My friends and I are having a conversation about horse personalities. I’m primarily interested in friendly interactions with people. I own 2 wonderful mares and 2 funny geldings. My girls are everything I could want in trail horses but they aren’t very interactive with people. The boys are always eagerly coming up to check pockets for treats or just to get a pat or a scratch. In the barn the boys like to stick their heads in the tack room, hang their heads out of their stalls and reach for passerbys. The girls go straight to their stalls, eat their food and then either stare out of their Dutch doors or just stand around. They all get treated with equal kindness and care; in fact, because they are rideable the girls get more positive attention.
My friends have noticed that their mares are less interactive with people and less
likely to have funny little behaviors too.
What have your experiences been? I’ve had 1 mare that was funny and sweet and wanted loads of attention but only that one mare. How about you?
I think it really depends on the individual horse. I’ve had mares whose personalities were were very workmanlike (not affectionate, but focused on their jobs), but I’ve also had a mare who was wonderfully interactive and tried really hard for me. She was very smart. I wish she was a phoenix, I’d be thrilled to have her forever. Same with geldings, I’ve ridden several who were rather aloof but my current gelding is extremely interactive and smart. He catches on to things re training and quickly and remembers. We have, for example, worked out a system where he shows me where he itches, and then I scratch there he makes all sorts of noises, lip movements and postures showing that he loves it. He has a huge personality and is very keyed into whom he considers “his peeps”. IME, interaction and ability to take on training is related to how smart they are rather than gender. I really enjoy smarter horses. Would love to hear other peoples’ opinions.
I also think it depends on the horse, and a lot on how you treat them. I’ve known many horses who are a little detached and not people oriented, and they change when you start to treat them like personalities. And different horses react to different people, as do people. If you like a horse and treat them like they matter, their personalities come out.
That said, my mares have always been all over people in their own ways. Some are sneakers and end up being all over you without noticing. Some are all over you with their arms wide open making sure they touch everything. Some are less touchy, but make sure they are involved with everything going on.
I used to have a gelding that was one of the funniest, most in your face horses ever. If he thought you were one of “his peeps” and he heard your car drive up, but you did not come to him right away, he would make a ruckus.
There are so many differences in temperament between individual horses, I would say that one is a mare or gelding is but a small difference, when there is one at all.
Granted, I don’t think we will find a gelding acting in heat, so there are times where geldings definitely don’t act like mares.
Each horse is so very interesting in itself, mare or gelding.
I too have had mares that were very in your pocket types as well as being total business when it counted. I’ve had aloof geldings who knew their job but to blanket them or groom them…well watch out. I’ve also had stallions who were aloof and then those that were total love bugs and diva’s all at the same time. I agree that it’s more of an individual variable that has much more to do with genetics and socialization than sex. In fact I have a gelding who has been the best stinking babysitter/surrogate mare/maternal to a fault type because he protects each and everyone of his ‘kids’. I find animal behavior and personalities fascinating.
I’ll pick a nit: horses, not being persons, don’t have “personalities.”
If you’re a Parelliite they have “horsesonalities.” If your real horseman/woman they have “temperaments.” 
Presently, I’ve one gelding and three mares. The gelding is Mr. Inyourpockets. He loves being touched. He will invade your personal space to get touched just as much as you let him. I’ve one mare who is quite happy to seek human contact but is not so forward about it. The other two are more standoffish. They are not shy, just not very forward about the whole thing.
Having owned a hundred or so horses over the years (mostly Walking Horses, Racking Horses, and Mangalarga Marchadors) I would consider this a pretty good general description of what I’ve noted. But there has been the odd gelding who didn’t want to be handled, the odd mare who very much did, and a few who didn’t ever want to be caught!!! 
As with all generalities this one has it’s limits, but is likely more true than not.
G.
oh just get a Morgan, mare or gelding everything you do they will check to see if you are doing it correctly and then advise you on how it should have been done
I’ve found more individual differences rather than gender differences
As far as the “mare” stereotype and the “gelding” stereotypes go (and these stereotypes vary slightly person to person/barn to barn - in general I’ll address this as people say mares are a little less affectionate, pickier with “their” people, more exacting, smarter, geldings tend to be a little less intelligent/clever, more forgiving, more cuddly) I will say that the most “mareish” horse I know was a gelding. He was hideously forgiving under saddle and completely intolerant of mistakes (tail swish/kick at mis-applied leg/hand, for example). Likewise, two of the most reserved horses I know (RE: people) are geldings. They’re not afraid of people, they’re just not super interested unless it’s that one person who is “theirs.”
