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What do you prefer?

Mares or Geldings

  • Geldings

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Mares

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Total voters
    0
R

RoperAB

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 11, 2006
Messages
1,435
Location
Alberta
Mares or Geldings?
Let the arguement begin :lol:

In general I find Mares smarter, more sensitive. They tend to give you more heart.
Geldings tend to be more consistant. I find the tails tend to come up on my Mares when they get around new geldings.
 
geldings have a hard time replacing themselves
Click to expand...

Can't argue with that in terms of replacement stock.
But in terms of working, I prefer geldings cuz of consistent attitude; no "cycles" to deal with. Kinda like workin with...
nope, on second thought, better not go there.:stop:
 
Mares,
But just like any critter there are some bad apples in the bunch. I don't know if it actually is a sex thing or if they just are plain old bad tempered. I've ridden a few geldings that are straight from the river stix as well.... Don't judge to much on the plumbing. Every pony is an individual. But like Northern says if they don't make babies they don't have alot of use here :)
 
Still some ranch's around that won't allow a mare on the place...Buy all their saddle horses or run a horse herd separate from the cow outfit- and will allow only geldings to be rode......
 
We ride all geldings, and don't have a mare on the place. It is true that mares reproduce, but if you watch your chances, it is a lot easier and cheaper to buy a good young gelding than to raise it. Besides, then you can buy something you like instead of breeding a mare just hoping she will have what you are looking for.

My old Tom Cat horse I bought as an unbroke two-year-old for $400 back in the spring of 1984. He sure made a horse. Just a month ago, I bought a dandy sorrel long yearling for $250. He is gentle, has a good attitude, and is long-legged enough that he should be a good-sized horse. At this time, I really have high hopes for this youngster, and I sure couldn't have raised him for that kind of money.
 
L.E. Stevens said:
geldings have a hard time replacing themselves
Click to expand...

Can't argue with that in terms of replacement stock.
But in terms of working, I prefer geldings cuz of consistent attitude; no "cycles" to deal with. Kinda like workin with...
nope, on second thought, better not go there.:stop:
Click to expand...

Gott'a agree with this statement. ALL of it. :wink: :lol:

I've ridden a few mares and will be now, to make sure these fillies should be in the broodmare bunch, but when we load a bunch of strange horses together to go to a branding, it's nice to not have a mare in heat clutterin' up the works.

I think studs and mares both probably have more to give, but they are more work also.

I think studs and mares should both be ridden before the are used for replacements, but again, I don't want one in my trailer when we haul to a branding. Not worth getting my geldings cut, chewed and crippled up. And when someone brings one, I think they ought to be smart enought to keep them seperate from the other horses when they are not being used.

A neighbor told me to keep my mares plumb away from my geldings and they wouldn't fight as much. They must have to be farther apart than I can do it, as my geldings are always checking out the pecking order, but it never gets very serious.

The other day my stud was across from the geldings and mares, sqealing and telling everyone what a big deal he was. I always keep my horses entact until they are two and I have a gelding who was my stud until he was 5. So I took these older horses and kicked them in with the stud, one at a time. He apoligized to each of them and told them he was only foolin' and really wasn't all that tuff! :wink:

Some people tell me you can make a mare or a stud act like a gelding and you'd never know you were riding one. I've only been fortunate enogh to have one and he's a real nice gelding now. But he is the boss when all the horses are together. He never does anything but look at another horse, but they all respect him and do what he wants. When the mares are running with the geldings, as they are now, he and a couple others are always with the mares and the younger ones are off a ways. I don't know if he keeps them away or they just choose to graze away from the rest. Thay all come into water together and the mares usually sort themselves away from the others, without a fuss.
 
Some people tell me you can make a mare or a stud act like a gelding and you'd never know you were riding one. I've only been fortunate enogh to have one and he's a real nice gelding now.
Click to expand...

Someone once told me "the best stud he ever saw(owned) was a gelding" :wink: :lol:
 
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 :lol:
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.
 
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!
 
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!
 
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...
 
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.
 
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.)
 
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?
 

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