“You tell a gelding, you discuss it with a mare.”
“You don’t scare me, I ride a mare.”
“I don’t need a boyfriend, my gelding is sweeter than any human guy.”
Any of these look/sound familiar? Everyone seems to have an opinion on why geldings are the best or why everyone should ride mares. I’ll admit that I’m still on the fence.
I learned how to ride on an old mare that would cart me around as I bumped up and down on her back and stood still while I braided her tail. Jumping came a bit later on a big gelding named Mr. Snuffleupagus who good-naturedly carried me over glorified ground poles. Camp horses always ended up being spunky fun mares to gallop around with. My first horse was a studdish gelding who tossed me more times and won me more blue ribbons than I can count. Addy, as you know, is a lady-like mare who’s re-teaching me the ropes.
I’ve had so many amazing horses in my life and few of them met the stereotypes. There have been plenty of quiet gentleman-like geldings that passed through, but my boy Star was anything but gentlemanly. His ground manners were atrocious and he would not let a missed distance go without throwing a bunny-rabbit-hippity-hop temper tantrum. He had the most personality of any horse I’ve ever met- not your typical easy-going gelding.
There have been a few quirky mares too. But Addy has never shown a hint of being “mare-ish” in the months that she’s been at the barn, and I never have to discuss things with her. She’s willing to listen and follow in ways that geldings from my past wouldn’t.
My vote for the mares vs. geldings debate: both! Give me a horse that I can play with and learn with, and I don’t care about anything else. I’ve had too many old-soul mares and fussy geldings to buy into a stereotype.
What do you think? Mares 4eva or geldings + u = ❤ ?? Why?
