Thursday 13 September 2012

Newsflash- Gelding Costs Money!!

Following on from the post 'The Survivors Guide to Classified Horse Adverts' , I wanted to take one of the humorous statements and point out the truth in it- sadly there’s too much truth in many of them as I am sure you know, but let’s start with just one:

IDEAL STUD PROSPECT- Can’t afford to geld it

Here in the UK gelding can cost anything from £200 to nearly a thousand if there are any complications. At a time of recession that’s a pretty serious sum of money. Horse charities have reported finding whole herds of colts abandoned on wasteland. Dealers buy job lots of youngsters, weed out the fillies and dump the colts rather than pay out to have them gelded.

So what does an irresponsible/broke breeder do when they have a horse they want to sell but they don’t want to fork out to geld? Two options really- number one is try and convince some mug it’s fine to keep them as stallions as they are so easy to handle and number two is to convince them that they are overflowing with stallion potential.

I mean why in the name of humanity should THIS horse still be entire?!


 
In case you thought that was just a bad picture- think again- here are the rest:
 



Poor soul is a conformational trainwreck, but don't worry he's 'quite' (quiet) and easy to handle. Here's another without many physical attributes to justify keeping him as a stallion, horses like this are EVERYWHERE in this area and he's not a good example:




Here's another stallion for sale. This poor chap looks quite ribby in many of the pics. I wonder if he's been running off his weight trying to get to some mares in a neighbouring field?
 
 
 
And here's some creative marketing. There's absolutely no good reason for this 'so ugly it's almost cute' pony to still have balls. He could have made a great child's pet/ride as a gelding. As it is, he's being sold as a teaser- at least even the current owners realise he shouldn't actually reproduce!
 
 
Here we have a pony being sold specifically as a stallion prospect, having already reproduced several times apparently. Here's my main problem with this one- they thought a picture of him apparently rearing in someone's face was a real clincher! If you have a stallion, you need it to have basic manners and THIS is not appropriate behaviour!
 

 
His other pictures aren't the best either! Here's a similar one... no evidence of a performance record but he sure can stand on his hindlegs and pop out babies! These shots are not convincing me he's the most cooperative of animals... the guy at the end of the line looks like he's about to leap out of the way!
 
 
 
Here's what I would call a good stallion ad.... Cute little pony, purebred and registered, and LOOK! He actually DOES THINGS! He gets ridden and jumps fences and everything!
 

 
Bottom line? Keeping a stallion can be a real pain. You need to have somewhere with the right facilities and you need to be able to manage a strong, spirited horse and keep his mind on the job in all situations. However 'quiet' the sellers may claim these horses are, they won't stay that way with maturity- I can almost guarantee it. Factor in the cost of gelding if you are looking at a horse that still has his equipment. In the majority of cases he won't be worth your keeping them attached!


1 comment:

  1. The ad for the teaser pony makes sense to me. For one very sound and solid reason. It is much easier to control a small pony such as that, than it is to try and control a teaser that is taller, say 15 or 16 hands.

    I had almost sold one of my ponies once as a teaser to a local racing farm. The deal never went through, but when it was explained to me why they would want a pony, it made good sense. Some of the others you featured though? AAAAAACCCKKKK!!!!!

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