Is 2 late to Geld a Colt

Vixxy

Vixxy

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Hi

I am thinking of buying a 2 yr old Welsh D colt, he will need to be gelded. I have read some information online saying that 2 is a bit late to geld and the colt may end up being very stallion like in temprement later on and this is concerning me a little. I hope to end up with a calm natured young horse to ride/drive with.

I am a very experienced owner with 22 yrs experience, however have not dealt with gelding a colt before so any advice would be greatly received!
 
My lad was gelded at 4yo - I bought him 6 weeks later just backed and ridden away.

He has never been particularly stallion like but will mount mares if they hand it to him on a plate in the field.

Never been a problem whilst working
 
There is absolutely no problem in gelding at 2. We often leave ours until they are 4 as they are racehorses and therefore usually somewhere where they can be handled properly. Once gelded they soon settle down and have no problems. My own Welsh D x TB was not done until he was 3 and he is no more colty than the next gelding. The only problem with leaving it later is the size of the testicles making the procedure a little more complicated.
As for your horse's temprament, he's D so he's going to have some attitide with or without his balls!
 
Warmblood stallions are often gelded late (one I know was not cut until it was 16 years old and sold to an amateur owner but I think that's excessive). This '2-year-old is too old to cut' thing seems to be a belief that mainly circulates in the Welsh breed as when we went to see Rin as a 2-year-old colt (which he had been advertised as) three people had seen him beforehand. Two of them saw him (knowing he was 2 years old!) and then said that they really wanted was a riding pony and he was too old to geld and the third said she wanted a stallion prospect and he was too masculine <sigh>. Unless these people are professional timewaters (they probably were) one does wonder where they are coming from.

Of course we wanted Rin to stay entire so it was not a problem to us, but I would say it shouldn't be an issue anyway even with the most forward of colts (as ponies often are). With competition horses, smaller ones are often cut so that they grow taller (as this helps them put growth into height rather than secondary sexual characteristics) and tall ones are often kept entire to make sure that they don't grow too tall as geldings are almost always taller than their entire male siblings.

HTH
 
He is actually a big boy, at 2 yrs he stands at 15hh, his dam is 15.2 and sire is 16.3.

My interest in him is the height factor, a sec D with height would be great for me. He will be the 3rd D I have owned in 22 yrs. One when I was 10yrs and one that I sadly had to have put down last year due to severe athritis after many years of ownership, he is very much missed.

Currently I own a Dutch Sports Horse 16hh (I have owned for 2 yrs) and a little Welsh A mare (I have owned for 4 yrs) for my two young boys.
 
We leave ours until 3, 4 if possible as they mature better.

IMO it is better to geld in autumn than winter if at all possible.
 
I had a new horse cut last autumn - he is 10! he is now turned out with my mare. Every horse is different but I would say at 2 you will be fine!!
 
No Sec D's do not have an upper hight limit, I have seen a few very tall Sec D's for sale on net but not very many. There was one at Royal Welsh last year that stood at 16hh.

So I am very excited about this young chap, the looks/build and personality of a D but the height of a nice riding horse - PERFECT
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He has full WPCS papers and I have seen his breeding history. The breeder has been breeding for 22 yrs and they have specialised in order to breed tall examples.
 
I don't think age really matters with regards to temprement of colts/stallions and when they are castrated. Personally i have found that the problems with stallions normally occur once they start covering mares (if they are a problem before then they should never be stallions).
I do think that if they have been used as a stallion to cover mares and then cut that you can sometimes have problems. We had a stallion cut when he was nearly 6 and you still have to kind of treat him as you would a stallion and he is now 9. In fact I sometimes think that we should have left him as a stallion as people know what to expect but he now has a better kind of lifestyle now he has been gelded.
 
We had our 16 year old stallion gelded, really does not matter physically (however a vet should confirm this) as for their male tendencies...that could be a different matter.

We've gelded at 2 before and found no problems, in fact some prefer to (providing you can accommodate them) give them chance to 'mature more', you can usually tell a gelding that has been gelded later on too.
 
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