Geldings

[Michelle@wescofarms]

I've had PC problems so haven't been on that much the past week, so hopefully this hasn't been discussed three days ago!

We, I think, all can agree there is a need to geld more colts/stallions. We do discuss on here the need to geld, how great geldings are, etc., so I'm trying to really understand - do we all just say that or are people actively gelding, promoting geldings, showing them, etc. I know the Forum members tend to be forward thinking and the people that really need the education on most subjects aren't here, but as a group, I'd love to hear everyone's concrete 'this is what we do' ideas to help promote gelding.

I will say, I have a couple of reasons to ask this; one, we're gelding more of our boys (not leaving it to a buyer to do); two I'm also helping the Smallest Horse Group's gelding incentive program (and haven't had a single applicant yet!), so really want to understand how the Forum family is about gelding. If anyone wants to email me about this offline please do - [email protected]

So, to the questions!

How do you as a farm/individual support geldings? I really want to hear concrete - this is what we do, not what should be done (we all know what should be done!).

Buyers/Show people:

Do you show geldings?

Do you participate in the local or national club gelding incentive programs?

Do you buy geldings - and if you do, are you going for the low end colt to geld yourself, or a gelding for a pet or a competitive show horse (trained)?

Breeders/Sellers:

Do you offer incentives to show your geldings?

Do you financially support your local or national clubs gelding incentive programs?

Do you sell only geldings?

How do you promote geldings to potential buyers?

Everyone:

Does your local club offer a gelding incentive program? (gelding parties, reduced show costs, a hi-point type program, etc.)

Should AMHA/AMHR have severely reduced fees (I'm talking token) for gelding registration?

Now that I wrote that - I'll start!

We've never shown a gelding (really new to showing), but are showing one this year.

I do support the NWMHC Gelding Incentive program financially and will support our local club if they had one.

I've never bought a gelding (our 'pet' boys are gelded as are the 'lifers') to show, as I have a few candidates already here.

I'm still working on more promo material and a creative idea to get buyers to 'desire' a gelding instead of the 'just in case I want to breed' thought process.

I would LOVE to see AMHA & AMHR reduce the costs of gelding registration to a bare minimum. The less the overally cost to everyone to geld and register, there would be more colts gelded.

Any ideas or thoughts would be most welcome!!!

 

[Sheryl]

My reply isn't very helpful to you except to say that coming from the "big" horse world, I really prefer geldings. I like mares alot too, but boarding and everything is just less complicated with geldings. I would think long and hard before even considering an intact male... of course I would have him gelded, but I am not sure I would even want to start with an intact. Maybe as more people get into minis as replacement for the recreational activities they used to do with big horses, this bias against gelding will change and they will become "preferred."

 

[Latika]

Hi Michelle,

I have had the "gelding discussion" a few times with other mini people over here (in Australia) and it sounds like the situation is very much the same, we all know what should be done!

I have 2 mini's now, my stallion and a mare, when i bought my colt i wasnt really looking for a mini at all, but my mum had a stud (big horses) and it is in my blood to breed, so i made sure he was stallion material before purchasing. I probably wouldnt ever own a gelding, due to the fact that i only want minimal numbers of minis (will try to keep just the 2 and 1 offspring at a time - but the little beggers get addictive!) But owning a gelding would serve me no purpose. But when i start to breed (my mare is only 1yr old) I will be actively gelding all colts, unless they are super special and I have a prospective breeder/buyer that wants him entire. I also plan to show any offspring that i breed up until it is sold, and that will include the geldings

:

Am interested to know what other studs actively do to promote geldings in their area. :saludando:

 

[Wiggy]

Buyers/Show people:

Do you show geldings? Yes! I am more inclined to put extra effort into training a gelding to show in more events because that is their "job"... they are not earning awards to increase their own value as a breeding horse (such as a mare or stallion is)... they are increasing their own value and a continuing show horse and increasing the value of the breeding program they are coming from.

