# Late gelding -any experience of this?



## jaquelin (28 February 2012)

Looking at a7 YO only recently gelded. What are likely to Bethesda issues? My experience with a rig is that you could not keep him in a field. What other issues -or maybe there are none or only minor? Is it good or bad thing.


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## jaquelin (28 February 2012)

Argh! Spellcheckers! It is not Bethesda, but " be the issues"


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## pigsmight:) (28 February 2012)

I am not very experienced with this sort of thing but believe a rig is a horse that either has a retained testicle or has not been properly castrated. I suppose the horses behaviour would depend on his temperament and if he has been used as a breeding stallion. I am sure others with more experience will offer good advice 
Pm X


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## DosyMare (29 February 2012)

pigsmight:) said:



			I am not very experienced with this sort of thing but believe a rig is a horse that either has a retained testicle or has not been properly castrated. I suppose the horses behaviour would depend on his temperament and if he has been used as a breeding stallion. I am sure others with more experience will offer good advice 
Pm X
		
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This is my understanding of a rig, but lots of people commonly say geldings are riggy to excuse bad behaviour. 
I think again it will depend of his temperament, I've know a stallion who turns out with geldings happily, but I also know geldings that can't turn out with anything.


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## Kaylum (29 February 2012)

jaquelin said:



			Looking at a7 YO only recently gelded. What are likely to Bethesda issues? My experience with a rig is that you could not keep him in a field. What other issues -or maybe there are none or only minor? Is it good or bad thing.
		
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totally depends on the horse.  We had a pony that had been used as a stallion and then was cut.  He was a bit quirky, but you could turn him out with anything.  We had a welsh cob that had covered once and then gelded he was a total star and very loving again turned out with anything.  

A rig may show certain behaviour as mentioned above.  A rig is not a late cut stallion.  So it depends on the horse as to how he behaves.  He maybe different in different circumstances.


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## Herts05 (29 February 2012)

As others have said it all depends on the individual horse and their temperament. Mine was gelded at 5 just before I got him and his behaviour is still very stallion like. Couldn't turn him out with another horse and he is very territorial around his stable area with other horses and people. To be honest I don't think that is going to change with him, but I think he is an extreme example 

Do you definitely know that he was a rig or is it just that he is being gelded late??


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## minesadouble (29 February 2012)

Just because he's being cut late doesn't make him a rig??

I have two that were late cut - 1 ex-racehorse who (as far as I know) wasn't used for covering who does exhibit a degree of 'colt-like' behaviour - very 'mouthy', will bite (in a playful manner - yes he does get a clip for this!), noisy - gallops up the field screaming when you turn him out and is quite 'fresh' to lead from the ground (perfect when under saddle though). He does turn out with others but needs confident handling or he just takes the p***.

Other one is a 1st ridden pony who was used for covering and has stock on the ground. He is the most un-stallion like animal you could meet! So very much down to the individual horse I would say.


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## EstherYoung (29 February 2012)

Spud was a serving stallion and was gelded at 7yo. We turned him out with our very dominant TB first of all, and believe me he never tried to mount anything ever again....

To be fair Spud is a bit of a simple soul and was when he was a stallion too. He has retained a bit of a 'thing' for cob mares, though, and will put on a bit of a show for them.

I think it depends on the horse.


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## wyrdsister (29 February 2012)

As others have said, it depends on the horse, but to offer you a different experience: I bought my lad when he was 16. He'd been used as a breeding stallion and was cut at 10. To handle, he was fantastic, beautifully trained and well behaved, if a quirky chap. He could be ridden with mares, tied up near them, stabled near them, travel in a trailer with them, I even used to ride him and lead my young mare from him. 

BUT in the field he was a totally different story! He'd mount any mare in sight and beat two of our geldings to the ground in the first week (we didn't have a history on him then!), nearly killing one of them. The other jumped a 6' hedge with a 10' drop on the other side to avoid him! Even now, 16 years later, he can't be turned out with mares and it's only in the last two or three that it's been safe to turn him out with mares on the other side of the hedge. Before that, it was stallion fencing and as far away from mares as possible, with a couple of bossy geldings for company who weren't afraid of him.

At this point I'll add that he's 14.2, a very blond Arab, 32, and still a dirty old man!


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## Saucisson (29 February 2012)

This thread is really interesting.   Mine was gelded at 5 yrs and to my knowledge, never used for breeding.

He has tried to mount mares and suceeded  (once over a fence  - one very confused chap when she walked off and he was straddling the fence, albeit a very little fence).  I was suprised that he did still manage to get a "bone" (non-horsey term there) although this does seem to be reducing now (he's 8 yrs now).  He's a silly sausage but generally good under the saddle but can be a handful to lead which I always put down to his limited education before.  He's obviously much better now but he's not always the easiest.

He's can be aggressive and attack other stallions (made the mistake once of putting him in a box (temporarily) next to a very docile stallion - my horse was rearing and trying to batter stallion through the bars, the stallion was much calmer ).  

He also seems to get a bit agitated by dressage/spanish geldings/stallions with exagerated movements (his arch enemy is a big black German dressage horse).  Could this be because he sees it as "display" movements?

As for the ladies, chestnut mares turn him into a complete idiot.  He is impossible to lead or do anything quietly if one of his ginger girlfriends is in the vicinity.  Apparently his Father had a "thing" for chestnuts and it has clearly been passed on!

So some of these things that  I often put down to him being half-arab (sorry arab folk ) could possibly be down to him being gelded a bit late?  

ETA He has still retained some of his stallion neck and looks super when he's fit and muscled up.


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## jaquelin (29 February 2012)

Thanks to all who posted - very useful!  I'll observe him a bit and see what I think.  Concerning the rig, I didn't mean that he was or could have been a rig, just that I had experience with a gelding who thought he was a stallion, and knew that stable management could be a problem in this situation.


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## Herts05 (29 February 2012)

Saucisson - my PRE will absolutely show off when there are certain others working in. The positive thing is that he really ups his game and knuckles down to some excellent work. Its like he has to show that he is better than they are


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## lindsayH (29 February 2012)

I agree, it depends on the horse. Or rather, more likely it depends on how they were kept as stallions. If they were cooped up in a stable/treated differently/hard to handle as a stallion the behavior may well continue as a gelding. I recently had a breeding stallion gelding at 14 and he is a perfect gentleman. However, he was my best behaved horse before he was gelded! He lived out with my geldings before and he still does now. The only down side I've found is that he's slightly less brave now. He was slightly cockier/more bombproof as a stallion than a gelding.


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