Top Geldings, then and now

[Littleum]

I am honestly not a fan of geldings if I have a colt that isnt stud material he is gelded and then sold.

I have to say that alot of geldings that I have to show against and see, are stud material. Alot horses are getting gelded not because they arent worthy of been stallion, but because people want to win

This is also my feeling. If he's not good enough to WIN as a stallion, I don't really want him as my gelding... and I love geldings!!!

I think the quality in gelding classes is a great measure of how good our stallions need to be.

Assuming, of course, you subscribe to the mindset that the vast majority of colts have exactly no business being stallions, that is.

If a stallion isn't nice enough to stand with the geldings in his height division, maybe he shouldn't be a stallion? (Everytime I say this I get some really dirty looks. I think it hits some guilty nerves! LOL)

And I've heard the unfortunate logic of "Well, this stallion/colt isn't nice enough to win (as a gelding or stallion) so I'll keep him a stallion so he has some value" (this makes my head hurt)

 

[Versatility Farm & Training]

I'd have to say, I'm going to break the mold here... who said it had to be a halter horse?!?!

Iona Excalibur, yes he is mine, well... my parents' but everyone has always thought of him as mine. He has been AMHR National 3rd place in country pleasure driving, top ten in hunter and jumper. He has been AMHA Regional Grand Champion in Country, but most of all many many top tens in youth, amateur and open jumper, 2 times AMHA World Reserve Champion in Open Jumper, and 3 times AMHA Worlds Champion in Open Jumper. Last year he was 3rd, because people asked me when he would retire and I told them if he won 3 years in a row I would retire him, 2008 would have been the 3rd year in a row, and he is not ready to retire, so he made sure he did as well as he could without winning and being retired. He's 14 and still going strong. He now also is the lead line horse for my niece who was 2 last year, and although not conformationally a good halter horse, one we hand over to someone who wants to try it, or a child who wants someone to show, because behaviorally he is excellent at halter, will stand up and use his neck and ears just like he was a champion, allows a newbie to have fun and be relaxed when trying it out, and now and then he pulls a good ribbon.

 

[tagalong]

To take that a step further I can say many show geldings I see are far better quality then the majority of stallions I see advertised as show and or herd sire quality.

Bingo. I agree.

I think the quality in gelding classes is a great measure of how good our stallions need to be.
Assuming, of course, you subscribe to the mindset that the vast majority of colts have exactly no business being stallions, that is.

If a stallion isn't nice enough to stand with the geldings in his height division, maybe he shouldn't be a stallion? (Everytime I say this I get some really dirty looks. I think it hits some guilty nerves! LOL)

And I've heard the unfortunate logic of "Well, this stallion/colt isn't nice enough to win (as a gelding or stallion) so I'll keep him a stallion so he has some value" (this makes my head hurt)

It makes my my head hurt as well. I do subscribe to that "mindset"

- and there are far too many stallions out there.

Alot horses are getting gelded not because they arent worthy of been stallion, but because people want to win

???HUH???

Nooooo.... we go back to the old saying - why have a good stallion when you can have a great gelding? There are far too many stallions out there - look at some of the geldings pictured in this thread that make many herd sires we have seen look bad - or at least "ordinary"... there should be nothing "ordinary" about a stallion. And I disagree that gelding a quality horse is merely an attempt to "win".

What is wrong with showing a quality gelding??

That is something the industry should aspire to - not look down on.

The quality of any breeding program can be seen in its GELDINGS. If they are discerning and discriminating enough to have high-quality geldings, they are on the right track. JMO.

 

[Littleum]

Nah, there are some folks who do take an outstanding quality stallion and geld him just to compete with him. They just want an awesome show horse.

Sometimes there are other reasons a stallion-quality horse gets gelded: health issues, personality issues, management issues, not producing quality ect.

If my new horse had been a stallion, I'd have had him gelded. He's plenty nicer then a lot of stallions out there breeding, but he's no Lord of the Rings, and I have NO interest in owning/showing/promoting/standing a stallion. Zero. None.

