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 Worst.Housekeeper.EVER.
   
Location: Missouri | I've been told after weaning and wait until yearling. What's your preference? Hoping to send him to the track, if that influences the decision. |
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  Ms. Marine
Posts: 4642
 
Location: Texas | We've always gelded ours around 9 months to a year old. |
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 A Somebody to Everybody
Posts: 41354
Location: Under The Big Sky Of Texas | Six to eight months is when I did mine. |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 915
Location: SE KS | We consider the size of the colt before we geld him, a smaller colt we keep a stud till as long as we can stand him(attitude wise) then they are gelded. We have a long yearling we plan to geld any time as he is good sized & has dropped both.
I don't know anything about sending one to the track, so I'm no help there!!! |
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 Extreme Veteran
Posts: 575
| lhighquality - 2016-10-06 8:24 AM We consider the size of the colt before we geld him, a smaller colt we keep a stud till as long as we can stand him(attitude wise) then they are gelded. We have a long yearling we plan to geld any time as he is good sized & has dropped both. I don't know anything about sending one to the track, so I'm no help there!!!
I'm not asking to be a jerk, so I hope it doesn't come off that way! I really am curious.
I had heard that after gelding, the horse will typically grow taller, and that keeping them in tact tends to make them stop growing earlier. Is this not the case? |
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 Midget Lover
Location: Kentucky | As soon as those suckers drop, I cut. My last two were gelded at 4 months. One of those colts is 3 years old and 15.2 hands now. I find that gelding early has no ill effect on them... only benefits!! |
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 The Worst Seller Ever
Posts: 4138
Location: Oklahoma | I am the odd man out. :) We always wait till spring of their 2yo year, if we know we are going to geld. |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 915
Location: SE KS | rpreast - 2016-10-06 10:22 AM
lhighquality - 2016-10-06 8:24 AM We consider the size of the colt before we geld him, a smaller colt we keep a stud till as long as we can stand him(attitude wise) then they are gelded. We have a long yearling we plan to geld any time as he is good sized & has dropped both. I don't know anything about sending one to the track, so I'm no help there!!!
I'm not asking to be a jerk, so I hope it doesn't come off that way! I really am curious.
I had heard that after gelding, the horse will typically grow taller, and that keeping them in tact tends to make them stop growing earlier. Is this not the case?
I heard the opposite way you did!! So who knows!!!! We just didn't want to stress them so we waited |
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Expert
Posts: 1280
Location: Texas | “Horses castrated as foals generally end up being a little taller than horses cut later in life,” explains Peter Sheerin, DVM, of Nandi Veterinary Associates, in New Freedom, Pa. “The stallion’s long bones stop growing sooner, when he reaches puberty. This is all related to testosterone and closing of the growth plates.” So, the old tradition of waiting until the horse is 2 or 3 years old to geld him so he will “develop” is no reason to postpone castration.
http://www.thehorse.com/articles/34580/castration-the-when-and-how
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 Expert
Posts: 2013
Location: Piedmont, OK | I usually do it around 1 1/2 yr old |
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 Take a Picture
Posts: 12842
| I like a GELDING. I cut them early so they do not have a heavy jaw ETC. I like the horse to be a little more feminine looking. I don't want a cut stud. As soon as the is something to grab they go to the vet. They do not have any studly tendencies, don't get cut trying to check out the girls in another pasture, just better all the way around. I also do any surgical procedure by the almanac. |
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 Good Grief!
Posts: 6343
Location: Cap'n Joan Rotgut.....alberta | Long yearling to 2yrs old....m |
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 Goat Giver
Posts: 23166
| When they annoy me. Except for Knotthead, he frequently annoys me but at age 5, he is still intact. |
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| just4fun - 2016-10-06 9:04 AM
I've been told after weaning and wait until yearling. What's your preference? Hoping to send him to the track, if that influences the decision.
***************************************************
On racing a 2 year old I enter July or later futurities and begin track
breaking and slow lopes in March ...
So that puts castration on the dockets 2 months prior to track training
starting ...
like in early January ... no flies and keep them out to walk around
on their own to keep swelling and any problems down.
Keep in mind they close their knees (grow kneecaps) fillies 26 months,
colts 28-30 months.
If you are raising your performance horses to eat .. then castrate them
early like you do bull calves ... so their meat will marble at an earlier
age.
You want all the hormones nature provides until you are ready to start
track breaking and training. You want those clean hard using muscles and
not a fat couch potato. ... your intact colts will teach themselves how
to run full blast ... your early castrated ones will be tagalongs .... lol
Track break the colt .. do not over do the reining and
stopping and being completely docile. At home you can teach
them to pony so they see a rider above them w/saddle
and w/o saddle and then limit your laying
your chest in a western saddle to get them used to weight..
not to take any buck out of them ....
and of course some ground manners, trimming, tying etc ..
You will teach lead changes on the track, gate loading etc .... a horse
race is nothing but a controlled stampede ... last thing you want is
a fat barn brat loping along huffing and puffing behind the field ...
lol
On non-racing colts ... geld at 24 months unless they are total wrecks ..
and wait till after their knees close to start your training at 30+
months old ..
If you doubt what I say ... look at your castrated dog -vs- the one
left intact ... lol
Edited by BARRELHORSE USA 2016-10-06 8:39 PM
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 Zeal Queen
Posts: 3826
Location: TEXAS | I had this same question.....we have a long yearling but he's not very big. I want him to get bigger so I didn't know when to cut him. Also, does ralgro really work?
Edited by slacy09 2016-10-07 11:17 AM
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 672
| kmcsunshine - 2016-10-06 7:29 PM
When they annoy me. Except for Knotthead, he frequently annoys me but at age 5, he is still intact.
Same here. I remind my husband of that fact too ;) |
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Worst.Housekeeper.EVER.
Location: Missouri | Thanks so much for the responses. No wonder I was confused. Lol! Seems like everyone has different opinions. He's a nice colt and I want to do what's best. I'll do some more research but definitely appreciate the advice.
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 824
Location: Duvall, WA | <
If you doubt what I say ... look at your castrated dog -vs- the one
left intact ... lol >
^^^ THIS ^^^ I know nothing about timing on colts but I can tell you the latest research on dogs is profound. Early neutering of dogs doubles the incidence of cancer, hip dysplasia, and quadruples the amount of CCL tears. They are now telling us neutering young (before puberty) can cut your dog's life in half, mostly because it causes the bones grow out of proportion to what mother nature intended. Hormones are an important part of growth patterns. I would imagine there must also be some impact on horses.
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 Veteran
Posts: 214
| Just bumping this back up to see if there are any new opinions... we have a 2.5 month old with quite the ego (although this is our first foal so maybe the ego is normal???) We were planning on gelding this fall once the flies go away so he would be about 5-6 months.. too early? |
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 Neat Freak
Posts: 11216
Location: Wonderful Wyoming | We usually do them in March/April of their yearling year. Before the flies get bad and right before we turn them out to summer pasture. They are generally May babies so just shy of their 1st birthday. I have a colt now that just turned 2 in late summer. He is a crypt and we decided to wait and see if it came down on its own (doubtful, they rarely do but saves money) so we are just going to wait until this fall when the flies are gone. He is a July baby and small anyways. Didn't matter to us either way as we hope he will make a kids horse. Wonderful temperment and "fun sized" already. |
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