Stallions and Geldings??

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dynasty

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Has anyone turned out their stallion with a gelding and if so what was the outcome? I have a two and a half year old stallion who paces the perimeter of his field all the time if he is not grazing nose to nose under the fence with the gelding in the field next to him. As soon as the gelding moves away from his fence he paces non stop and is losing an awful lot of weight in the process. Just wondered if anyone had any advice would be gratefully received!!!
 
Agree with HJ.

My stallion is out with two colts at the moment but was brought up being out with geldings.

Of course every horse is a indivdual but I have always found the more socialized stallions the nicer to be around.
 
Our rising 3 colts have always lived as part of our herd of 13 until going into their own paddock a few months ago. In there they are turned out with an older gelding but we also pop other geldings in occasionally (part of the established herd) if needed. I would expect them to be ok with all of them. One of the colts does not get on with one of the older geldings and they have fought quite nastily on one occasion but were still turned out together with no further problems after this. I think it does them good to be turned out with others, I couldn't keep them entire if it meant them being alone all the time.
 
We have a rising 3 yr old, 2 x rising 2 yr olds and a weanling. The 3 'big' boys have never met the weanling, but as of tomorrow they will all be living together. I dont expect any issues after the inital rough and tumble. It does help that the weanling is utterly confident and sensible.

But I also dont class the rising 3 yr old as a stallion. Hes a colt, and as such such should be turned out with other babies. If we were going to run him on as an entire (we arent as he is sooo not stallion quality!) we would continue hs turn out, just with geldings or young colts.

Having spent a fair while working on studs they tended to turn out the stallions with youngsters over the winter
 
My colt is turned out with my gelding and had no problems what so ever
They have there little play times , which is nice to see
To see a colt being able to be treated like any other
As said make sure you make the precautions so if anything did go wrong that you could remove asap
 
Dexter said:
We have a rising 3 yr old, 2 x rising 2 yr olds and a weanling. The 3 'big' boys have never met the weanling, but as of tomorrow they will all be living together. I dont expect any issues after the inital rough and tumble.
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Mmmm - I had a good natured 2 year old colt living with 3 x 2 year old geldings! Needed somewhere for a bold, confident yearling colt whose companion had been sold. Thought the 2 year old group would be fine - the yearling had been living the otherside of a narrow track from them so not a total stranger!

We had to intervene VERY quickly - within 5 minutes - when the 2 year old colt had the yearling on the floor, kneeling on it to keep it down - his teeth! He WAS going to kill it - no worries about THAT!

You can NEVER take the reaction of a stallion/colt to another horse for granted!
 
Cappy was turned out with a stallion summer before last, as good as gold. They got on fine and Cappy was well mannered, not always a given. Stallion was gelded this year and again turned out with Cappy, thought the relationship would be the same. Gelding got cheeky and Cappy chased him out of the field, refused to let him back in!

So yes I think they can, depends on circumstances and the horses though.
FDC
 
It's a very individual thing, for safety sake the golden rule is no, specially if the stallion is close to mares on the same yard, used for stud on a regular basis, we have mixed volts and geldings before but only once we'd sold all the mares.
Where as others you wouldn't dream off, they will constantly battle for dominance, not all the time but on a daily basis, others will fight to do serious harm.
I have a very riggy horse which I now only keep with a mare and not mixed with any geldings, strange as this may sound it actually works much better like this, as mixed with just a gelding heard caused him to fight and he was more aggressive, less settled and at times just ran his weight off, now he is much more content and keeps his weight on.
 
Very much depends on the individual. We had a stallion who was incredibly aggressive with geldings. He was a lovely pony with people and with his mares and also competed under saddle quite happily but would literally try to kill geldings even over a fence. I would give it a go but watch him carefully the first time.
 
Definitely depends on the individual, we've always run our babies in a bachelor herd, from 2 months after weaning when they have found their feet without mummy to 10yr old breeding stallions, colts and geldings - it's cruel to keep them on their own when they are still babies and as adults too. Although I wouldn't put an older breeding stallion out with geldings or colts if he had never done it before, or sometimes even with mares as some can react aggressively if they have never been socialised and learnt basic manners, so it does depend.
As your colt is still a baby himself you may still have time to socialise him before he realises what he is, and it may help calm him down - his behavior is only natural for a herd animal and he's obviously very insecure and highly strung, if he can't even graze when the other horse is still there but not near the fence, it will get worse if you don't do something now - even babies can climb 6ft fences if they get desperate enough - which I assume you have as you have an entire, so you don't want him hurting himself. Aslo the fact he is still growing and running fences to the point where he is loosing weight can't be good for his still growing joints so you need to nip it in the bud before he permanently damages himself.

I would try a supervised meeting with this gelding either to start with over a very solid fence or stable door, then progress to a small paddock, where you can easily separate them if need be - make sure you have a good few people to hand to help if needed.
I would do it sooner rather than later before the hormones start to kick in in the spring, and if he likes the other horse and is nicely behaved you can start to add other geldings in, beware though they can change towards their herd after covering a mare and can turn nasty towards them so do watch out when he's old enough to cover.

Colts/stallions brought up on their own in social isolation tend to be rather nasty, dangerous things to handle for the owners and any mares, as well as expensive to fence, as they need something to take their frustration out on - ours spend hours a day wrestling - I'd hate to think what they would be like to handle if they didn't burn off that energy!!

If he doesn't respond well to the gelding and gets aggressive or keeps trying to hump him getting hurt in the process, I'm afraid I'd say geld him, regardless of breeding etc - a youngster that is running fences at 2 and is hard to keep weight on is not a good sign at all! I had one - gorgeous animal but a fence runner at 4, even in a herd and with no mares in sight, but he could still hear them, he hadn't covered as he was only 4 so I hate to think what he would have been like if he had covered! So we gelded him and he is now a much happier horse - some horses are just not meant to be a stallion!
Think of his long term welfare first and foremost and if that means taking his nuts off now before the behavior becomes ingrained and you have a problem horse then you need to do it!! Plus if he looks poor now, is insecure and highly strung and hard to keep weight on - what would prospective mare owners think - I doubt they'd use him.
Just out of interest what breed is he and how was he kept before you got him?
 
I guess with any horse you need to be careful about introducing new horses and there is a chance they may not get on. But my share gelding (who is 18 and was gelded about 4/5 years ago) has been turned out with a 2/3 year old colt and they loved it! The colt did annoy him a bit wanting to play all the time, but he fairly and firmly told him to pee off. Taught the colt some manners actually. Osc isnt aggressive or anything but he is the boss. I think it's nice for them to have company and someone to play with, and i guess if they are introduced early then it teaches them how to behave in a herd and becomes 'normal' for them so not a big deal when they are older.

ETS he was stressy and a very poor doer before being put in with Osc and he soon settled right down and has put loads of weight on now. He was obviously a much happier horse, his character came out and he was less clingy with us humans after being turned out with my share.
 
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