If I did have a colt that super amazing, I'd probably sell a majority share in him to someone who DID want to jump through all those hoops. Me? Nah.

 

[ruffian]

"I'd have to say, I'm going to break the mold here... who said it had to be a halter horse?!?!"

All the geldings listed in my post were performance horses. Ruffian especially was as far from a halter horse as you could get!!

 

[Keri]

Geldings should be the selling point for the market. They are always the ones at the shows that youth and PMC kids are showing. They are the ones you can hand to anyone wanting to try out showing and never worry about. They are generally shown all around in several classes at each show. They are the trust worthy horses we hand out to anyone. Mares are good too, but most are hormonal at a show and never show right for newbies. Geldings shouldn't be looked over becuase you can't breed them.

I have a gelding. He's genetically pudgy.

Not a halter horse. But he'll square right up when I tell him to set. Drives nice and calm and doesn't flip out over some stupid thing. He'll be my 2 year old sons horse to show this year. He's trust worthy. No, he's not a halter horse, but has a heck of a trot in driving!

 

[Royal Crescent]

I have seen Sweetwaters Jokers Wild 3 years in a row at Worlds, and I love him, so he would have to get my vote. I don't think that Brad will ever part with him though.

Barb

 

[wpsellwood]

I had to post that only because it sounded to me that if they arent nice enough to be stallions they are gelded. That isnt true with everyone. Doors went champion amt jr stallion, Reserve open 2 yr stallion, and was gelded and shown and loved.

I felt bad for all those stallions when Doors (as a gelding last year) took 7 out of the 8 supremes at one show

I dont believe anyone said it had a halter horse??? maybe and didnt see it

 

[ClickMini]

Brenda, I am with you on this one, Esprit did amazing as a stallion, he won everything in the Sr. Stallions here last year. He is too closely related to my girls for me to use him in my program, but I love him WAY too much to sell him on. My #1 priority with my minis is training and showing anyway. I love to train my horses, and love to show what we have accomplished together. So I gelded Esprit and now I have got one heck of a show horse for many years to come. I don't even know if I will continue breeding, I am not totally sure I am cut out for this! If I don't continue, the rest of these boys will be geldings too. And if I do continue to breed, I have Esprit's 3/4 sister who is just as good as he is.

I love a great gelding!

 

[KTS@Sawmill River]

There are so many wonderful geldings to choose from in each registry... No way to choose just one!!!

For Over Geldings, I am a fan of Shannon Troglauer's Dakota San Juan Marcos.... What a beautiful gelding and boy, can he MOVE!!!!

For Under geldings, (I am suprised that no one has mentioned him) WF Set On Go. He has an excellent show record and is a sweet horse!.... I also like Aloha Acres It Must be Magic, in the performance ring (Such a flashy Country Pleasure horse) and WF Steal My Heart(already been mentioned)... So many great geldings to choose from!!!! Jen Van Deinse's Tomas and Brenda's Doors are also 2 beautiful geldings..... And LR Scouts Another Dimension ..... And the list goes on and on... lol

We have also been blessed with some wonderful geldings, both in and out of the show ring. We had a wonderful little gelding, SRF Encore who accomplished so much for being only 29".... 2X World Reserve Grand Champion in against the big guys. He was such a well behaved little horse, but knew how to put on a show in the ring.... He now lives with a wonderful lady who loves him dearly and has given him a forever home

 

[wpsellwood]

You know up coming Jr gelding is the one Heather Troglauer's of Mulligans run just gelded. His name is Mulligans Run Dreams Knight Falcon. Under gelding wow.

 

[ckmini]

We also love our geldings!

Over: So I might me a bit biased, but my pick is my own Oneka's Liberachi, now a 3X National Roadster Champion. But I have always loved M-D Dynamo owned by the Lundys. I'll never forget the first time I saw him, he is a stunning driving horse.

Under: Sami's Sid Savoy. He is a buckskin single pleasure driving gelding that Patty Cloke had in training a couple years back. I saw him at Nationals in 2006, he is beautiful!