Do you participate in the local or national club gelding incentive programs? Local, yes. If I was able to show on a national level then I would likely be happy to support at that level as well.

Do you buy geldings - and if you do, are you going for the low end colt to geld yourself, or a gelding for a pet or a competitive show horse (trained)? If I were looking for a new horse for myself, I would 100% be looking for a trained gelding, one whom I can take out right away and have fun with... not a colt whom I then have to geld and put the training on myself... no thanks.

Everyone:

Does your local club offer a gelding incentive program? (gelding parties, reduced show costs, a hi-point type program, etc.) Yes, one of the local clubs started to offer a gelding program a couple of years ago. I cant recall all the ins and outs, but it was an incentive for Jr. Geldings (so people would geld colts).

Should AMHA/AMHR have severely reduced fees (I'm talking token) for gelding registration? I dont think AMHA's current registration fees are expensive at all... $10-$20... how can you come down from that.

 

[StarRidgeAcres]

How do you as a farm/individual support geldings? I really want to hear concrete - this is what we do, not what should be done (we all know what should be done!).

Buyers/Show people:

Do you show geldings? Haven't yet, may show one this year.

Do you participate in the local or national club gelding incentive programs? No

Do you buy geldings - and if you do, are you going for the low end colt to geld yourself, or a gelding for a pet or a competitive show horse (trained)? No

Breeders/Sellers:

Do you offer incentives to show your geldings? Yes.

Do you financially support your local or national clubs gelding incentive programs? No

Do you sell only geldings? No

How do you promote geldings to potential buyers? Lower price

Everyone:

Does your local club offer a gelding incentive program? (gelding parties, reduced show costs, a hi-point type program, etc.) No

Should AMHA/AMHR have severely reduced fees (I'm talking token) for gelding registration? Yes

Many of my answers may not be popular, but I answered the questions honestly. To date, we've only had one foal born here and it was a colt. He will be gelded in the spring. We do own 3 mini stallions - only one is currently used for breeding (Corona) - and the others, well, the jury is still out on. The decision to geld or not will be made at a later date.

Great topic. I look forward to everyone's response.

 

[mydaddysjag]

How do you as a farm/individual support geldings? I really want to hear concrete - this is what we do, not what should be done (we all know what should be done!).

Buyers/Show people:

Do you show geldings? I got my first miniature in december, so I haven't shown him yet, but yes, I do plan on showing him. I used to have a quarter horse gelding that I showed also.

Do you participate in the local or national club gelding incentive programs?I'm not sure what is available yet, but if I am elligible, I will

Do you buy geldings - and if you do, are you going for the low end colt to geld yourself, or a gelding for a pet or a competitive show horse (trained)? I generally buy geldings (big horses) but my mini is a colt, so he was bought to be gelded

Everyone:

Does your local club offer a gelding incentive program? (gelding parties, reduced show costs, a hi-point type program, etc.) I'm not sure, but if there is one, please let me know

Should AMHA/AMHR have severely reduced fees (I'm talking token) for gelding registration?

Yes

 

[nootka]

I geld any colts that I sell, here, with rare exception.

I offer a lower price on a gelding as I realize that there is not the potential for financial return on a stallion, NOT because he's worth less.

Yes, I participate in club programs. So far, I have not participated nationally mainly because I don't need more paperwork to keep track of on top of Futurities, etc.

I show geldings. The horse in my avatar (you've met Mouse, Michelle) is my main show horse. His little brother Kyan is slated to meet the vet as soon as his testicles are descended, and I will continue to show him as a gelding until he's sold.

I have never purchased a gelding. If I did, I would likely purchase one that was trained/gelded, and had shown potential for whatever class i was aiming for.

I guess the only real thing I do to promote the sales of geldings is to put time into training them, handling them, and showing them to prove their potential, also to absorb the cost of this time (as long as they are with me) and "growing up" time, as well as the cost of the gelding procedure itself. I also offer a lower price, which I see as a benefit, because many of the colts I've offered have been and are breeding quality (i.e. basically sound conformation, no heritable defects visible, good temperaments, etc.).

