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Show Horse T'fllk Geldings are the most popular sex of horse to have as they are usually the most consistent in performance since they do not have hormone changes like mares. A gelding is a castrated (altered) male horse. Don't get me wrong, there are an awful lot of good mares in the world. Just be very selective in your purchase. Some mares become very crankymean to other horses, hors-es, people, etc., when they are in season (in heat). Others you would never guess were even in heat, they remain pretty much the same. Stallions were not even mentioned as candidates candi-dates for a riding horse because most people have no business owning one. By by Linda Powell most people, I am referring to about 85 of horse The owning of a stallion is many things, but to the person who should NOT have one it is prestige. That is the wrong reason for having a stallion. Stallions must be handled differently from the other sexes. They must be kept separate unless you are a pasture breeder, and then you must make sure they stay in you pasture. In search of mares they will travel great distances, fight with rival geldings and stallions, and run the risk of injury to themselves and anything in their way. I do not believe they are mean, I do believe they are special, to be handled by people with that special trainingexperience. Last week we discussed many considerations in looking look-ing "for a horse. This week we will explore in a little , more detail some of the answers to the questions posed last week. For the mountains, a good sturdy and reliable "easy keeper" is best. The term "easy keeper" means just that--the horse takes care of himself and is sensible. He does not have a history of illness, unsoundness, nor does he do dumb things such as run through wire, boards, etc. The horse, when in a spooky situation does not reach spooky. Some people believe that you can train a horse to react calmly to all situations. I think that, to a degree. The degree being that the more they are exposed to in life's many odd situations, the more likely the horse is to take things in situations. I thiniv. umi degree. The degree being that the more they are exposed to in life's many odd situation, the more likely the horse is to take things in stride. However, I also believe that some of the dispositionnature of a horse is a direct result of the dam and sire. I do believe there is little room for improvement in some traits inherited from the parents. Having a horse that is sensible will pay off in the long run as in case of injury it is very possible to pay for the horse over and over again in the form of vet bills. The horse should be nutritionally sound. In other words, not skinny but able to maintain a healthy weight on an average feeding. An average feeding for most horses is about 22 per 100 pounds. Of course this will differ with the horses disposition; dispo-sition; i.e., a horse with a high strung, nervous disposition dispo-sition will generally require more than one that is cool, calm and easy going. |