Has anyone gelded an older stallion? What weree your experiences? We’re thinking of gelding our 13 year old stallion since we’re pretty well getting out of the breeding business. We would like to keep a bit of frozen semen from him hopefully.
Any suggestions or experiences greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Nancy!
Nice to have that frozen on hand… And gelding makes life a lot simpler
Bear in mind that sexual behaviours are not all hormonally driven, but many are learned behaviours. In other words, gelding an older stallion is not necessarily going to make a huge difference in disposition - he may still evidence “stallion-like behaviour”.
People also often make the mistake of believing that a gelding will not breed a mare, and it’s therefore OK to turn them out together - in fact this is often the driving force behind a decision to geld an older stallion that is “not breeding any more”. FAIL! Geldings can and do breed mares - not all geldings, but those in particular that were gelded older are more likely to. While they cannot of course get the mare pregnant, they can transmit disease/pathogens from one animal to another, and furthermore, the risk of injury to one or more animals is significant in a pasture situation.
There is also a health risk connected to gelding older stallions, with a greater risk of hemorrhage.
On the subject of frozen semen - don’t make the mistake of getting the semen frozen, having it looked at post-thaw and being told “it looks good” and then gelding the stallion (if you’re still contemplating that after my above comments! 
). Thawed frozen semen may LOOK good, with excellent motility, but it could also still be completely incapable of achieving a pregnancy. Breed mares with the frozen semen and achieve a pregnancy before gelding the stallion! That way you’re not going to have a major disappointment down the road after you’ve already removed the essential equipment!
Overall, my advice to you is to think long and hard about this. It might result in a wonderful gelding; it might result in a stallion-like gelding; or it could result in disaster.
Good luck, and hope this helps.
Thanks Jos. (I was really hoping you’d reply - how is Kathy doing?)
The soon to be gelding has lived with his older father all winter and is now exhibiting his regular spring behaviours. Since we have decided not to breed anymore, I’m not to worried about saving semen. We have elected not to freeze him as it will delay his lower lobotomy and will be expensive.
I’m just looking to having him have a better life. He will not be turned out with the mares or other geldings as far as that goes. If he goes back to his “fall/winter” behaviour, he would go back out with his dad. I just want him to be less frustrated as we’ll always have mares around. Sure hope that it does help him but I know that it may not make him as quiet as I’d like:lol:.
Nancy!
Do be aware that he may still have a herd sire instinct, so he may still be pacing the fence attending “his” mares. Also be cautious turning him out with Dad if Dad is still an entire. While it might be just fine, I can make you quake in your boots with several stories where things most decidedly did not turn out fine.
The issue is the learned behaviour rather than hormonal aspect. As I said, it might work fine, but it might not, so be cautious…
Kathy posted an update (follow link), but in essence she is doing better, although now my real work starts trying to keep her from attempting to do too much!!
Thanks Jos. Yes, I know that things may not change but I think it will help him relax a bit. At least I hope so. He’s been with dad all winter and they’ve gotten along fine. We’ll sure be monitoring when we do try them back together - probably in the fall.
Anyways, appointment booked!
Glad to hear that Kathy is doing better. And I know how hard your job is right now. Hubby broke his pelvis one year and trying to keep him from stuff was difficult. I hope you have better luck. :lol:
Nancy!
I’ve gelded as late as 10 y.o. Obviously, later is harder on the horse so be sure your vet is competent and you have good post surgery (and yes, gelding this late is significant surgery, not the almost trivial post weaning castration) care.
Frankly, the ones I’ve experienced have ended up being happier - they don’t have the hormonal drives, and we’ve been able to turn them out with other horses. I really believe that one of the significant issues with keeping stallions is the socialization problem. As noted above, there can be holdover issues from history/habituation/learned behavior that should be expected.
Thanks Secretariat: Yes, our vets are great!! And even though the vet is over 3 hours away, I’m leaving him there for a few days to ensure that he’ll be okay. At least physically. 
