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Tom O’Keeffe Tom O’Keeffe and Shutterstock
A ROUTINE PROCEDURE NOT WITHOUT ITS PITFALLS
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recent stud dy pub blish hed d in th he Equiine Veterinary Journal assessed the routiine procced dure off gellding and d th he complications associated wit ith this procedure. The research was a retrospectivee stud dy off horses g castrated at the Sha Tin training complex in Hong Kong, betw tween July 2007 and July 2012. twe Hong Kong is a unique training and racing envir ironment, and all horses training and racing there are imported, as there is no breeding in the region. Fillies are rarely imported. The majority of colts are castrated at some stage in their career, and open standing castration (OSC) is the method of choice by the vets of the Hong Kong Jockey Club (HK JC). Until now, nobody has looked at the prevalence of complications followin ing castration of horses at the HK JC. This recently published study aimed to describe the prevalence and severity of complications in the 30 days followi wing castration. win
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TRAINERMAGAZINE.COM ISSUE 49
Reasons for gelding a racehorse in training
Most trainers perceive geldings as easier to train than collts, and d if th he horsse has not sh hown enough h ab bility for a stud career to beckon, there is little to lose by gelding. In Hong Kong, due to the unique envir ironment the horses live in, th here is an ad dded d incentive to gelld th hese horses gement sooner rather than later. Once gelded,, their manag becomes signifi ficantly more straightforward. fic