My local club, the NWMHC, does support geldings wonderfully. Their incentive fund is a great thing, and it's always more fun for me to hear at the end of the year, how much I won with my geldings. Combine that with some of the paybacks for Championships, etc., one year I made a couple hundred with Mouse, just attending a few shows!

Liz M.

 

[Katie Iceton]

All I had was gelding before we ogt our mare, but we dso have gelding incentive stuff here that has been a good success!

 

[Jill]

I've gelded champion halter stallions and my BTU son who's nicer than many breeding and show stallions (Supreme at his first show). These were all stallion material horses who suited me better as geldings and as a result get to live more socialized, relaxed lives as well. I do show geldings and showed my only homebred foal to date as a gelding to championship wins.

I look forward to one day having a really special homebred colt again who I won't hesitate to geld and show and be very proud of. In my opinion, when it comes to "just" having fun, you can't do it any better than by showing and driving a gelding.

When we do have colts for sale, I will give price consideration to show and driving homes who want him as a gelding

:

 

[divigo]

I've gelded champion halter stallions and my BTU son who's nicer than many breeding and show stallions (Supreme at his first show). These were all stallion material horses who suited me better as geldings and as a result get to live more socialized, relaxed lives as well. I do show geldings and showed my only homebred foal to date as a gelding to championship wins.

I look forward to one day having a really special homebred colt again who I won't hesitate to geld and show and be very proud of. In my opinion, when it comes to "just" having fun, you can't do it any better than by showing and driving a gelding.

When we do have colts for sale, I will give price consideration to show and driving homes who want him as a gelding

:

Well done! I think you are great for having the (pardon my french) balls to geld nice quality stallions. :aktion033:

Here in Europe we have the same problem as anywhere else in the world: too many (imo low quality) stallions.

My hubby and I do whatever we can to promote the European Gelding Incentive Fund.

Right now whe have the two time European champion gelding Roady (not too much competition the last two years

:, but very well deserved

: ) and Rancho who is at present a stallion. Rancho will go to the studbook show to see how much the judges like or dislike him as a breedingstallion. We just want to know. And as soon as we do....we will geld him in order to participate in the European Gelding Incentive Fund of the MHCEurope shows.

I personally think Rancho is a nice stallion (luckaly a lot of other people do too), but I don't want any ofspring from him because I have my eyes set on higher quality horses. So why should I let him struggle with his hormones if he will never be able to breed? Besides that he is quite a dominant stallion (for me, not my hubby) so I am hoping he will be a little easier to handle after he is gelded.

How do we support geldings?

We do that buy giving away money prizes or grooming supplies for the GIF. And this year we will actually be paying three members of MHCEurope to geld their stallion. (that way we will have three more participators next year)

:

And ofcourse: should we get any ofspring from our horses which we don't think is breeding material....they will be gelded.

As written above: yes we participate with our gelding in local and European shows.

And yes we would be "crazy" enough to spend a lot of money on a good show quality gelding. Showing gives us more pleasure than breeding. Don't know why....it just does.

Don't know about registration fees as I don't own an AMHA horse yet. MHCEurope should not lower their entryfees for geldings (like they have done in the past in order to promote entry), that would not be fair to the other horses. They should find different ways to promote the geldings. If you look at it closely: if you show your gelding you have a good chance to win prize money. A good quality gelding might just be as lucrative as having a mediocre (how do you spell that) breeding stallion.

Not that the money is the motivator for showing geldings....the fun is.

But a lot of people still think that a stallion will earn his keep by breeding and a gelding will only cost money.

NOT TRUE!!! Good quality fun with your horse is imo priceless!!!

:

 

[kaykay]

Yes we show geldings always have. And we bought a new one last year to show this year for kyle.

