Age, time of year, other factors to consider.
I only do mine when it’s NOT fly season. I also usually wait until they’re close or at 8 months or older depending on whether or not I believe I have a stallion prospect. If I know I"m going to geld I try to do it while the colt is still on the dam. My mares are usually ‘ready’ to wean at 8 months; so, it works for me. I have had really good luck with no complications with those I’ve done at 7/8 months while still on the dam - no swelling, no bleeding, acting like nothing happened. I’ve certainly done them older with few issues (some swelling) and have gelded breeding stallions.
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Late fall of weanling year or early spring of yearling year-- to avoid flies and hopefully the worst of the mud and ideally have them moving around a lot.
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We wait until they are a full 12 months old. This is to keep their height down. Leaving them till then has the knees started closing, as stallions develop with testosterone in other directions than height lIke a gelding. Studies of full brothers always have the gelding taller than the stallion, especially when gelded young.
Our horses come from tall lines, we want them staying under 17h to match the other horses in height, stride length for their driving careers. So gelding later has worked best for us. We learned with the first colt, gelded at 9 months, who grew too tall to match the other horses We were crazy about him, perfect temperment, easy to train, put in 5 years on him, then he just shot up!! Did not quit growing until 8yrs, ending up about 18.1H. We sold him to a friend at 6yrs when it was obvious he would never go with the others. We all cried when he left. His full brother, gelded at 14 months, is just right at 17H. He is still a wonderful horse, has been terrific for her, all these years. I would take him if I could only have one horse!!
Benefits of waiting seem to make for a bolder horse as they develop in training, in our barn anyway. Husband loves a FORWARD horse! We have older geldings we turn the Colts out with. Colts can play rough, run, bite, get disciplined by older horses, learn herd dynamics to be well socialized as they age. Our colts don’t pay extra attention to the mares kept in other paddocks, never nose to nose. True even with mares in season, at the colts 12 to 14 month age area… Not studly acting when handled by people, just a young horse acting silly now and then. They are handled twice EVERY DAY, going from barn to pasture, then back in barn again. They also get tied, groomed, feet handled regularly. Nothing beats that daily handling, they are gentlemen in-hand, not hooligans!
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Spring of two year old year … after winter weather before fly weather.
What breed are yours, goodhors? Can you post without compromising the BB anonymity? Just imagining a pair and teams.
When it’s not fly season around 2 - 2 1/2 years.
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Cleveland Bay Partbreds. No Purebred Clevelands since we are users, not really breeders except for ourselves. Husband likes Multiples, so they all have to to be interchangeable as needed, having matching stride lengths. He prefers the Four, but has done Tandem, Unicorn and Pairs. Until our last foal they were all colts, so plenty of experience with gelding them and getting consistant results with the older age in timing of the gelding.
When I was breeding horses for the purpose of racing, I would leave them colts, as long as they were not asking to be gelded with difficult behaviour or lack of focus. Earlier maturation with testosterone. BUT, if I had only one colt, and the rest fillies, I might modify this plan, as being turned out together until time to break is SO important, and geld earlier. For riding horses, I like to geld as weanlings, then just leave the baby to grow up with the herd, not be forced to separate them early due to testicles. The last one I had gelded was done before weaning, went with his mother to my vet of choice, at a gelding party at a friend’s farm. This was done before winter set in, and I could not travel with my horse trailer due to snow, the gelding party was scheduled after the TB yearling sale. The earlier you geld them, the easier it is on them. I’ve had such horrific gelding surgeries when using vets that are NOT my regular vets from my racing contacts, that this became an issue I could not ignore. I had to get this weanling to the right vet, before the snow hit.
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Thanks, for the information and opinions its very helpful.
I have only bred, raised, worked with TBs. Commercial breeder meaning the vast majority of each years foal crop were bred to be sold at auction as yearlings. Ours and clients. 99.9% of TB yearlings/foals are not gelded before being sold.
Ones kept to race and or were sent to us to brake and train. Unless they had a serious pedigree and or showed serious potential while training. They were all gelded in the late fall of their 2 year old year. I feel they should keep the package, the testosterone while growing. Unless they were a total PITA to handle because of the package. Lacked focus. Like I did when I was a teenager.
The vast majority of top racehorses, the very top race horses are always colts. Even thought they run against very good geldings.
They can be gelded anytime of the year. Others have posted why it is best to do in the late fall early winter. I have gelded 4 year olds and their studdish behavior diminished with time. 5 and older it depended on the horse. Most retain the behavior for a long time the older they get IME. For some, most it has become too ingrained.
“Studies of full brothers always have the gelding taller than the stallion”
TB breeders as a rule, rarely breed back to the same stallion. So full siblings is fairly rare. I’ve only breed 2 full brothers. The 2 younger brothers were gelded when they were two. Both of them finished out taller then their older full colt brothers.
In the TB world, an entire horse is called referred to as a colt until age 5. After that they are called “horse”. We do not call an entire horse a stallion until it goes to stud. Gelding are always called gelding regardless of age. Though some of us will still call a young gelding a colt from time to time when talking about the horse.
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If I know I don’t want to keep them intact then ideally around five months old. Plenty of time to recover and be ready for weaning after 6 months 
