What do you prefer?

[RoperAB]

Around here its actually illegal <old law>to pasture a stud. Some do it anyways. If you took a stud to a branding I suspect it would be a curse when it came time to hobble and socialize?
My Mares always got a long with my geldings. The problem is around new geldings. Example say if we are going to be doing something<trailing cows, branding>, well I like to take my best horse if a lot of people are going to be there.
If I take a mare that tail starts coming up and she is peeing and flirting all the time. Very annoying!
Some of the best barrel, show jumping, etc. horses in AB are mares though. Im guessing that if your riding your mares in public all of the time that this isnt as much of a deal?
Right now for me I guess I would have to say I prefer geldings in general but I like mares the best if im just riding by myself
I find geldings are easier to sell.
Gelding colts cost more around here but when I sell them down the road I can easily get that back.

[Curly]

Studs are like senators, every state should have only two.

[Judith]

I can see I'm going to have to get a gelding if I'm to help neighbors with branding and such. Well it never hurt to have a couple of riding horses around at one time I can just imagine the fun if you had a grumpy mare in the trailer. Yikes I never even thought of things from that side of the fence!

[DJL]

My favorite horse is a mare, and she is not bitchy, and none of our mares pee all the time if a gelding comes by unless they are in heat. I do have mares that stay home when horsing, as they do try to cozy up to every gelding out there, and some geldings are ill mannered enough to try to comply. We run mares and geldings together all year. There is a boss mare, but the oldest gelding still likes to think he rules the roost - silly boy!

[Jassy]

No More Mares on this place...we've had our share of mares and colts, and it never fails that one of the horses would get hurt because of the mares. Since we got rid of them, we haven't had a horse hurt since. I agree too that mare's in the same trailer as geldings is TROUBLE...seen several horses come out of trailer with nasty bites and sore legs from kicken...Mare's have their place in this world...just not on this ranch...

[Northern Rancher]

Ohh a ladoes man can put up with tempermental females of every species-i've packed mares to lots of brandings and never had a problem-I don't leave them run loose by a bunch of geldings either-a little common sense can conquer most problems perceived or otherwise. All my horses run together without much trouble-the stud keeps the geldings run off a bit at times.

[Faster horses]

Most anyone that was interested in horses around Buffalo, Wyoming
knew Bill Wagoner. He was known as a top hand; bronc rider, cowboy and horseman. Many years ago, Bill started buying mares from a good ranch broodmare source. These folks, years ago, were selling the fillies and keeping the horse colts. Bill started buying the fillies and breaking them. After doing that he had a lot of respect for riding mares.

He said once, "if we didn't ride mares, we'd be afoot."

Sure, they rode a lot of geldings, but he darn sure rode mares
too. And by riding the mares, he knew what he was breeding.
They rode a lot of big country. They rode a horse and led a colt,
so the colt didn't get ridden to hard and lose desire.

He always said, "Everyone worries about the stud the mare is
bred to. The way I see it, the mare has way more to do with how the
colt turns out than the stud does. That baby lives with the mare
for 6 months or so. So who has the most influence on the
colt?"

I always thought that made a lot of sense. I hate it when someone
has a mare they can't ride so they breed her.

(Bill was one of the top horsemen in that country in the 60's,
70's, 80's. He liked them and he treated them well. He was really
progressive for the times. Understood what made a horse tick,
respected them as a partner, not a slave.)

[DJL]

Too true FH. I think mares have more desire to get the job done, more fire. Once they are proven you know whether they are brood mare material or not. I always chuckle when these 'I won't have a mare on the place' guys brag up their old soon to be retired geldings, what a super horse he is, etc. I always ask them what kind of luck they're having raising foals off that gelding now that he's retired? Where do they think these super geldings come from?

[Soapweed]

[DJL]

We'll see how it works with Charmayne's horse. A lot of expense to make a gelding foal!

[RoperAB]

[randiliana]

I like a mare. My favorite horse right now is a gelding, and he has that fire. I have ridden a few laaaazzzzy geldings, but rarely a lazy mare. They just have that little bit of extra jazz to them. All the mares I have ever had had good manners. But I think a lot of it is how they are handled, and mine didn't get away with any nonsense!