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Gelding: the Unkindest Cut? Examining the Benefits of and Risks Involved in Castrating Horses in Training

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Gelding: the Unkindest Cut? Examining the Benefits of and Risks Involved in Castrating Horses in Training VET FORUM: THE EXPERT VIEW By ROB PILSWORTH BVSc, MRCVS Gelding: the unkindest cut? Examining the benefits of and risks involved in castrating horses in training ne of my former trainers, Dave Thom, swells, the internal diameter is reduced, so had a saying: “Give me a yard full of blood flow will be less. The second effect is for geldings and I’ll give you a yard full of S the blood to be held in position long enough to E L O A winners”. D begin the clotting process, which carries on once S S O Towards the backend of the training season, R the clamp is removed. - N significant numbers of colts have their testicles O An alternative method of castration is to S A M removed as they leave behind their two year-old anesthetise the horse and carry out the N E B careers. Most trainers perceive geldings to be procedure with the horse on its back, as a F O easier to train than colts, and if they have not Y completely sterile operation in an operating S E T shown enough ability for a stud career to R theatre. This has the advantage of minimal post- U O beckon by then, there is little to lose. C castration swelling as there is no infection in the Once the horse is three, it is fully skeletally Standing castration about to be area, which can be a common problem with developed, although some would argue not performed by the author. This is a standing open castrations. totally mature, and removal of the reproductive ‘clean’ procedure, but by no means The downside is that all anaesthesia carries a ‘tackle’ will have little impact on growth or sterile. The wounds therefore have to risk of death in the horse. This has been physique development. Geldings do tend to be left open to allow drainage of calculated as approximately 1% in equine become lighter and lose some of the secondary potential infection practice, and can be as low as 0.5% in the major sexual characteristics, such as the fat in the crest well-equipped equine hospitals. This still means of the neck, so have their own particular that 1 in 200 routine castrations would be appearance, but in terms of performance, they 15-20 minutes. Once the tissues are totally expected to end in the death of the horse for one appear not to be handicapped. desensitised, then a slash incision is made into reason or another. In a large survey published In the National Hunt world the majority of the scrotum. The testicle is exteriorised, and it is in the Equine Veterinary Journal the costs and horses entering training as ‘stores’ will already removed with an elaborate piece of surgical complications of castration both ways were have been gelded prior to entering training. This equipment called an emasculator. This compared. The mortality from 100 cases of is normally done at the end of the yearling year, instrument has a set of interlocking crushing standing castration was zero but from a 100 either standing or following a short anaesthetic. blades with a cutting blade placed at the bottom such procedures done under anaesthetic one By and large, National Hunt stallions tend to of the array. horse died, backing up these statistics. be derived from the longer-distance staying Once the testicular cord is clamped in the pedigrees of Flat horses rather than because of emasculator the testicle will usually fall off but Potential complications proven prowess over jumps, and very few the cord is retained within the interlocking As with all intrusive surgical procedures in the ‘jumpers’ are entire horses. crushing blades for approximately one to two horse there is potential for things to go wrong. Once gelded, management of these horses minutes. This crushing of the tissue has two With castrations done under general anaesthetic becomes significantly more straightforward. results. One is it creates trauma to the tissues there are all the attendant risks of putting a Geldings can be turned out together in a field which cause them to swell once the crush is 500kg animal on its back and up again. In without fear of them injuring each other by released. When a tube, such as a blood vessel addition to this, occasional cases show fighting and can even be turned out with fillies prolonged bleeding after the surgery, which or mares, although in some cases they can results in significant swelling that sometimes has develop sexual behaviour subsequent to to be resolved by opening the scrotal sac. This gelding, particularly following a change in negates any advantage of castration in an S E L location or mixing with horses who they have A operating theatre under anaesthesia, as the horse D S not been in contact with before. S then requires the same aftercare and time off as O R - There have been many ‘what if?’ stories, N if done standing in the first place. O S where regret is voiced that horses like the great A For standing castrations, problems include M N Teleprompter, and indeed the last two winners E prolonged bleeding, which can occur B F O of the Dubai World Cup, African Story and irrespective of the length of time the cord has Y S E Prince Bishop, had been gelded, but these T been clamped for. This can become serious R U horses were transformed by the procedure, and O enough to require a further surgery to identify may never have reached these heights left entire. C the bleeding vessels and tie them off, but this is A horse fully prepared and draped rare. Another rare complication is herniation of How is castration achieved? for castration in the operating intestines through the potential space left in the In most cases, racehorse castration is done theatre. This is sterile surgery, with inguinal canal with removal of the testicle. The standing under local anaesthetic with sedation minimal risk of infection, so the intestines can either get trapped under the skin and pain relief as necessary. The testicles and wounds can be sutured, leaving very producing severe colic, or worse still dangle out spermatic cords are first injected with local little evidence of the surgery, and of the abdomen and become contaminated and anaesthetic, which is allowed to ‘cook’ for about allowing a rapid return to training contused. This presents a very serious risk to the 86 THOROUGHBRED OWNER & BREEDER INC PACEMAKER What terms are acceptable in the description of male horses at sales? H E N - H T I Under the Conditions of Sale at Tattersalls the definitions of different classes of male horses is M S T as follows: T A M “A stallion is a male horse at stud. A gelding is a male horse which has been castrated (i.e. F O Y had both testicles removed in their entirety). A colt is a male horse up to and including the age S E T R of four years provided that he is not properly describable as a Stallion or Gelding. A Horse is a U O C male horse five years of age or over not properly describable as a Stallion or Gelding. The A horse undergoing standing description Stallion or Colt or Horse does not exclude a rig or crypt-orchid (the term rig or laparoscopic surgery at the crypt-orchid applies to male horses in which one or both testes do not descend into the scrotum Newmarket Equine Hospital. The from the abdomen at the usual time).” horse is standing in stocks, under Under these conditions of sale, therefore, a rig can still be described as a colt or horse in the the green plastic sterile drapes, to catalogue, and it is up to the purchaser to ascertain prior to the sale whether the horse has the right, and the surgeons are both testicles present or not, as there is no return clause for this condition. working on the internal organs by using a small camera and video that is not where they start out in life. Because testicles have failed to make this journey display. ‘Rig’ castrations are now all vertebrate mammals descended in the first from adjacent to the kidney into the scrotum often done in this way place from fish, via the amphibians and successfully. The testicle can be held up at reptiles, the reproductive tissue begins life in any site along its route of transit. In some horse’s survival and requires immediate surgery the mammalian embryo next to the kidney horses it is found still adjacent to the kidney to attempt to clean the exposed bowel and which lies just under and either side of the having never set off. In others it will often be return it to the abdomen. Fortunately this is backbone. Fish still have their reproductive just inside of the inguinal canal, having extremely rare in the thoroughbred. organs in this site. successfully made the descent that far, but The most common complication is infection During the long evolutionary history of the then for some reason failed to get through the at the site of the castration. This procedure mammal, at some stage it became a biological canal and into the scrotum. leaves an open wound and obviously the horse advantage for the testicle to be situated outside Rigs present three main potential problems: can lie down in bedding full of urine and faeces the body cavity, presumably because of firstly, they can give the external appearance on the same day it has been castrated, therefore increased fertility when the testicles are held at of being geldings, with no apparent testicles, potentially contaminating the open surgical site.
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