ARE GELDINGS OK TO BE WITH MARES IN FOAL

[rhi]

Is this just an opinion of some people, I went to take my yearling down the farm with my other mares the other day and he said he could not take him because he is a gelding as they upset mares in foal & foaling mares.

This is the first I have ever heard of it, i know many people that keep geldings with their mares even when they are foaling.


How on earth do they manage when a stallion is run with mares and they got testosterone

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Give us your opinion

[ysewynwelshcobs]

I have not much experience with breeding (yet), but I read "First foal" by Jane van Lennep and that says the following :

Quote :
A lot is said about the risks of turning an in-foal mare out with geldings, but if she knows them, and was turned out with them before being covered, then the risk has got to be minimal, provided none of them is at all 'riggish'. It is better for her to be out with geldings than stabled all the time.
Unquote :

I think it all depends on how they get along (got along before the mare was covered) and also the size of the field. I know somebody in Holland and her in-foal mares are out in the field together with their stallion all winter. In spring when the foals are nearly due, the mares are stabled so that they can foal indoors.