingus, did. We procrastinated forever because we could -- he simply was no problem. However, even the sweetest stallion in the world is denied a social life, and since we had no intention of breeding him, we felt too guilty keeping him separated from our other horses.

He is still a sweet, happy lap pony, but he now shares mutual grooming and racing about like a silly boy with Mingus and Scarlett, and we no longer feel guilty. The only thing that we lost with gelding him was his habit of calling to us every time we stepped out the door and his "horse whimpering" -- his cute sotto voce mumblings -- sweet nothings whispered in my ear.

 

[targetsmom]

I would say geld. This time of year is not the the time to judge a stallions behavior, in my experience! We have a 4-H Club (and a stallion) and in CT 4-Hers cannot handle stallions. Of course, the kids think that must be because stallions are monsters, so we show them with Buckshot that he is MOST OF THE TIME a well-behaved, well-trained mini that remembers his earlier training and will jump, sidepass, etc. just fine. BUT - and here is the huge "but" we would still not trust him all the time. For example, in the spring I am very careful not to turn my back on him, or bend over or kneel down near him. We also learned to not try to show him in May - his mind was definitely on other things - but the rest of the show season he was fine. But spring is a whole different time of year for a stallion (I would say most of them anyway). Our three geldings are happy, well-mannered and handled by the 4-Hers!!

The only time I saw any negative effect after gelding was long ago when the vet started the procedure without using enough anesthetic (more was miles away) and cut into the scrotum and pulled one testicle down while the horse was still wide awake. At that point he did stop and send someone back for more anesthetic and the procedure resumed about an hour later. That gelding had a bad habit of kicking when you went anywhere hear the surgical area (like if you touched his belly back there) and I can't say I blamed him!!! But that was clearly NOT a normal gelding procedure!!!

 

[rabbitsfizz]

Geld. There just is NO stallion too good to geld. Honestly!! 98% of the stallions around now should IMO be gelded anyway, and if you are not using him for breeding, actively, then there is no point keeping him intact.

I have never had a horse changed by gelding except for the better- and I have gelded form six weeks to 16 year olds and far too many to remember.

 

[jess - bentley]

I have had a lot of great driving horses that were stallions. If he is really that well behaved then you may not have to geld him. I personally would wait till spring and see how he behaves. If he does start to act up then you will have to decide at that point. From my experiences most of the time gelding a horse does not change his personality, just kind of mellows him out lol!

 

[Performancemini]

Geld. Geldings are great. If you are not getting into serious breeding/showing and need an exellent stallion-GELD. There are so many stallions out there. And the market is down enough as far as breeding goes. Geld-and have fun with him!

 

[minimomNC]

Geld him and enjoy him even more without the worry of "if" he will turn into a fire breathing dragon in the spring.

 

[jeanniecogan]

Thank you all, Charlie is not even registered, he is just a pet and partner when we drive. So i will never breed him. My husband wants me to wait until spring and see how he behaves. it is very expensive to geld a horse around here. he is my only horse. i will let you know what i decide. i want to geld him, but must keep hubby happy, too. jeannie

 

[disneyhorse]

The horse will be way happier as a gelding and WAY more "loveable"!

 

[shorthorsemom]

Geld during cool weather and no flies. I would geld now so he has time to heal over winter mos when u might not drive as much. Depends of course where u live and whether u drive more or less over winter. Love my geldings. Gelding is great.

 

[Magic Marker Minis]

Also, the best time to geld is in the winter... no flies!

 

[Magic Marker Minis]

... men don't like to geld, castrate, 'fix', neuter, etc.... I guess it hits too close to home... Sometimes I think ALL males need neutering! lol <evil grin>

 

[susanne]

.

Had to come back to mention another reason I love geldings:

I love being the center of [their] attention. Fortunately for Keith, I didn't need to go to such lengths to get his undivided attention. As much as I adored Mingus and Flash as stallions, I love them even more as geldings. All it took was a whiff of mare pheromones for my loving stallions to consider me a distant second with them, so I took care of that!

 

[Field-of-Dreams]

Thank you all, Charlie is not even registered, he is just a pet and partner when we drive. So i will never breed him. My husband wants me to wait until spring and see how he behaves. it is very expensive to geld a horse around here. he is my only horse. i will let you know what i decide. i want to geld him, but must keep hubby happy, too. jeannie

He's not registered and you won't be breeding him? GELD. Do it now while he's calm, there are no flies and he'll have months to heal before spring arrives.

Does hubby drive him, work with him? If no, then he gets no say in this matter... since YOU are the one who will deal with the bad behavior!

Really, I can't think of ONE reason to keep him a stallion!!

 

[Performancemini]

Has your husband had much experience with horses? A lot of non-horsey people don't realize that intact male horses are nothing like intact male dogs (well, in general). You are getting an entirely different type of tetesterone (sp. ???) in the horse. And, yes, geld in cool/cold weather. Spring is muddy, rainy and then fly season starts. Do it now.

 

[romewhip]

Geld him. If hubby is complaining about costs then he's got a lot of horse education to come. Gelding is not expensive compared to some of the other things that you may need with your boy.

He'll be safer as a gelding, for you to handle and for any occasion where there will be other horses. Now is the best time of year for optimum trouble-free healing.

 

[rabbitsfizz]

I understand the problem with costs- it is not easy looking after horses and something like this was probably not something you had budgeted for. I am guessing Hubby would think more kindly about the gelding if it were cheaper so shop around. We have had a number of "What's the cheapest place to geld in X county" posts on here- people are best asked to PM to avoid red faces but you will get help and may save a packet.

 

[shorthorsemom]

my vet charges about 1/4 the price to geld than my small animal vet charges to spay or neuter a dog.

geld is the way to go. Not expensive, fast healing in miniature horses... easy and can do at home. can't beat that.

 

[BSharpRanch]

Talk to a rescue. Our local rescue worked with some vets and have held two successful, low cost, gelding clinics. I took two only because I am planning a four-up and three stallions on the team was just too much of a challenge certain times of the month. ;-) Even with the drive there it saved me $200 for each horse! That included pain killers and antibiotics. It may be worth checking into.