Gelding - Reasons For Gelding

Reasons For Gelding

A male horse is often gelded to make him better-behaved and easier to control. Gelding can also remove lower-quality animals from the gene pool. Ideally, horse breeders choose to leave only their best animals as stallions; lesser specimens are gelded, to improve the overall quality of the breed.

To allow only the finest animals to breed on, while preserving adequate genetic diversity, only a small percentage of all male horses should remain stallions. Mainstream sources place the percentage of stallions that should be kept as breeding stock at about 10%, while an extreme view states that only 0.5% of all males should be bred. In wild herds, the 10% ratio is largely maintained, though via a different mechanism, as a single stallion usually protects and breeds a herd which is seldom larger than 10 or 12 mares, though may permit a less dominant junior stallion to live at the fringes of the herd. There are more males than just herd stallions, but unattached male horses group together for protection in small all-male "bachelor herds," where, in the absence of mares, they tend to behave much like geldings.

Geldings are preferred over stallions for working purposes because they are calmer, easier to handle, and more tractable. Geldings are therefore a favorite for many equestrians. In some horse shows, due to the dangers inherent in handling stallions, which require experienced handlers, youth exhibitors are not permitted to show stallions in classes limited to just those riders.

Geldings are often preferred over mares, because some mares become temperamental when in heat. Also, the use of mares may be limited during the later months of pregnancy and while caring for a young foal.

In horse racing, castrating a stallion may be considered worthwhile if the animal is easily distracted by other horses, difficult to handle, or otherwise not running to his full potential due to behavioral issues. While this means the horse loses any breeding value, a successful track career can often be a boost to the value of the stallion that sired the gelding.

Sometimes a stallion used for breeding is castrated later in life, possibly due to sterility, or because the offspring of the stallion are not up to expectations, or simply because the horse is not used much for breeding, due to shifting fashion in pedigree or phenotype. Castration may allow a stallion to live peacefully with other horses, allowing a more social and comfortable existence.

Under British National Hunt racing (i.e. Steeplechase) rules, to minimize the health and safety risk for horses, riders, and spectators, nearly all participating horses are geldings. On the other hand, in Europe, geldings are excluded from many of the most prestigious flat races including the Classics and the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe. In North American Thoroughbred racing, geldings, if otherwise qualified by age, winnings, or experience, are allowed in races open to intact males.