Gelding young and growth spurt

[Debd]

I will be getting my first miniatures next week and would like to geld them both. I have owned Tennessee Walkers, but this will be my first experience with miniatures. One is 17 months old and the other is 5 months old. I was researching online about gelding them and one article mentions if you geld a miniature horse too early they may have a growth spurt and be taller than they would if you waited until they were 18 - 24 months old. Does anyone have any advice on the best age to have the horses gelded? Also, is the statement about the growth spurt accurate?

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

 

[Minimor]

:bgrin I don't know if I'd call it a growth spurt, but they say that geldings tend to grow taller than stallions. The reason is that the growth plates close later on geldings than they do on stallions. That applies to full size horses as well as Miniatures. In fact the studies have been done on big horses I think.

Now that's not to say that if you geld a colt young that he's going to shoot up and be way too tall just because he was gelded young. It's not something I've heard Miniature people being overly concerned with.

Some people geld their colts when they are several weeks old. Here our vets tend to not want to do the procedure on any foal less than 6 months old; some can be persuaded to do it sooner, others absolutely refuse. I wait until the colt has both testicles "there". Sometimes one is there but very high up & hard to find--some of the vets here will check & say to wait until the 2nd one drops down better. The vet we use now is very adept at finding missing ones, even if it's still up in the ring--he gelds a lot of other horses that other vets would send for cryptorchid surgery. So, it does depend somewhat on you vet.

We generally geld ours between 6 & 12 months.

By the way--welcome to the board, & welcome to the wonderful world of Mini ownership!!

 

[FoRebel]

We just gelded one of ours yesterday and he is just 15 months old.... He's standing at 36" right now though.... The vet didn't seem concerned about gelding him now or later.... She actually said that she would've prefered to geld him in the spring rather than waiting till now.

 

[Debd]

Thank you both for the replies. My plan is to go ahead and geld the oldest and wait until the spring to geld the 5 month old. This forum has such great information. Thank you for the welcome.

 

[Katiean]

I think the reason for waiting 'til spring is the fly issue. In the spring there are less flies so there is less chance of magots.

 

[Jill]

I have a colt, Erica’s Big City Blue By U, coming to me in about a month and I probably will want to geld him (as I "need" a junior show gelding), but that height thing is something that I had wondered about as well. I'd heard rumors saying it causes them to grow taller than they otherwise would have, and also heard that it doesn't make them grow taller than they would have but that it makes them reach their adult height earlier. I do not know if either are true... But I too have been wondering. It's on my mind because I have a senior A and a senior B show gelding. My senior A show gelding is 9yo and by the time "Blue" is a senior horse, he maybe could replace this show horse for me in halter class -- but I like my current B division senior gelding as my show gelding hopefully for many years to come and don't want two in the same age/height division. Whew... I guess I'm lucky to have this problem since anyone who ones even one horse is pretty lucky :bgrin We expect Blue to mature a tall A, so I'm concerned about doing anything that may push his height a tiny bit.

 

[Miniv]

I think the theory is that the energy put into sexual maturity with a young stallion is put toward growth if the horse is gelded.

Have NO IDEA if that is true.

MA

 

[Minimor]

With the growth plates open longer, the horse may grow longer. Or it may not.

The thing is, how do "they" really know for sure that any given horse will grow taller if it is gelded early? Just because the growth plates stay open longer doesn't mean that the horse will grow any huge amount. Some shoot up early and then stop, others grow more slowly and take longer. If you take a foal that is genetically destined to grow early & fast & geld him early--how can anyone really prove that he did or didn't grow an inch taller than he would have if he had been left intact?

If you have two full brothers & one is gelded as a young foal & the other is left a stallion...since we all know that full brothers don't necessarily turn out to be the same height even if they're both left intact, how can we say that the gelded brother grew taller because he was gelded? Perhaps he was just genetically taller?

 

[Devon]

Would my colt be full grown enough to be gelded and not grow extra at age 2?

:

 

[rabbitsfizz]

The growth plates staying open is no big deal in Minis.

A colt I gelded at eight weeks made all of 28 " full grown- does that mean he'd have made less if I had left him entire?? I doubt it.

With big horses, as far as I am concerned, it merely means a colt I geld on the mare does not get backed until three at the earliest whereas an entire I might (might) sit on as a two, just as part of the schooling process.

That is it, basically.

It will make half an inch difference at most in Minis, if that, but it does mean a slightly later developmental maturity, as I think everyone is in far too much of a hurry anyway, anything that slows us down has to be a good thing!!

A colt gelded at eight weeks (I have done them much earlier) reaches two and just sort of grows though it whereas a colt ungelded becomes a royal pain in the backside at this age!!!

My advice (which I do take myself

: ) is to geld ANYTHING you are not sure of, or are going to sell.

And I think Jill's reason for gelding is BRILLIANT- she is gelding a colt well good enough to stay entire because she WANTS a show gelding.

Way to lead by example, Jill :cheeky-smiley-006: :aktion033: :cheeky-smiley-006:

 

[Jill]

Thanks Jane!!! That made my day

i've actually NEVER gelded a colt or stallion because they weren't good enough to stay a stallion (they all were), but because I enjoy geldings

: Never met a stallion who was too good to geld. Never met a horse who was too good to be a pet, either. Just all about what the people who love them want to do with them.

 

[Kendra]

A stallion will grow until they're three, a gelding until they're six. No real way to tell if the end result would be any different, but just in case, if we have one that's pushing the limit, we wait until they're three to geld them!

 

[rabbitsfizz]

I have to say, with all due respect i have never found the above to be true- my geldings have stopped growing around the same time as my colts- maybe one or the other have "crept on" but there has never been any significant difference in the growth of either.

Growth plates close on a normal colt at 18 months- although this does not mean the total cessation of growth as other factors affect this- a very immature animal will grow on past this date and some breeds (not Minis) are well known for "growing" longer than others.

A horse can gain up to three inches in height merely by putting on condition and topline- you have only to look at TBs to see this.

 

[Kendra]

We've done a lot (and I do mean a lot!) of gelding, and we have seen that a horse that is gelded young often grows for longer. Again, doesn't mean they grow any more than they would have, no way to determine that!

 

[Minimor]

I've had a gelding (gelded young) that grew until he was 6; I've also had a gelding (also gelded young) that never grew at all after the age of 18 months. I would have to say that the one that grew until age 6 was not the norm for us--with our Minis, nearly all of them are done by 18 months, 2 years for sure, regardless of whether they are stallions, geldings or mares.

 

[Devon]

My gelding gelded at 2 grew untill he was 5 Id say. He was awful gawky hes still a bit rump high but age 3 it was still ridiculously high he looks much more proportioned now

: I am going to geld Zorro seems like a shame but I think he will make a awesome halter gelding

:

 

[rabbitsfizz]

Yes, I think the main point here is that different horses grow on to different ages, not that geldings do or do not grow longer.

I have never had a horse grow past 18 months- my lines just seem to stop there- Rabbit's blood appears prepotent for that trait.

I have never known a big horse actually grow, per se, past three years old (but I have heard lots of stories about horse that have grown and a horse I sold at four allegedly grew a full hand between four and six!!)

As I said, under normal conditions, the growth plates close at 18 months and anything beyond that- normally- would be topline and conditioning.

There have to be exceptions, there always are- otherwise all children would stop dead at fourteen- and we KNOW that does not happen- especially, I find, with the tiny ones.

I stopped growing at 11 but somewhere between leaving school and 21 years old (when someone measured me) I grew two whole inches- long after I was supposed to be able to!!.