For what reasons wouldn't a horse be broken until 8?

Wagtail

Wagtail

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As title. Why would someone keep a stallion, breed from him then geld and break and sell at 8? Just wondering what reasons would be for this? Would this make you suspicious?
 
No suitable rider?
Realised that he is as a suitable stallion.
Lack of facilities to keep as stallion going forward.
Would ask the question could be lots of reasons.
 
Some stalions are just kept as such that's not uncommon.
But I would always want to make sure there nobody tried to break, discovered it wasn't suitable for ridden work and then just kept as stallion.
Have seen it happen and can be nasty when sold on.
 
No.
we were given our Nf mare aged 9 and never backed. Owner didn't breed, just for whatever reason,didn't want to ride either. Mare had just sat in a field with others most of her life! (Well, after being purchased aged 2)
 
Breeding stallions often fulfill that role until their daughters are old enough to breed or if the youngstock are not sold as required. A responsible breeder will avoid all chance of him getting to his family members and either sell him, loan him to a different herd or geld him, once gelded it would be a question of backing him as a gelding doesn't have a job and would be more valuable as a ridden horse. So there are a bunch of very good reasons for a stallion to be cut and backed at older than normal same with mares to be honest a lot of breeders have cut back on having foals so a lot of former broodmares are being backed and then sold
 
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My friend brought a three year old from a local breeder and didn't back him till he was 9. Nothing wrong with him she just enjoyed playing with him on the ground then one day thought he might as well be backed so did it,
 
I once had a 9 year old on trial that was gelded just a few months earlier. He did not suit me, but there was nothing "wrong" with him. He hacked and jumped, he was backed years previously and it was thought he would be a top jumper, but he had other ideas, so his value as a stallion was non existent, so they gelded to get best price.

What do the owners say?
 
If a breeder has retained a lot of fillies from that stallion he would need to get an unrelated stallion if he wanted to breed with them, thus perhaps leaving the original stallion surplus. At 8yo he could be gelded and given another job with the bonus that no one else could then breed from him. One could wonder why he wasn't broken as a colt but it wouldn't be that unusual or worrying, I would be suspicious just in case someone had tried and failed though.
 
It could be that his offspring ended up crap so they stopped the line before more got bred. Maybe they left him entire to see what he turned into? As previously said - gelded when his own offspring came to breeding age and the owner didn't want to have him passed from piller to post as an entire so gelded him to gove him a better life.

We have a 7yo shetland - licenced at 2yo because he was well built, had good conformation, good nature and attitude. Never covered a mare as ours were related to him. Gelded at 5yo because he never really matured from a 2yo and ended up narrow, short and weak. He got backed as a 7yo this year as this is the first year he has been physically strong enough to be put to work properly. Since being gelded he has filled out and matured so much he is now a nice wee pony that looks the part and could probably have been left entire. But wether he would have carried on maturing like he has an entire is questionable. Certainly at 5yo he was not worthy of being bred from.
 
It's the age his daughters come back onto him. However now with AI most will retain enough doses to repeat with unrelated mares is it was a very successful match.
We have had the same with other stock.
 
I think most serious stallion owners who no longer need the stallion for putting on to their own mares would rather sell castrated and hope it can get a home as ridden animal. If you sell entire despite peoples protestations you can often find an ex breeding stallion ending up in the wrong hands, also if you have produced a replacement stallion from one of his coverings you would not want him competing against him.
 
Not a stallion but I used to ride a mare who was broken at 16. She was neglected for much of her life but after she was rescued they backed her just for a bit of happy hacking and I used to attempt to school her occasionally for them. She was great fun but had no breaks or steering at all, I never managed to get her round a 20m circle and once you were cantering you were going until she got bored. She was very stuck in her ways, a proper grumpy old lady and definitely knew best but she was fantastic.
 
Polar Bear9 said:
Not a stallion but I used to ride a mare who was broken at 16. She was neglected for much of her life but after she was rescued they backed her just for a bit of happy hacking and I used to attempt to school her occasionally for them. She was great fun but had no breaks or steering at all, I never managed to get her round a 20m circle and once you were cantering you were going until she got bored. She was very stuck in her ways, a proper grumpy old lady and definitely knew best but she was fantastic.
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That's interesting. Provided they haven't already been screwed up, is an older horse any different to break than a younger one? (Assuming all other things are equal).
 
I know an 8 year old mare who is pretty much unbroken. Owners keep trying to get it done on the cheap but nobody they ask is really up for the task. So she scares another one and gets another year off until spring comes round and they try again with someone new.
 
Dry Rot said:
That's interesting. Provided they haven't already been screwed up, is an older horse any different to break than a younger one? (Assuming all other things are equal).
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No - sometimes they're a lot easier - sometimes a little harder - but that depends on the basic temperament and the handling they're had. I backed one of my brood mares at 10 this year - and sold her - she was easy and perfect (just not the best brood mare in the world!)
 
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