Mare or Gelding ?

can't choose lol, currently have 1 mare and 3 geldings and they all have their own good and bad points:) As far as herd dynamics having just 1 mare does sometimes cause me issues,1 gelding is very protective of her and bullies the other boys to keep them away from 'his girl'. He also turns himself inside out when she's taken away from him, no matter who else he is out with:rolleyes: She on the other hand doesn't give 2 hoots about him lol, she's a tart equally with all boys:eek::D
 
Always had geldings till i accidently ended up with my chestnut mare i have now,
never been so in-tune with a horse before! she knows what i`m thinking before i give her any aids, also works to disadvantage as she is sensitive to changes in my riding aswell!!
 
2 hormonal daughters and a wife, don't think I could stand a hormonal horse as well, gelding for me, and he is bright as a button and learns very quick.
 
I have two geldings, and a homebred mare. I'm trying to find a loan home for the mare, she was great to back earlier this year, but we don't click at all. Interesting how some have said that you can have a great bond with a mare - I was there for her birth, and she actually bonded with me before her dam (dam was a confused maiden) to the point that I had to leave the field, but I don't think we have a bond, she pays me and my OH no more interest than a riding school pony would the first time you went there. Even when she went away for a fortnights schooling, and we visited, she didn't pay us any attention. Quite strange Give me the sweet easy gentle kind geldings anyday! The mare is not mareish, I think I've only seen her in season twice, but she is so bossy that the boys have a hard time of it with her, they are her herd and she runs a tight ship.
 
I had always been more of a gelding person. My first pony was a sweet but smart mare, second was a young, green and bonkers mare and all the others have been sweet, biddable geldings. Current one is a mare and for some reason we do seem to have a very strong bond. She is quite similar to me I suppose, when things are good they are very good and when they are bad they are horrid! She is usually easy going, laid back and even tempered but she has moments of complete tense spooky knobbishness. Get something wrong and she goes all short, tense, choppy and horrid. Get angry and she will get angrier. Fight her and she will fight harder. But she will jump a 5ft gate from a trot to follow me, she will stand in her field with the gate open and her friends gone for their dinner in their boxes to wait for me, she will stand on her hind legs to peer over the dividing wall of her barn box to see me if she can hear me. I love her fiercely and she frustrates me fiercely in equal measures! :)
 
I have 4 geldings, no mares.

But as a bloke, mares are strange creatures. I've known a couple that I've just clicked with, they have stuck to me like glue and followed me around, sometimes giving me the best schooling work of any horses I've ridden.

I had a brilliant relationship with one mare - Peggy - that everyone else really couldn't stand to be near - she was cranky, bad tempered and frankly nasty, impossible to catch - but she was sweetness itself for me and the other bloke who sometimes rode her. A real tart!

I think mares are just pretty black and white about who they like and don't like.
 
Geldings for me everytime. Although I will never say never to owning a mare, if the right one comes along! Think I may have just contradicted myself!! ;)
 
I would love a nice easy going horse but I've got a mare who is opinionated, beautiful, extremely intelligent and challanging. She keeps me on my toes and most definitely improves my horsemanship. I love her huge personality............but given the choice again would probably have a gelding lol
 
I often find that geldings remind me of dogs: friendly, reliable, can be told what to do, and will be anyone's friend generally speaking. Mare's I've found to be more sensitive, slower to bond, and often one or two-people horses: to me this makes them so deeply interesting. I also like the idea of having a whole, intact horse rather than a medically calmed one (by castration).

However, my favourite mare on the yard is so laid back and friendly with everyone that she's horizontal - more like geldings I know. Oddly though, one of my fave geldings is unbelievably moody, and will either the the napping knobber from hell or the amazing, jaw-dropping horse that can outshine anything else. I love the sense of satisfaction that getting him to work well brings.

All in all, when I'm lucky enough to be horse shopping in a few years time, I'll be looking to find the right horse for me in terms of a match: I'll be viewing both sexes to find the one!
 
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