what age to geld?

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alfiesmum

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new colt is approx 6 months old, currently living out with my mare (not mum). he is not showing any signs and does not appeared to be showing his bits yet (bless him).
i was going to wait until spring to geld as he is pretty much unhandled and my new stables are not going to be up till november.
friend came along at wknd and said i should geld now? so now i am confused,
p.s. I went out for a black filly :)
 
there is no major rush to geld, many people do it in their first autumn at weaning but it is not necessary. some colts who are particularly mature will be fertile towards the end of their first season, ie towards the end of the summer when they are a year old. most will not be fertile until the following spring. i would keep an eye on him and maybe geld next spring/summer. maybe ask your vet and see what he says but definately no major rush!
 
g16 said:
there is no major rush to geld, many people do it in their first autumn at weaning but it is not necessary. some colts who are particularly mature will be fertile towards the end of their first season, ie towards the end of the summer when they are a year old. most will not be fertile until the following spring. i would keep an eye on him and maybe geld next spring/summer. maybe ask your vet and see what he says but definately no major rush!
Click to expand...
Ours won't geld in summer due to the flies infecting the wounds.
 
Well I might be wrong but I am sure that I have read/heard that it is not unheard of that a colt is capable of mating with and siring a foal at the age of 9 to 12 months. Whether it is out with its mother/sister or best friend is immaterial. It is female. That is enough! Nature will take its course, so beware!

Interestingly one of the most common reasons for gelding a horse later in life has shown that leaving a horse entire for longer (and therefore the testosterone gained from being allowed to reach sexual maturity will make it larger) is not the case. Any muscle mass gained by doing this will be lost over time once the horse has been gelded.

Another fascinating fact that my own vet told me was that horses that are gelded late in life - i.e. 7 years old in my horses case, are more prone to having heart attacks. He said quite often at a stud farm a stallion will jump down after serving a mare and have a state of collapse (which can often mimic a colic attack), this is often attributed to a heart problem which may develop in later life to a full blown heart attack. We think this was the case with my horse who dropped down dead at the age of 11 from a heart attack after being gelded later in life as a seven year old.
 
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