Castration

[ferdimb]

I know this subject has probably been done to death, but I'm interested in peoples opinions of when is best to geld. I have a 2yr old Colt who I'm hoping is going to turn out to be a top class dressage horse. At the moment he is approx. 16hh, well built, super hindleg, shoulder an temperament . At the moment he is over Germany. I do not wish to keep him entire, the stud where he is based usually have them cut in the spring (so now) or I can leave it until the autumn. All my other horses have been chopped at 3 yrs. What are everyone's thoughts

 

[Maesfen]

Sooner the better for me if there's no reason to keep entire. Will give the horse a much better life style if cut and it's not going to affect his ability to do his work. I wish more people would take a leaf out of Velegro's book TBH, there is absolutely no need to keep a working horse entire unless it's their desire to make money from them.

 

[AdorableAlice]

Sooner the better for me as well. I left one until he was almost three, another one was done at 6 months and had a hernia repaired, Ted The Twit was 11 months when he was done.

The older one became a pain the backside, took longer to get over the gelding and remained colty for a good while. The two younger horses had no colty tendencies at all and healed very quickly.

Timing wise I would opt for early spring before the flies are about. Ted was done in June because he was an unplanned arrival in my life and was done the day after he landed. It was a cold horrid June in 2012 so there was not any problem with flies and the healing process.

 

[hayinamanger]

My last colt was gelded at 9 months, that was late for me. I usually get them done at 3-6 months, much better all round, it certainly does not stunt their growth as is often mentioned on here, quite the opposite in fact.

 

[Hurricanelady]

Both mine were done early - 6/7 months and it was definitely the best thing to do. The current nearly 3 year old was very "exuberant" shall we say as a colt and there was an immediate significant improvement in his behaviour - frequent rearing and climbing on the back of the dam ceased! That one is 17 hh now so it definitely hasn't stunted his growth and the other 2 year old is 15.3 hh and is on track to reach the desired 16.1-16.2 hh.

There wasn't even hardly any bleeding when the youngest was done and by late afternoon (after I had sat at the yard all day working in the car absolutely freezing to keep an eye on him - they were both done in late autumn so no flies but not too much mud yet) he was climbing all over his dam and demanding to be let out (he wasn't let out that day, but the recovery was so swift you wouldn't have known that he'd had it done that morning).

For me personally I would always have them done as early as possible. Good luck.

 

[Casey76]

I had mine done at 10 months as he was a bit shy, and it took until that age before I could be sure he had dropped both testes.

 

[TelH]

I think the sooner the better too. I had my 4yo done at 5 1/2 months, before he was weaned. It was Jan/Feb time so there were no flies about.

 

[Char0901]

My lad was cut at 9 months old in February. He was just starting to get a bit too big for his boots.
Had no problems at all, all healed in a week. And that's with no turnout (very wet and muddy!) just walking out 4 times a day for about 5 day's.
doesn't seem to be affecting his growth. He's now 10 and a half months and 14.3...
Sooner the better for me too

 

[JanetGeorge]

TBH, there is absolutely no need to keep a working horse entire unless it's their desire to make money from them.

That's a little unkind!! I have 3 x 2 yo's I haven't made my mind up about yet - but I will make LESS money of them if I keep them on to (hopefully) grade as stallions - rather than geldin (and selling) early!

But I would agree that early castration is best for horses not aimed at the stallion business!

 

[Maesfen]

Lol Janet! My remark was aimed at the amateur owner who thinks a colt is an easy way to earn a few pennies, it was not aimed at a professional stud owner, more the back yard breeder! Years ago only professionals would ever think of leaving a colt uncut and even then, it had to be a damn good one; now everyone thinks they are good enough to keep colts (not aimed at the OP here!) (and many are the most appalling specimens you have to agree) which is why we are in such an awful mess with over breeding of absolute rubbish.

 

[JanetGeorge]

Lol Janet! My remark was aimed at the amateur owner who thinks a colt is an easy way to earn a few pennies, it was not aimed at a professional stud owner, more the back yard breeder! .

Lol, I'll forgive you then. But even the professionals make mistakes - I've made a few. In 10 years, I've presented 3 potential stallions for grading. They ALL 'failed' - an expensive business - and two are now geldings. The third is still a stallion, as under new rules I CAN use him and his progeny are eligible Class 1 on inspection - but no-one else wants to use him. So far foals look good!

Of my 3 x 2 year olds, had another GOOD look yesterday when they had their feet trimmed. 1 is definitely going to be gelded, 1 will get another 3 months before I decide to geld him, and the 3rd .......??????? ......... - he's nice - but I think his yearling full brother might be even nicer so he may get the chop!

It'll be interesting to see how many ID stallions get Class 1 grading this year - in Ireland, they passed 1 out of 10 (and that's a MUCH lower number than Ireland usually has coming forward.)

 

[CrazyMare]

Mine was 14 months old. I waited and waited and waited to see if his second testicle would appear, but sadly it didn't so he had to go into the vets!!