I haven't had a chance to see when the practice of gelding began or where it was perfected. If we come across something we'll post it.

Right now I am reading an interesting dissertation on "Tudor Horsemanship". There's some truely horrible things in there, not from writing or speculation, but the horrific training techniques.

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Interesting point is that for the greater part of the use of horses in warfare, stallions were the preferred animal (other than in Hispano-Arab regions, where the War Mare was preferred). Stallions have the agressiveness necessary to actually attack other creatures, be they horses or men, while the very amiability that makes geldings easier to handle makes them less useful in such situations. It really wasn't until the later 17th, or even the 18th Century that geldings came to be generally used as Cavalry horses, and this was continued through the rest of the use of Cavalry until it's demise in WWII. There are referrences to using geldings prior to this of course: in the Elizabethan Militia codes "Strong Geldings" were allowed for Demi-Lancers, but not for Gendarmes.

I read through most of the Gervaise Markham book on horsemanship, published in 1625, and it's got a lot of very good, useful information. One of the author's strong points is that he constantly is reminding the reader to use gentle words and touches with the horse, and uses a few illustrations of the foolishness and dangers of being too rough with an animal. He DOES show some pretty brutal looking tools for discouraging poor behaviour in a horse, though. One would suppose that with a fairly spirited stallion it would be a good idea to have as much power over him as possible though, even though you would want to be very, very judicious in how you apply it. At any rate, it was refreshing to read such a reasonable and rational treatise from the era, not that much different from one which might be written today.

Gordon

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13th Mongolians apparently had a preference for geldings. They were calm and highly obedient and were considered to have more stamina that "entires".

It probably goes back much father, but that's the only info I've found thus far.

It seems as though the Western Europeans were for the most part willing to put up with the baloney that goes with lots of stallions (as noted, when there aren't any mares to be found, they usually behave pretty well) in return for the strength, agressiveness and keeness that goes with it. I am given to understand that when stallions are used as high-level dressage horses, they can really "click in" and focus on their work and are exeptional in the job. The hard part is keeping their interest on the way up the ladder, LOL!

My personal preferrence is for geldings though, thank you very much.

Gordon

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It was explained as one of the reasons that Iberian stallions are so well behaved: they were bred that way because not all noble gentlemen were top flight horseman and the horse had to make them look good.

I love stallions for dressage, they have the right amount of fire for the upper levels. I have known stallions to go from breeding shed into the Grand Prix and warm up next to mares and be an absolute gentleman.

The key is in the handling. Stallions respond to rules and respect, both earned and given.

[ 12-20-2004: Message edited by: Angelique ]

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