Yes we buy and sell geldings as said above just bought a new one to show in aspc

yes we support gelding incentive programs

We have never sold an intact stallion of our own breeding all colts have been sold as geldings. And I have also gelded and sold a couple that i didnt breed.

How do i promote them to buyers? I just tell them how great geldings are to own or show. I always empahsize to new buyers that owning a gelding as a first horse is the best way to go to get your feet wet and learn the ropes. And that imo they make the best kids horses.

Our local club does not have any gelding incentives

I do wish amha and amhr would have drastically reduced prices on geldings and both registries should make it easy to hardship them

 

[Minimor]

We've bought geldings in the past--our first 3 minis were geldings, 2 of them bought to rescue them from a bad home and the third bought just as a cute little pet. After that we bought a couple of young colts & gelded them when they were ready. Would I buy geldings now? No, simply because we've raised enough of our own. If we want a gelding for showing or driving, we've got several young ones here to choose from, there is no need to go shopping for one elsewhere. We will be showing at least one gelding this year--there are 2 or 3 I'd like to show but trailer room is limited & I've got some fillies I want to haul too.

If we are selling a horse as a gelding, he will be gelded prior to sale. I don't have much use for gelding contracts.

I don't think registration fees for geldings are high now--$20 to register a gelding with AMHR is reasonable enough. What I would like to see eliminated is the $10 fee AMHR charges to change the papers from stallion to gelding. $10 isn't much, but at the same time that fee technically increases the registration cost by 50%. I believe that with AMHA this is free? That's a good thing.

This is very brief--I don't have much time here!

 

[minimomNC]

I geld most everything that comes on our farm. I truly believe that geldings are the best. I now have 5 geldings, 4 are show horses, 2 I bought already gelded, one I bought so I could geld him(Res. World Champion weanling stallion) and the 4th I let my daughter show him for a year so she could show a stallion, mare and gelding and now he is a gelding. I don't sell any intact male without either having him gelded my self or selling on a gelding agreement. But I also don't have many to sell as I am not a full time breeder. I do support the AMHA Gelding Incentive Program, we exhibit geldings at the World Show and I am a committee member too. All of my geldings have earned their own titles, they don't have to be a "son of so and so" they are AMHA Champions, Eastern Regional Champion, Grand Champions and even our own World Champion. But they are sons of Little Kings Black Velvet, Martins Boozers After Dark, Blue Ribbons Mr Bodacious and FWF Blue Boys Magic Man. All could have been very good stallions, but they are without a doubt the best at being great geldings. And as long as I am able, my boys have a home for life. I just sold my last horse that was for sale, yes a gelding, and a National Champion one at that. He is in a wonderful home where he will be trained to do more events and enjoy the show ring even more. I hope will fullfil his new owners dreams. So yes I am very pro geldings, the more the better and if you just watch the classes you will see that some of the show geldings now could beat the socks off alot of the stallions. Geldings are getting better and better every year.

Now the reason I have't sent in anything for SHG for the Gelding Incentive is because I don't have an under 30" gelding show.......yet.

 

[Leeana]

I have two geldings on my show string

*LTD's White Chief AMHR (who i bought from kaykay actually)

*Royal Salsa ASPC Foundation Shetland (who i bought from new_image on the forum).

Chief is my performance gelding. He does halter but he also does Jumper, Hunter, Liberty and showmanship. He is currently getting ready to show Country Pleasure in August 2007 for the first time. You could not ask for a better performance horse. He will be at Nationals either in 07' or 08'.

Royal shows ASPC Jumper, Liberty, Color and Halter. He is more of a halter gelding BUT he does some in hand performance as well. He will be doing Congress in 07'.

I dont think choosing a gelding should be much more different then choosing a stallion. Not all geldings are geldings because they are 'low end' though, chief and royal are very nice imo.

 

[mistyrose]

How do you as a farm/individual support geldings? I really want to hear concrete - this is what we do, not what should be done (we all know what should be done!). We geld before we sell most colts.