On the inverse, I’ve known some lovely mares who really do want nothing more than to mug you for attention, cuddle, and are very generous under saddle.
Ultimately I agree with some earlier posters: it’s more of an individual distinction, and less along gender lines (in my experience, at any rate).
I have three mares and one gelding. They all love attention, and do silly things to get it. The mares are more opinionated, especially in their interactions with other horses, and under saddle. On the ground, with people, they’re docile, loving, looking for treats or scratches, or just want to know what you’re doing. Then again, my horses are at home, and I think that might make them more “in your pocket” than if they lived at a busy boarding barn, where they might just tune out all the activity.
LOL- Agree! Although my Morgan girls definitely have a bit more of the all business all the time, why get there eventually when you could get there RIGHT NOW attitude compared to my boys. My boys are your statement through and through
I do agree that, for the most part, it’s the individual horse. Their traits, their situation, the people that interact with them. I’ve found that horses, for example, that come out of full time training barns can suddenly be quite different in a one-on-one person and horse situation. It’s nothing against training barns, I imagine it would consume the entire day just to have that same type of interaction an individual owner can give to a horse, to 30+ head of training horses.
Largely, the folks I know, have horses that fit the stereotypes. More affectionate geldings, less affectionate mares. My own horse isn’t what I’d call affectionate, but she’s interactive. She’ll meet you at the gate, she’ll sniff and nose at you, she’ll listen to you. She likes being scratched more than being pet, but she can appreciate it sometimes. Most of the mares I’ve owned have been the same way. The most moody, aloof, set in their ways type that I’ve owned, though? My old gelding.
I have considered the idea that, maybe, owners or potential owners are subconsciously attracted to certain types of temperaments. It’s not that most or all mares behave one way and geldings another, but that people pick or shape horses in some ways. So, for example, one of my friends seems to only trend towards male animals. All of her geldings are more pet-like, she enjoys that, and it’s why she prefers them. Perhaps it’s not so much that geldings do fit that stereotype, but that she is drawn to certain personalities and then rewards that behavior. And they happen to be geldings.
Similarly to anything else, too, I think people who believe wholly in stereotypes will find reasons to reinforce stereotypes.
My gelding is sweet but anxious. He is an OTTB and when he came to me, was deathly afraid of men carrying any kind of implement. He’s completely over that now but has always been reserved. He is easy to catch but not overly affectionate. My draft-x mare is in your pocket, nosy and bossy. If someone is in her pasture, she will follow them around and supervise them. She is wickedly smart and has an oversized personality.
I think Bitranchy is onto something with her observation that people tend, unconsciously or no, toward certain temperaments. When my son was 13, he got to pick out a weanling from a large breeding operation. (He’d won participation in the AQHA’s Young Horse Development Project.) There were 20 fillies and colts from which to choose, a real Willy Wonka moment, and any of them would’ve been wonderful. Although he originally wanted a colt, and we went to see the fillies mostly out of politeness, he chose a plain red filly who was not nearly as flashy as some of other youngsters. As he gazed at her in the huge pasture, surrounded by mares and their daughters, he saw and felt something in her expression that resonated with him.
She’s 3.5 half years old now and has been a delight since that first day. Open, curious, supremely friendly and willing, yet opinionated. Our horse vet admires her and says “she’s going to be one badass mare.”
I like mares…geldings too, but I’ve always had some really sweet and funny mares. Toughest horse I ever had was a Saddlebred mare…loved to be scratched, rubbed, fooled with and was a totally embarrassing hussy who made a siamese cat in heat look demure. She was dripping in personality and very responsive. I have a Fjord mare now…amazingly demonstrative, loves attention and has been a wonderful partner to a friends young daughter with autism…she’ll spend time with my Fjord just grazing her and petting her, while the mare happily eats grass but will touch the girl with her nose just “checking in” every couple of minutes…wonderful to watch. I’ve always had horses with big personalities, gelding/mares and stallions. My geldings were all great guys…just a slightly bit “goofy”…like they never quite grew up but were great to deal with.
Course…cyclical females dealing with cyclical females isn’t always the best combination. When my mares were being…marish, I always enjoyed all the personality being there…bright colors vs. gelding pastels. But…as the old saying goes, no good horse is a bad color or the wrong sex.
It’s a biological fact that mares and stallions are different and will have different temperaments. Anyone who’s ever been a stallion owner and rider knows this.
A gelding is an altered stallion. Meaning that they possess the base traits of the stallion, but without the hormonal fuel to power “stallion behavior.”
So there will, by definition, be a differences in temperament between a mare and a gelding. What are they and what do they mean? Therein lay the question.
G.
