An owner, who had among his many businesses, a barn full of young, untrained stallions, hired a young trainer. There was constant screaming and banging of stall walls in the barn, day and night. The owner had to go on a business trip but before leaving he instructed the trainer that he wanted something done about all the noise in the barn. When he returned, he went to the barn and it was quiet and peaceful. He complimented the trainer on doing a good job and asked how he did it. The trainer replied, “ You now have 18 geldings and just two studs in the barn.”

All of us have a problem gelding what we think may turn out to be our dream stallion. I know I have. The colt would be by super stud or out of super producer and I would put off gelding him. But in the end, when they did not prove out in the ring or in the breeding shed, I gelded them and made useful horses out of them.

The advantage of gelding most stallions is that you can sell them for more money than if they were a stud. The market for good well-broke saddle horses continues to be good, no matter where you live. The same market will sell stallions for very low prices unless they are broke, have a good disposition and some sort of record. Even then, they will not bring what they should.

Every year as I look at the stallion issues of magazines, I wonder what happened to all the stallions that were advertised last year and never show up again. Are they geldings or is the owner simply breeding his own mares? Are the resulting foals of value or something that does not bring enough money to pay for the upkeep and maintenance of the stallion and his mares?

When considering whether to keep a colt for a stallion prospect, one should be aware of many things in making their decision. Pedigree, conformation, sire and dam are just a few. Pedigree is important. Is the sire a producer of foals that can perform or work well under saddle? Has the dam produced superior foals before?

Looking beyond the sire and dam is not as important because the second generation only contributes 25% of the genetics to the foal. Going further back is even less important as the percentages that contribute to the foal drop dramatically.

The sire should be of superior quality, producing foals out of a variety of mares that are better than the sire or dam. The dam should be capable of producing outstanding foals when bred to variety of stallions. If they are not doing this, you should think carefully about whether it will pay to raise a foal out of them.

Conformation ranks high. Is the individual representative of the breed? Does he have conformation faults that impair his ability to perform? Will he pass these faults on? If he can not do his job, whether under saddle or in the arena, you should geld him.

Behind every stallion that makes a contribution to his breed is a dedicated owner, who makes every effort to promote the stallion. He has qualified personnel train and/or show the horse. He seeks out the best mares to breed to him and is willing to make allowances in order to obtain those mares to breed. His advertising program is consistent and continues over an extended period of time. He utilizes Stallion Service Auctions and futurities to promote the foals. He has an Internet site that advertises the stallion and his foals. The stallion owner realizes that unless the stallion’s name is in front the horse buying public all the time that he will not accomplish his goal of making a profit from the stallion and his get.

If one is not willing to devote time, effort and money to the promotion of a stallion, he may want to consider other using an outside stallion. If he wants to produce foals that bring a reasonable return, he may want to breed those mares to a stallion that is being consistently promoted.

Gelding a colt may pay off as many registries are encouraging their members to geld their horse colts. They offer sweepstakes that are for geldings only. Some breeders offer a free breeding if you geld the colt that was sired by a stallion that they own.

Ranchers know from experience that a gelding makes a better horse to work stock on the range. They are relatively calm, cool and collected because their hormonal problem has been removed. They can sell those horses for more money than a beat-up stud or an unbroken mare.

In this day of shipped or frozen semen, mare owners have a wider choice of who they can breed their mare to. They are able to select the best stallion from a range of available horses for about what it would cost to breed to a stallion in their backyard.

As the mare to stallion ratio drops for unimpressive stallions, (those without a pedigree, show record, or progeny that do something notable), keeping a stallion becomes less important to the average horse owner. Stallion owners should be really objective about each prospective stallion and if he does not measure up, geld him before it becomes a problem. You will have an excellent gelding without all the problems of stallion.

Source: www.articlecity.com