Gelding
[1] By comparison, the equivalent term for castrated male cattle would be steer (or bullock), and wether for sheep and goats.
Castration allows a male animal to be more calm, better-behaved, less sexually aggressive, and more responsive to training efforts.
[7] To allow only the finest animals to breed on, while preserving adequate genetic diversity, only a small percentage of all male horses should remain stallions.
Mainstream sources place the percentage of stallions that should be kept as breeding stock at about 10%,[8] while an extreme view states that only 0.5% of all males should be bred.
[8] Under British National Hunt racing (i.e. Steeplechase) rules, to minimize health and safety risks, nearly all participating horses are gelded.
Some cultures historically did not and still seldom geld male horses, most notably the Arabs, who usually used mares for everyday work and for war.
When used as ordinary riding animals, they are kept only with or near other male horses in a "bachelor" setting, which tends to produce calmer, less stallion-like behavior.
[18] Sometimes religious reasons for these practices exist; for example, castration of both animals and humans was categorically forbidden in the Hebrew Bible and is prohibited in Jewish law.
It can take up to six weeks for residual testosterone to clear from the new gelding's system and he may continue to exhibit stallion-like behaviors in that period.
While it was once recommended to wait until a young horse was well over a year old, even two, this was a holdover from the days when castration was performed without anesthesia and was thus far more stressful on the animal.
Modern veterinary techniques can now accomplish castration with relatively little stress and minimal discomfort, so long as appropriate analgesics are employed.
This method is advocated for simple procedures because the estimated mortality for GA in horses at a modern clinic is low, approximately one or two in 1000.
Most veterinarians remove the testis held most "tightly" (or close to the body) by the cremaster muscle first, so as to minimize the risk of the horse withdrawing it to the point where it is inaccessible.
[28] The primary drawback to standing castration is the risk that, even with sedation and restraint, the horse may object to the procedure and kick or otherwise injure the individual performing the operation.
[29] Putting a horse under general anaesthesia for castration is preferred by some veterinarians because "surgical exposure is improved and it carries less (overall) risk for surgeon and patient".
[33] With both castration techniques, the wound should be kept clean and allowed to drain freely to reduce the risk of hematoma formation, or development of an abscess.