 

[lilstars]

Puddin (aka Bond Crusader) is one of my favorites to this day. He is happily retired and residing at Libertymere Farm, in R.I.- He is still quite active at 20 something toteing the grandkids around and he gave me my first driving experience, wow what a ride...

puddin wishes to thank those who inculded him on this list

 

[Yaddax3]

There truly are some great geldings out there.

I wouldn't trade ours for any of them, though.

His name: Classique's Phantom Gold.

His accomplishments include being the first and only AMHR mini with nine Hall of Fames.

At the 2008 AMHR Nationals, he won six National Championships in the Under division: Adult Jumper, Amateur Jumper, Open Park Harness, Amateur Park Harness, Amateur Roadster and Liberty.

 

[Versatility Farm & Training]

I didn't mean literally somone said it had ot be a halter horse, just that a majority of the horses listed were halter. And by breaking the mold, nobody else specified a horse known for jumping. There have been several horses listed on here that I would love to have as well, halter and performance.

I was wondering the other day what ever happened to Gold Scotch? I remember showing against him a long long time ago, would love ot know where he's at today.

 

[Aubrey715]

There are so many incredible geldings out there in halter and performance. And its obvious by everybody's posts that you all love your geldings dearly which is very easy to do because they are so much fun either as a show horse or just a loving companion. The special things about geldings are that they have such huge hearts and you form that bond with them and they give you their all.

There are so many great incentives out there that promote geldings and have raised the bar for geldings. I remember a long time ago when there were very few geldings out there showing and let alone nice ones as we have today. But now a lot of the gelding classes are bigger than the stallion classes and to be honest i see a lot of geldings that are superior to stallions showing. A lot of the top geldings out there winning those halter classes were very successful stallions but their owners decided to geld them and show them. For example take a look at Meridians Eklektic Destiny, he was a Reserve World Grand Champion Jr. Stalliona and World Grand Champion Amateur Stallion, he was gelded and has won World Grand Champion as a gelding multiple times. Then take a look at Little Kings Duke Dreamer he was Reserve World Grand Champion as a stallion and is now winning at a gelding. The list could go on about top stallions turned even better geldings.

Some of the top geldings that pop into my mind are Meridians Eklektic Destiny, Aloha Acres It Must Be Magic, Brenda's gelding Doors, Dakota San Juan Marcos, Arions Boomerang, McCarthy's Black Bart, Aloha Acres Drop Ded Red, as well as many that people have already mentioned, and the list could go on...

I was honored to own a very successful gelding for a few years, Rocking JM 3T Bruce Almighty. He has won on the World/National level numerous times. He was a great teacher for me and brought me a long ways showing. I felt it was only right to let him do what he did for me for another youth, he is now owned by Zoe Laurer. It was a very tough decision but that horse loves to show more than anything. He has a huge performance career ahead of him too!

 

[JMS Miniatures]

He is now unfortuantly been passed on but I got to give props to AVS Quick Time Sir Prize. He was one that won in everything and Larry and Bonnie did wonders with him.

 

[CaroleSue]

Flying W Farms Moonlight Bay

 

[_minihorses4ever_]

I have to pick Brenda's "Doors" and if you've ever seen him show in person you'd know what I mean!

Wow!
Also Winners Circle Adonis and Squaw Creek Midnight Attitude. Both BEAUTIFUL horses!!! And Liz's Pyro sure is a looker. I remember when she gelded him thinking the bar was just raised a lot higher in the gelding class.

Aww, I will be sure to tell him that! Not like his ego needs to be inflated anymore.

I have to say, Adonis is probably my favorite. I may be partial, but at 15, I still think he is stunning.

 

[ckmini]

He is now unfortuantly been passed on but I got to give props to AVS Quick Time Sir Prize. He was one that won in everything and Larry and Bonnie did wonders with him.

He was a close second for me (as well as Bob's gelding Phantom), both are/were outstanding geldings.