Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

> At last years CA. Eqine Expo, Dr. Robert Taylor(?), the vet who first
> advocated imprinting, in on of his lectures discussed how he is gelding
> colts at 1-3 DAYS, before the testicles ascend.  He claims it is way
> easier on them and they heal much faster.
>
> This info came too late for me as my mare, who ALWAYS has fillies,
> presented me w/ a colt a month before the expo.  He got gelded at four
> months; as soon as his testicles had descended and some time after he'd
> started trying to mount his mother and his filly-sister.  Now, he is a
> total sweetheart.  He too healed up very quickly with hardly any
> swelling.  I personally believe that the fact that we gelded before
> weaning made it much less traumatic.
Robert M. Miller.  And bless him for advocating early gelding.  The
testicles usually don't go up for several weeks, and they don't go up in
all colts, so this window of opportunity isn't all that tiny.  I had one
client that ALWAYS gelded his colts soon after birth--the youngest one
I've done was 3 days (I hate to do them before that because of the
anesthesia--like them to get their land legs a bit first) and we generally
did his at around a week of age.  (They rarely got past about 10 days
before getting done, at any rate!)  One of my largest breeder clients had
a family line where the testicles rarely ascended--we routinely did their
colts at around 2-4 months, while still on the mare.  (They often weaned
by 4 months, so we hustled to get them done while they still had a week or
two on mommy.)  They were thrilled with getting them done that early, and
had a good market for geldings for youth showmanship (APHA and QH).

Heidi


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The two best drugs to have in your kit are Tincture of Time and a Dose of
Common Sense. These two will carry you through 99.999% of the problems
associated with horses and endurance competition.
~ Robert Morris

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