“They might start mounting their mom as early as three weeks. It’s a playing thing, not sexual.”
or self-mutilation. Such individuals might best be gelded at eight months or earlier while others remain very supple and moderate in musculature well into their two-year-old year,” writes Cherry Hill in her book Horse Health Care. “I prefer not to wait for the stallion physique to develop,”
says Dr. Deborah Harrison of Lio Lomas Dutch Warmbloods in San Juan Bautista, California. “With a young stallion, those attributes will disappear anyway within a few months once the testosterone is removed. The problem is that when stal- lion physical traits appear, often so does the stallion behavior. I think it’s better to avoid that behavior.”
TEMPERAMENT Naturally, handling young horses is critical to developing good behavior. However, genetics and the resulting char- acteristics play an important part in how that colt behaves while still intact. Some colts are just easygoing. However, a colt may become full of himself early on, demonstrating stallion behavior such as calling, mouthiness and stand- ing on his hind legs, making training difficult and safety an issue. “You have to understand herd behavior. A stallion is in
charge of the safety of the herd,” says Cheryl. “He is focused way far away and not with you unless you’ve established a very good relationship. If you get into a power struggle with the animal, you will lose every time. It becomes an intellectual game of how you can manage all that energy and attention.” Jan has seen ten-month-olds demonstrate sexual behavior. She keeps an eye on them. “We try to see if it’s normal matur- ing or they really have an itch. Babies put their mouth on everything, your arm, your shirt. With normal handling they get past that. They might start mounting their mom as early as three weeks. It’s a playing thing, not sexual. He’s not mounting her; he’s just jumping on mom. When you have more than one foal, they get rid of that extra energy and stop jumping mom. That’s normal toddler stuff.” According to the American Association of Equine Prac-
titioners, a mature, intact male horse may become progres- sively more aggressive and difficult to train as he becomes older. If horses are left intact too long, as many as 65 percent continue these traits as learned behavior. When they are gelded after puberty, they tend to retain their sexual drive, vocalization and body language more than those gelded before puberty. Some studies have shown that 20 to 30 percent of geldings are aggressive to other horses and stal- lion-like toward mares more than a year after castration.
ABOVE is the chestnut yearling colt Benedictus WS (Belissimo M x EM Winessa/DeNiro/Furioso II) owned by Kristi Gravrock. While sedated for the castration procedure the Marquardts have his wolf teeth checked and pulled.
54 May/June 2015
FACILITY ISSUES How a facility is set up to house the colt can be a determining factor as to when to do the deed. Some facilities have to board young horses of both sexes together, at least until puberty sets in. Some weanling colts just quietly watch the mares on the property while others become preoccupied with nearby mares. Walkabout Station is designed for mares and Jan finds that a good reason to geld early. “Two and a half is too old. They
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