When can you geld a horse? Would it cause a decrease in muscle mass or thinner bones?
Some general gelding info here.
Gelding can happen straight after birth (:eek: ), but usually at 12-24 months, according to the site. Muscle tone seems softened only because a gelding can gather more fat around the muscles. Nothing there about bone thinning.
We once gelded a colt on the 2nd day after his birth. He was born with a hernia/testicular problem (not undescended, something more serious than that) and our Vet suggested either immediate gelding & repair, or more extensive surgery, and couldn’t give better than 50-50 odds for success. My mother asked if it could wait 24 hours, saying she wanted to evaluate him a bit more. She looked at him a lot over that day, and then told the Vet “his conformation & quality aren’t that great anyway, do the gelding & simpler repair surgery now”. So we had a 2-day-old gelding.
Most of our colts were gelded during their yearling year. A few stayed studs into their 2-yr-old year (they looked good enough to watch for another year), but at least half of them were gelded by the end of that year.
My mother was an old time breeder, and quite strict about only keeping the best as breeding stallions, and culling the rest for the good of the breed. For many years, my parents would not sell a ungelded colt – “If it’s good enough to be a stallion, we’re going to keep it for our farm. And if it’s not good enough for us to keep, it should not be breeding for anybody.”
Colts are generally gelded by the time they ae 2-yr-olds; that’s when they become sexually potent, and often their personality changes then too. (2-yr-old stallions are very similar to teen-age boys, in both horniness and un-social personalities. But the stallions you can use whips & chains on when needed, and even geld them. I know of some teen-age boys where I’d suggest the same treatment!)
From my experience, gelding has no effect on the physical muscle mass, bone strength, etc. of the horse. But it does have a definate effect on their personality – they are much more tractable and steady – no hormonal foolishness at certain times of the year, etc. Gelding after age 2-3 may not change that – they often retain some of the “studly” personality, even though the potency is gone. Still, it is not uncommon to geld older stallions, past their breeding prime – many of them make very nice, usable geldings.
“Though thoroughly discredited by modern science, telegony assumes that a female is permanently genetically influenced by her first mating encounter.”
I’m glad this isn’t the case for horses, but, on thinking back a few years now, doubly glad for humans!