need a proper environment to grow up and they have to not get to the mares. If they are not going to be breeding stal- lion, why put them where they recognize they have testicles? Some colts are precocious and have erections and mastur- bate at six months,” she says. “We frequently sell our horses as sucklings and weanlings.
We’re happy to raise them here, but if the owners want them to be stallions, we won’t keep them after a year because of our set up. They can impregnate as early as ten months. People have put their colts back with mom after weaning and at eight or nine months. They may even go back to nurs- ing and bring her back to milk, or they don’t recognize mom as mom and may impregnate her. We try not to leave those avenues open,” Jan adds. “We typically geld in the spring of their yearling
year. We find if you wait past that time, they can become too hard to fit into groups,” says Chris Sallee of Blue Chip Farms in Wallkill, New York. “Currently we are raising our oldest stallion candidate, New York BC (Pres- ley Boy x Sapphire) who is two years old with all the two to five-year-old Warmblood geldings, and he seems to get along well as the only non-gelding. We do have to watch him as a jumper however. Colts can breed at his age and we don’t want him jumping out of this field to breed. We have double fencing to help.” Not all such turn out situations are as successful, however, and may end up with a fight when the colt begins mounting and herding the pasture mates.
“I took our stallion Windfall to a barn full of stallions stand-
ing next to each other without solid walls. He was 20 at the time and has lived in all situations and been all over the world, but he couldn’t handle it. We wanted to leave him there for training but couldn’t,” recalls Cheryl.
CLIMATE Where the colt lives may factor into the decision. If he is in New York, gelding when the snow is heavy and the temperatures are extremely cold might impede the regular exercise that should follow castration. On the other hand, if the colt lives in around Houston, Texas, where, as Jan says, “in summer you can wear the air,” gelding in the more temperate spring is best. “We don’t breed after April because of our summer weather,” she explains. “It’s very hard on the mares and foals. By the time we get our nasty summer, our foals can
regulate their temperatures.” Deborah gelds in late winter or early spring, when the
ground is not messy or slippery, the weather is not too hot or dusty and flies are fewer, making the healing after surgery cleaner and healthier. Like so many things about horses, the final decision rests
on an evaluation of the individual. Yet those with experience aren’t eager to wait very long before making the all-impor- tant decision on when to geld.
Warmbloods Today 55
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