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[RC] The Gelding Project - MN - k s swigart



From the U of Minn



** The Gelding Project: Helping the Unwanted Horse One Stallion at a Time

...

This program is designed as a key step to reduce the number of
unwanted horses in Minnesota. The first aspect of the project,
Education Earns Stallions to Geldings, will encourage horse owners to
choose to make stallions into geldings through education and financial
incentives.


Making stallions into geldings will have very little effect on the unwanted 
horse population.? Very few of the "unwanted" horses out there are stallions, 
most of them have already been gelded.? The stallions that are unwanted?are 
usually unwanted for some reason other than the fact that he has balls.? Most 
people who think that gelding a stallion will turn him from an unwanted horse 
into a wanted horse WILL geld the horse in order to achieve that; it is, after 
all, a fairly simple operation with few complications.

And making stallions into geldings will have very little effect on the 
production of horses.? The number of accidental breedings of horses is really 
very small by comparison to the number of planned pregnancies, and the number 
of horses born at any time is a function of the number of MARES bred, not the 
number of stallions available for breeding.? 

There is probably some value to be gained by an educational program, but if you 
want to reduce the number of horses being born it is the MARES that need to be 
sterilized, not the stallions.? And this is the education that needs to be 
provided.? The targeted population for education should be MARE owners.? If 
mare owners want to breed their useless mare in order to get an unwanted foal, 
they can order the semen to achieve this through the mail. And all the gelding 
incentives in the world is unlikely to make it so there are NO available 
stallions.

The overbreeding problem is caused by people breeding too many crappy mares, no 
matter what the quality of the stallion.? Few responsible people with breeding 
quality mares will choose a crappy stallion to put her to.

It is time to stop perpetuating the myth that there are too many unwanted 
horses because there are too many stallions.? The number of stallions available 
is a sufficiently minuscule part of the unwanted horse problem such that it is 
pretty much a negligible part of the the unwanted horse problem, and not a very 
prudent way to be expending substantial resources.

kat
Orange County, Calif.
:)


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