 


Buyers/Show people:


Do you show geldings? Yes


Do you participate in the local or national club gelding incentive programs? We have bought tickets etc for fund raiser. We donated to our local clubs gelding incentive while it was active.


Do you buy geldings - and if you do, are you going for the low end colt to geld yourself, or a gelding for a pet or a competitive show horse (trained)? When we went looking for driving horses we wanted gelding but no one had any. (9 yrs ago) We did geld both horses we bought as soon as they hit the farm. And no they were not low end colts they were pricey colts.

 


Breeders/Sellers:


Do you offer incentives to show your geldings? No most are sold as pets or at less than break even.


Do you financially support your local or national clubs gelding incentive programs? Yes


Do you sell only geldings? No


How do you promote geldings to potential buyers? I let them work with a gelding and then with a colt. Most then want the gelding.

 


Everyone:


Does your local club offer a gelding incentive program? (gelding parties, reduced show costs, a hi-point type program, etc.) We use to. We have local gelding parties not associated with the club.


Should AMHA/AMHR have severely reduced fees (I'm talking token) for gelding registration? It should atleast cover the cost of the registration.

 

[LindaL]

How do you as a farm/individual support geldings? I really want to hear concrete - this is what we do, not what should be done (we all know what should be done!).

Buyers/Show people:

Do you show geldings? Almost all of my show horses have been geldings.

Do you participate in the local or national club gelding incentive programs? Our local club, NWMHC.

Do you buy geldings - and if you do, are you going for the low end colt to geld yourself, or a gelding for a pet or a competitive show horse (trained)? Always looking for competitive horse for myself.

Breeders/Sellers:

Do you offer incentives to show your geldings? When I was breeding, I didnt, but most of my buyers were not show people (4 colts, I sold).

Do you financially support your local or national clubs gelding incentive programs? Yes.

Do you sell only geldings? Yep, every horse I sold as a gelding.

How do you promote geldings to potential buyers? I didn't so much, just offered a reduced price.

Everyone:

Does your local club offer a gelding incentive program? (gelding parties, reduced show costs, a hi-point type program, etc.) Yes, NWMHC

Should AMHA/AMHR have severely reduced fees (I'm talking token) for gelding registration? YES!

 

[Lisa-Ruff N Tuff Minis]

Well first off I do think this industry is totally backwards when it comes to geldings and is not doing what it needs to to preserve the marketing and marketibility that goes into a top stallion.

If everyone and there brother can buy a "brother, uncle, grandson great grandson" of your wonderful amazing stallion then why on earth would they buy another from you? They are sure they can breed there realitive and end up with the same horse but in reality in your heart of hearts do you think they can? And even if they could do you want them to? How does that protect your interest? Seems to be the best way to protect your own interests is to geld the majority of your colts. But that said here goes the answers

Buyers/Show people:

Do you show geldings? YES in fact most of our show string has ONLY BEEN GELDINGS

Do you participate in the local or national club gelding incentive programs?No not yet

Do you buy geldings - and if you do, are you going for the low end colt to geld yourself, or a gelding for a pet or a competitive show horse (trained)? YES we buy geldings and prefer older geldings (well older only in the mini world) 5-10 years old although we did get a colt and geld him as well

Breeders/Sellers:

Do you offer incentives to show your geldings? Yes

Do you financially support your local or national clubs gelding incentive programs? Yes

Do you sell only geldings? no most of the time however over time my position has changed and will be able to honestly answer yes 98 percent of the time

How do you promote geldings to potential buyers? GREAT FAMILY SHOW ANIMALS as well as AMMY show horses

Everyone:

Does your local club offer a gelding incentive program? (gelding parties, reduced show costs, a hi-point type program, etc.) YEs

Should AMHA/AMHR have severely reduced fees (I'm talking token) for gelding registration? YES

 

[Kendra]

How do you as a farm/individual support geldings? I really want to hear concrete - this is what we do, not what should be done (we all know what should be done!).

Buyers/Show people:

Do you show geldings?

