I did geld him 3 weeks ago now. He was by far the hardest I’ve ever had to geld. As in he needed a couple of sedations, and had a rough recovery. The second day out he bled a lot and I had to call the vets back. He was ok and they didn’t have to do anything but they also had me give him painkillers and antibiotics for an extra 5 days as his swelling was not going down. He was active most of the time, but about a week after surgery, he didn’t want to move. He always ate and seemed bright though. Due to the prolonged pain meds, he then went off feed as I’m sure his stomach was a mess. So I put him on omeprazole and his apatite came right back and his tucked up belly relaxed. I’ve done a few geldings before and never had so many issues! Its now been over 3 weeks and it finally stopped draining a couple of days ago. His attitude seems to be much better though 
Bone density can be improved with judicious exercise as a youngster. That being said, I’m in agreement with Bluey - bone density is more a result of genetics, not when a colt is gelded.
Gelding can also have a lot to do with what you want the horse FOR and circumstances of your farm. As beowulf mentioned, gelding later will result in stallion development that will remain permanent. My father generally gelded anywhere from a month or so before weaning to yearlings that were kept as stallion prospects, but flunked. He raised up a lot of colts. I didn’t see negative results from gelding early, ever.
I am just going on what our sport horse vet has suggested, the staff of several respected vets there recommended delay in gelding to improve bone density
he is currently 10 months old, this from last week
Glad to hear things are settling down with him! What a trial you and he have gone thru!!
As a sidenote, he might still drain intermittently for a while. Ours are large horses, gelded at over yearling ages. The last two showed drips now and then for a couple months, but had no other issues in closing up. I talked to our Vet who replied “Big horses, big holes to close, which take longer. Nothing to worry about. Just wash off any drainage.” He was right, never was a problem and did finally close fully.
I had not ever noticed drainage that long after a gelding procedure, got kind of excited!! Vet had been in practice MANY years, gelded literally thousands of horses, so I went with his advice.
We now geld later, yearling age or slighly beyond to keep height smaller. No more 18+h horses! None of the Colts were ever studdy, had the big geldings to play hard with, who squelched their aspirations of rising up the pecking order! They really were not very interested in the mares yet. Mouthy mostly, which they did on the geldings, not us. Lots of daily turnout in fields to run helped.
I think slower growth helps with strong bones, along with that outside running and play, for impact resistance strengthening the bones. We feed a mostly hay/grass diet, all they will clean up. Very small amounts of actual grain, cracked corn/oats. Supplements are Selenium with Vit E and vitamins. They do get some wet beet pulp mixed with their once a day grain serving. They are lanky, never fat. Young racehorse looking, to not be heavy bodies on soft, growing bones. They do take longer to mature, gain full height, but stay sound into old age. Some folks can’t wait that long, need the early growth for selling young.
My DD works part time in dog training. Says you can definately see the results of early neutering on larger breeds. Many are over-sized, have elongated legs, seem prone to damaging accidents, broken bones, just don’t fill out as expected when mature. I don’t consider my Bouvier dog “full grown” to get neutered at 12 months old. Still feeding her Large Breed puppy chow, and will be until she is at least 18 months. Plus dry milk powder to insure she gets enough calcium. Makes lovely white teeth and strong bones!!
Accidents can happen, they are livestock! Breaks your heart! Sometimes you can change something to prevent it, other times not.
Wow! Gorgeous!
We are not the breeder, just bought these guys from the breeder who we know, this youngster we arranged to pick him up at Nationals since the breeder was going to be there and we had another horse entered…
So since he was There, it was decided to enter him in a class that did not require prior qualification so he entered into the in hand class for the exposure, it was a shock that he won
as a 4 month old he won the Morgan Horse Sport Horse in Hand Stallions/Geldings National class at Nationals against thirty some head (might be the youngest Morgan world champ)…this was the same class his half brother won in 2020… then by scoring the highest of both Stallions/Geldings and Mares in the National Classes (first photo) he (just as his brother did two years before) became the World Champion thus the long ribbon (second photo) that had to tied up as it hung to the ground when put on the lad (one class but two wins)
there is a yet to so to born full sibling to him, expected any day at the breeder’s ranch in North Dakota
here is the kid at his first show after coming in from the ranch land of North Dakota, age 4 months and to him it was not a big deal
his half brother
really waiting to see that full sibling, the breeder says she is to foal any day now
Very pretty boy! No yearling uglies for him.
just as his brother was
Socks at one year
the reason we got these were first we knew the breeder who breeds for color which neither of these guys were (we like bays so they had a one up for us) Secondly and primarly we knew the blood line of the broodmare and Really liked her
(breeder’s photo)
and the lads sire in my belief will become a highly rated sire…our lad was only his second foal
(breeder’s photo)
here is the dad working cattle at age 3…just a nice easy mover
