'Studdy" BEHAVIOR IN GELDINGS

Because stallions are usually kept only for breeding purposes, many horse owners have no experience with them or their sex-linked behaviors. And we certainly don’t expect male displays from our geldings, having had them castrated in large part to eliminate those very behaviors.

But geldings do sometimes act like stallions, and it can cause inconvenience, frustration, and even injury to themselves and others.

Here we’ll look at some specific behaviors natural to stallions but not expected or wanted in a gelding. We’ll also give you some tips on how to manage or eliminate stallion-like behavior in geldings. →

What Causes ‘Studdy’ Behavior?

When we castrate a male horse, we remove his testes, the source of the male hormone testosterone. Unfortunately, though, some of the greatest effects of testosterone occur long before castration—because