The differentiation between herd behavior and sexual driven behavior in stallion/gelding is an important nuance. Geldings without their sex hormones are still horses, not robots (as some would prefer it seems after looking at ISO ads for equines that specify geldings only and a list of attributes that seems more like a car than a horse). My favorite sentence is “He doesn’t know he’s a gelding.” Retrospectively this is totally obvious and I have never thought of it in this way before. There are times I think there is great progress being made in the education of modern horse riders - other times not. Many modern equestrian are horse riders not and necessarily horse people (or maybe even animal people) with horsemanship gained from growing up riding and taking care of their animals (whole horse observation, care, awareness of wellbeing). Horsemanship has been slipping in recent years and articles like this are super for those learning as well as for lifelong equestrians.
What a fascinating piece and it could not have come at a better time! I have a 20 month old colt who is about to be castrated and this helps me understand him so much better :) Thank you for this!
The differentiation between herd behavior and sexual driven behavior in stallion/gelding is an important nuance. Geldings without their sex hormones are still horses, not robots (as some would prefer it seems after looking at ISO ads for equines that specify geldings only and a list of attributes that seems more like a car than a horse). My favorite sentence is “He doesn’t know he’s a gelding.” Retrospectively this is totally obvious and I have never thought of it in this way before. There are times I think there is great progress being made in the education of modern horse riders - other times not. Many modern equestrian are horse riders not and necessarily horse people (or maybe even animal people) with horsemanship gained from growing up riding and taking care of their animals (whole horse observation, care, awareness of wellbeing). Horsemanship has been slipping in recent years and articles like this are super for those learning as well as for lifelong equestrians.
Thanks for this Renate, very enlightening for us gelding-owners (and horse people in general)❤️
What a fascinating piece and it could not have come at a better time! I have a 20 month old colt who is about to be castrated and this helps me understand him so much better :) Thank you for this!