Gelding still trying to breed mares

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emcorrie

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My 4 yo was gelded last autumn. He had never bred mares while he was intact. He settled down right away. He’s been living with my other geldings since then and my 2 yo filly. Now the filly has come into heat and he’s in stallion mode and was breeding her so I’ve separated them.
Ideally I’ll be putting both mares and geldings out to pasture as one group in a couple weeks. I’m not sure what the best plan is with this studdy gelding. From memory my other young gelding who was gelded at 3 kept up the breeding behaviour for a little while and then forgot about it. But I’m also worried that if this guy practices breeding all my mares all summer then he’ll continue this behaviour.
Any thoughts ?
 
Have you had him checked to make sure he's not a rig? I've known a few horses that were gelded late (including some that had sired foals) and the majority stopped the stallion behaviour once the hormones wore off.
He may just be taking a long time to adjust, but in your shoes I'd want to be sure he wasn't a rig.
 
Speak to your vet, we had a pony like this and he settled a bit with Regumate but I ended up selling him as he stressed my mare out.
 
SpeedyPony said:
Have you had him checked to make sure he's not a rig? I've known a few horses that were gelded late (including some that had sired foals) and the majority stopped the stallion behaviour once the hormones wore off.
He may just be taking a long time to adjust, but in your shoes I'd want to be sure he wasn't a rig.
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Ive also know more than a few geldings cut as weanlings who will do this, so its probably not related.
 
How is it possible he is cryptorchid if the vet castrated him ? I assume she would have told me if he only had one testicle to cut off?

It’s bizarre because before he was gelded he was really stressed and clearly full of young testosterone. It only took a couple of weeks after gelding for him to be a completely different horse. It’s only now that the mares are in heat that he has reimagined that he’s a stud. He’s still chill and gelding-like except for the mounting behaviour.
 
He won’t stop. My friend’s gelding only stopped in his late teens and I have an 8yo, gelded at 3, who still likes to do this.
 
This is why I never truly trust keeping geldings with mares. In my experience, it doesn't matter too much when they were castrated and I wouldn't assume he was a cryptorchid, a vet not noticing and informing you of that would be doing something very incorrectly. Castrating simply does not always take the will to breed away fully, that goes for dogs too.

There are a few supplements I know people give that may or may not help. Personally, I'd keep them separate if possible.
 
I had one that was late dropping one testicle so not gelded till 3. He did cover a couple of mares while entire and got both in foal so knew his job. A friend bought him and he was turned out with my sister's mare who being a real tart promptly came in season. He had a whale of a time to start with but soon got bored when she wouldn't leave him alone and once he stopped he never bothered with mares again. Another I had and was late teens, I had him from 18 months, was turned out with my friend's little dartmoor mare and promptly mounted her. He had lived with mares all his life and that was the first and only time he ever did it.

Yours may always be inclined to mount mares or he may just forget about it. My sister currently has a welsh gelding that wasn't gelded till about 11, she was told he was fine with mares and generally he was but her mare encouraged him and he used to have a great time with her. He is 23 now and has long given up on such behaviour. He never bothered with my mare who was bigger.
 
Agnus castus worked great for a gelding with those tendencies when I was on livery. Given to both mare and gelding from spring to autumn.

I have a gelding now that was gelded at 2.5years and he shows rig like behaviour. We don't have mares at home so it's not to much of an issue for us. There were definitely 2 removed, but possibly some tissue left behind. OP don't think for one minute your vet would omit to tell you they had removed a whole testicle, but if one was sat a lot higher than the other sometimes it is tricky to get too and there can be some tissue inadvertently left behind. Back when my parents were breeding it was called being 'cut proud' and was often asked for by the Welsh showing fraternity as it helps produce more 'presence' in the ring.
 
My Exmoor gelding mounted mares until his late teens. Testosterone isn't just produced by the testicles. It's also produced in periphery tissue, so your gelding may just be one of those horses that produces more in the adrenal and prostate etc. My gelding definitely had both balls removed. Gelding late increases the chances of this behaviour as during puberty, testosterone plays a key role in prostate and adrenal gland development, amongst other things. In my case, he was a gentle lover and I minded more than other liveries (being small, they thought it was hilarious, but him mounting a 17hh mad mare that had a drainpipe fillet string gave me a heart attack!). For most of his life he was kept in my own little herd, although he did have a gay spring with my Shetland, one year!!
 
My 19 year old who was gelded at 7 went out with a mare for the first time ever a few weeks ago and was covering her when in season so now he can't be with her 😄
 
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