To Geld Or Not To Geld...That is the Question!
by Vikki Johnson

....And the answer is...someone hand me the envelope. No envelope? Hmmm... no early clear cut answer to this one it seems.

In the twenty years plus that I have been in the hobby, one thing has remained the same: stallions outnumber geldings by at least two to one. The very first model horse publication I ever recieved, back in early 1978, was the Gelding Special Issue of the Model Truf & Tassel Digest. The editorial then covered the same issues we have today; the sad lack of geldings in the show ring. Why the disinterest in geldings? Well, much like in the real horse world, there is something exciting about owning a flashy stallion. Prancing, head tossing, snorting stallions have a certain mystique about them; it's "sexy" to own such a firey beast. But in the real world, geldings actually outnumber the intact males. Geldings are more tractable, gentler and a much nicer ride in most cases. They are the supreme show horse, the best representative of a stable's breeding and training programs. Geldings are a mainstay for Junior and Amateur Owner classes. Male horses are cut for various reasons, from temperament to lack of quality to "oh no not another colt, I need another stud prospect like I need a hole in my head." Standing a stallion at stud costs big bucks: advertising, vet costs, mare boarding, not to mention insurance and the simple headaches of managing such an operation. Yet in the model horse hobby the stallion still reigns supreme and the gelding are lucky if their halter class in any one show is half that of the stallion entries.

Even in our hobby, geldings have an important role in a stable's breeding program. Their show careers are not cut short to get them into the breeding shed as soon as possible while interest in them is still hot; there is no need to scramble to provide get for them, either through advertising for outside breedings or within the farm's own foals. Geldings are the backbone of any breeding program, representing their stables and farms in the show ring and on the track, earning show records and race records that reflect on the quality of the breeder and the breeding program that created them. A champion gelding is the best form of free advertisement for any sire or dam, a mini showcase for the bloodlines of that farm.

So again, why are there so few gelding in modeldom? It seems from recent dicussions on the issue that while pedigree assignment and model breeding are very linked together, they are still somewhat different entities. Some have said "I spent a long time researching the perfect pedigree from real parents for my male horse; now why would I now want to geld it?" That makes sense of course, if that much work was put into the pedigree of a horse, and perhaps the increase of real parent pedigree assignment trends have further cemented the idea that a stallion is more important than a gelding. However, whether from real parents or modelbred, I would ask each and every stallion owner to look at their stallions and consider a few points:

1. There is no need to keep this horse intact if he will not be used for breeding purposes.
   
   
2. If your horse remains intact, he will face competition in the show ring twice as tough as the geldings face.
   
   
3. If your stallion is not showing well enough to attract any outside get, is it worth it to keep him a stallion?
   
   
4. If you do not breed at least one or two foals a year from your stallion in your own stable, or in the case of smaller farms the majority of your home bred horses, do you REALLY need to keep him for breeding purposes?
   
   
5. If you have another stallion in your stable that is of similar bloodlines to this one, perhaps closely related, perhaps multiple sons from the same sire, ask yourself if you really need both.

Of course, there is also the delicate issue of geldings who still stand at stud, and there are some rather strong opinions on this. Since most male horses are cut when they are still very young, most real geldings never have the opportunity to sire offspring before being gelded. Of course there are always exceptions, sometimes because of injuries or simply to place the horse in a non-breeding home, but in most cases there is a question regarding quality of foals thrown or temperament if the horse is gelded late.

These model horses showing as geldings "because he shows better as a gelding" but still being available on a sire and dam list may be advertised as champions, but they are winning their awards in smaller, less competitive gelding classes. This does not seem fair to the sires who are competing the much larger and much more competitive stallion classes, where pinning 7th out of 100 is quite a feat! These quite respectable stallions may lose breedings to the gelding who are winning in easier gelding classes but are still back breeding new foals as intact males. Of course, this is just my own personal opinion, and as long as a sense of realism is being upheld, it certainly is allowable to have a gelding available for back breedings as long as the owner does not allow foals AFTER the year the horse was gelded. But it seems, to me at least, to defeat the whole purpose of encouraging geldings if they are still being used actively as viable studs.

I certainly do not expect everyone to suddenly geld half of their stallions after reading this, but I do hope that the idea of the hard working gelding will suddenly become more pervasive and we will see an increase in their numbers. Our hobby has made great progress in the realms of realism in twenty years, from the models themselves to the knowledge and correct use of color genetics. I hope the gelding issue will soon catch up and I challenge every breeder and shower out there to geld an existing stallion or bring out a brand new male horse as a gelding for the next new show season and proclaim with me that "Geldings are GRREAT!"

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