Gelding?

At what age do you guys geld your horses? I have a couple of horses I'm sure are not placing and I'm thinking of gelding them so I don't forget not to breed them. I don't want to geld them too early and have them end up placing. I want to give them a fair chance to place in shows.

I've yet to geld. I think people mostly geld when they sell so that their lines don't get muddled? I don't know.

I don't see any reason to geld at this point for me personally,, but maybe mark your horses with a symbol like a double asterisk (**) when you don't want those horses to bred? or put them in a "Not for breeding" division until you decide to geld or not to geld?

There's currently no benefit to gelding (that I know of) and it's irreversible so I'd give them time.. Especially since they're pretty young. Maybe change up your show strategy? I recently did with some of my lower stat ponies and started entering them in the lowest entries even though it's a little pricier. It's helped a little. :)

Thank you guys for your help. I plan on giving them more time and I love the idea of marking them and entering them in lower entry shows. I also like the idea of moving them into a "Not for breeding" division .

There's an argument for still breeding even horses that don't show well. This is because one of the main reasons why a horse may not show well is because they have too many stats in non-specialty traits. This is a problem that can be bred away fairly easily. You could have a total of 100 non-specialty stats on a horse, but they will only give roughly 25 of those to a foal (add that to whatever it gets from the other parent), and that foal will only pass on about 6 non-specialty stats. In two generations, you've turned a problem shower into a real contender.

If you still intend to geld horses that don't show well, I would make sure you aren't judging the horse by how it shows when it just changed levels. For example, an N5 horse with 301 total stats will be showing at its personal worst. An N5 horse with 345 total stats will be pretty much at the top of its game. (But then, as soon as it crosses over to 350, it will change level again, and not show as well for a while.)

Another thing to consider is that a really good horse may not do very well if it is put in the wrong shows. If you count "showing well" by the amount of money earned, a better horse put in shows with 25 competitors will probably not earn as much as a worse one that is in a show all by itself. If you count "showing well" by the number of stats earned, an awesome horse put in a show with less than 5 entries will get no stats, no matter how good it is, and, once again, if it has too many competitors, it's less likely to gain stats than one that is in a show with only 5.

There are so many variables that affect showing, it is really hard to judge a horse's value by show results.

I, personally, tend to go by number of non-specialty stats, with less being better. I find that it is the best method to predict how my horse will perform in shows, all else being equal. That is something you can see the moment your foal is born. But, again, as I said before, that is something that you can reduce very quickly over only a couple of generations. If your horse has something you'd like to keep in your bloodlines - a great color, or high conformation, or a valued bloodline, it might be worthwhile to still breed it.

Oh wow. You have a good point. I think it's time to really look over my horses. Lucky for me I don't need to worry about breeding just. My goal is breeding very nice horses. I want to make sure I breed the right way.

Also found I need to work on some stats with treats. Going to keeping showing all of my horses and feeding treats. And see where my horses are at when the time comes to breed.

Last edited on 2016-03-26 at 16:49:26 by Palecat5