And yes, I’m really hoping he ends up happier. Mind you he would probably be happier if I could just give him lots and lots of mares.:lol:
Nancy!
Looked at your website and he is a nice boy. Just throwing this out there, but did you ever think of selling him to another breeding farm? He looks like he has accomplished quite a bit. If not, a stallion always makes a nice gelding:) Best wishes.
Thanks Derby Lyn Farms. Yes, he is a good guy and has won lots. Hubby did think about selling him but since he’s so versatile, I think he’d rather keep him.
However, the jury is up in the air at the moment. I’m a bit worried about the EHV outbreak. Was planning on dropping him off at the clinic and heading to a show (jumpers at Spruce Meadows) but am not sure if that’s the best plan. May want to wait for a bit yet.
Of course, if you’d like to buy him - I’m sure hubby will entertain an offer. ;)
Nancy!
I have a gelding who was a breeding stallion until he was 8 years old. He was VERY aggressive around food. He was gelded and then started to saddle. He still pins his ears when he’s eating, but now you can touch him without loosing an appendage. He’s turned out with geldings, mares and foals with no problems and NO stallion like behaviour. We froze him before cutting him as well.
All in all, if I were to keep a stallion I’d probably go this route, swimmers without the fuss. It’s so much easier to have a nice show stallion (he’s currently competing at 4th) and swimmers just a phone call away.
We have a castrated Fidermark in the barn. He stood, bred then was cut around 6 (before he came to us) due to his new owner not wanting to own/stand a stallion. He is a gelding (in the barn, shipping, showing) in every sense except he has to be on solo turnout. He indeed tried to mount another gelding the one time we tried to give him a buddy… the buddy was not impressed
Our guy is well broke and has done well, in fact he’s a perfect gentleman at shows. At home -he knows where the mares live.
Have surgery scheduled for tomorrow but with the new EHV outbreak, not sure he’s going anywhere.
Nancy!
[QUOTE=Nancy!;5610963]
Our guy is well broke and has done well, in fact he’s a perfect gentleman at shows. At home -he knows where the mares live.
Have surgery scheduled for tomorrow but with the new EHV outbreak, not sure he’s going anywhere.
Nancy![/QUOTE]
Just wondering if your “stally” is now a “geldy”?
I recently had a 6y.o. gelded…excellent results so far. Don’t mean to hijack…but wondering how long folks wait to put them back into work?
When we gelded our 4 year old stallion we were told after the first day/few hrs to give him as much light exercise and turn out that he could handle including working under saddle lightly for 2 wks with plenty of cold hosing.
Yes, our new gelding is doing well. Surgery was late yesterday. He still thinks he’s a stallion apparently as he has certainly been announcing himself.:lol:
He is still at the vet clinic and I will pick him up on the weekend. Don’t know how long before he’s back into work as he hasn’t been worked this year yet as hubby is recovering from knee surgery. However I was told he is to be lunged 15 minutes twice a day for two weeks. He will be on turnout 24/7 so that should help.
Wonder how mad he will be at me when I pick him up?:winkgrin:
Nancy!
[QUOTE=Nancy!;5615621]
Wonder how mad he will be at me when I pick him up?[/QUOTE]
He won’t be mad at you while he’s still got some testosterone circulating - it’s when that level drops and he realizes what he’s lost that he’ll be upset!! :lol:
Watch him closely! I gelded my stallion at 11 yrs old. He had a reaction to the PDS(dissolving suture material) --some of it due to his size and part of it due the surgical site closing too quickly despite hosing and exercise. It took six months to eventually heal, lots of debriding and taking out the scar tissue from the ongoing infection.
Currently my former stallion has the perfect life in West Virginia, for the past 9 yrs, being loved and adored my friend’s daughters.
Jos: :lol: I think he might notice already. I was told when I called to see how he was that he had huge testicles. :eek: I did call just when the surgery was to be finished and said “wait, I’ve changed my mind”. :lol:
Jcotton: Trust me, I’ll be keeping a really close eye on him when he gets home tomorrow. Sorry to hear you had such a bad go of it.
Nancy!
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