Almost exclusively! We show 6-10 horses a year, with generally only 1 or maybe 2 that aren't geldings.



Do you participate in the local or national club gelding incentive programs?

Our local junior gelding incentive fund is great, for every junior stallion you geld, the club gives you $100, if you show that junior gelding, it doubles to $200.



Do you buy geldings - and if you do, are you going for the low end colt to geld yourself, or a gelding for a pet or a competitive show horse (trained)?

The geldings we show were all raised by us, but we do buy a lot of black stallions and geldings to fit into our team. We don't care if they are already gelded or already trained or not, we can look after that part!



Breeders/Sellers:

Do you offer incentives to show your geldings?

No but that's a good idea! Truth is, we sell so few geldings. We tend to want to keep them all for ourselves!



Do you financially support your local or national clubs gelding incentive programs?

Not directly, but we do support our club with award sponsorship, volunteer time, and a large amount of money spent at the fundraiser show!

:



Do you sell only geldings?

No. Not if someone wants a quality colt for a breeding stallion.



How do you promote geldings to potential buyers?

I think the geldings that we show, and the geldings we raised that are shown so successfully by others, are the best promotion there is. We geld the good ones for our show horses!



Everyone:

Does your local club offer a gelding incentive program? (gelding parties, reduced show costs, a hi-point type program, etc.)

Yep!



Should AMHA/AMHR have severely reduced fees (I'm talking token) for gelding registration?

I definately think that hardship fees should be "token" for geldings. And in AMHA, gelding registration fees are already significantly lower than those for breeding stock.

I think it's great that the smallest horse group has a gelding incentive program. In my opinion, that's the horse demographic that is more likely to be left a stallion, tiny, sweet and oh-so-cute! Kudos to the smallest horse group!

 

[Magic]

I've seen a huge change in the numbers of geldings in classes at shows over the last several years. Ten years ago there were hardly any geldings, especially in the yearling and two year old classes--- now some of the gelding classes have more horses in them than any others! :aktion033:

Buyers/Show people:

Do you show geldings? Yes, for many years in halter, jumper, hunter, a little in obstacle and driving

Do you participate in the local or national club gelding incentive programs? In the local, yes, haven't yet in a National one.

Do you buy geldings - and if you do, are you going for the low end colt to geld yourself, or a gelding for a pet or a competitive show horse (trained)? The horses I've bought I've gelded when I got them, and then trained and shown.

Breeders/Sellers:

Do you offer incentives to show your geldings? I haven't as yet

Do you financially support your local or national clubs gelding incentive programs? yes

Do you sell only geldings? No, but I've strongly encouraged that many of the colts I've sold be gelded

How do you promote geldings to potential buyers? If they are first-time miniature buyers, I let them know how much better a gelding is to deal with than a stallion, and if they have children I refuse to sell a stallion to them, emphasizing safety. I also invite them to shows to see the horses competing-- so many are wonderful geldings!

Everyone:

Does your local club offer a gelding incentive program? (gelding parties, reduced show costs, a hi-point type program, etc.) Yes

Should AMHA/AMHR have severely reduced fees (I'm talking token) for gelding registration? Yes

 

[Sterling]

Coming from a big horse background my horses have always been a mix of geldings and mares. My first stallions/colts I purchased were miniature horses. Right now the only thing on our farm are geldings. That being said I love my geldings, but I am open to stallions and mares too so it's not a closed preference in my case. Just so happened that I gelded my little stallion a few years ago because I had no intentions of breeding him, and I wanted to show him and run him with the other horses. He did just fine and it did'nt change his personality...he was a cream puff before being gelded and still is one to this day.

Would I still buy geldings...YOU BET!! Would I be looking on the low end of the totem pole for a colt to geld...not necessarily. If I was looking for a specific pet quality horse then yes...but when looking for that show horse, I would purchase a conformationally correct little boy and have him gelded to show competitively. Or I would buy a show quality already proven, been there done that gelding.