Variety of opinion is common in the equestrian world, however there is perhaps no debate more passionately argued than that which compares the merits of owning and riding mares versus geldings.
When a group of horse enthusiasts are brought together, it’s rare to find unanimous agreement amongst them. Within moments, a diverse range of opinions on all topics such as the best horse breed to the most exciting discipline will be aired, while contentious issues such as shoeing versus barefoot trimming and the need for rugging, will – if raised – likely result in animated or heated discussion!
While such topics can result in hours of verbal discourse, there is no debate more passionately argued than that which compares the merits of owning and riding mares versus geldings. Those that swear by geldings will roll their eyes and tell you that if they had a dollar for every time they heard the expression, “Get a good mare, and she’ll try her heart out for you because she truly loves you”, they would be rich enough to buy some really fancy geldings! Mare enthusiasts are undeterred by responses of that kind, touting that if you don’t like mares, it’s simply because you don’t know how to handle them and have not yet learned that, while you can tell a gelding, you must politely ask a mare – before adding that gelding enthusiasts may need to work on their questioning skills.
Often it’s a connection with a great gelding or a lovely mare in their formative years that will shape a horse person’s views and lead to them becoming a firm life member of either Team Gelding or Team Mare. Professional riders don’t have the luxury of choosing to exclusively ride either mares or geldings, yet many will admit that they have a preference for one over the other. Even those horse people who claim ambivalence and state that a good horse is a good horse regardless of its gender can often be observed to typically achieve greater harmony, happiness and success with one gender versus the other.
Members of Team Mare speak of the loyal bond that a mare forms with the people she chooses; of her sensitivity, intelligence and work ethic. Team Gelding revel in the predictable and usually straightforward nature of their equine friends, enjoying the dependable and usually friendly company of their non-hormonal geldings. Members of both teams will concede that there are exceptions to both stereotypes: “non-marey mares” do exist, as do geldings who fall hopelessly in love with the mares they meet and are prone to mood swings and unpredictable behaviour.
AND THE MEDALS GO TO…
When comparing the success of mares and geldings, an objective look at the results from the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games shows a fairly even spread of medals at this elite level. Mares took top honours in the dressage; TSF Dalera claimed gold in the individual dressage competition with another mare, Bella Rose, in the silver medal position and a gelding, Gio, in bronze. The remaining top 10 positions included four geldings, two stallions and one mare.
In the show jumping, all of the individual medals were won by geldings; Explosion W took gold ahead of H&M All In occupying the silver medal position and Beauville Z in bronze. The remaining top 10 positions included five geldings, one mare and one stallion.
In the eventing competition, the mare Amande De B’Neville won gold while geldings not only claimed the silver and bronze positions – Toledo de Kerser and Vassily de Lassos respectively – they also occupied the rest of the top 10 placings.
An analysis of the top 10 placings in each discipline from the Tokyo Games, which reveals that there were more geldings finishing in the top 10 and more geldings entered overall than mares or stallions, could support the view that the reliable and non-hormonal nature of geldings means they are better suited to performance careers. Mare enthusiasts would be quick to point out that two out of the three gold medals and a silver medal were won by mares – interestingly, all ridden by female riders – and that this is an example of the determination and try that a great mare offers when it matters most. Neither view considers the possible biases or preferences of the individual riders and the impact this could have had on which horses they selected to train and ultimately campaign for the Tokyo Games.
CAREER CHOICES
When comparing the Olympic disciplines, in which horses often compete well into their teenage years, to those that typically involve retirement at an earlier age, such as racing and the western discipline of cutting, a greater number of mares competing and attracting top sale prices can be detected in the latter group. Sports such as these that allow a mare to post elite-level competition results as a young horse, and retire to the breeding barn before she reaches an age at which her fertility starts to decline, tend to see a greater proportion of mares targeted towards a performance career first and a breeding career either second or concurrently, compared to those that involve a performance career that is likely to span more than one decade. While the widespread adoption of techniques such as embryo transfer has allowed competition mares to reproduce and continue competing, a mare that has a long performance career is still less likely to produce as many foals as one that retires young.
It’s therefore no surprise that the top-priced horse at the recent Nutrien Classic sale in Tamworth, New South Wales, was a mare. Having changed hands for $550,000 – a record price for a horse sold at public auction in Australia excluding thoroughbreds – three-year-old quarter horse Bad In Black will now embark on a career as both a broodmare via embryo transfer and a performance horse in the cutting, campdraft or challenge arenas for new owners Terry and Ginette Snow of Willinga Park. At the sale in February 2022, over 600 quarter horses and stock horses were sold with 8 of the top 10 prices being paid for mares. The average price for mares was $33,862 compared to $18,752 for geldings and $37,766 for stallions. The premium paid for mares came as no surprise to those involved in the cutting horse industry; mares and stallions are so prevalent in the cutting pen that there are gelding incentives in place at the annual National Cutting Horse Association of Australia Futurity show for three-year-old horses.
On the other side of the globe, at the December 2021 PSI Auction in Germany, while the top priced horse Londina S was a 7-year-old show jumping mare who sold for 1.95 million euro, geldings certainly made their mark. Fürst Bayram, a 5-year-old dressage gelding achieved an incredible 1.7 million euro, selling to emerging dressage rider Yara Reichert, who was clearly undeterred by the horse’s inability to reproduce.
STEREOTYPES DISMISSED
While personal preferences and income earning potential can influence the prices paid and choices made when buying either mares or geldings, the results of a study published in 2020 challenged sex-driven stereotypes in ridden horse behaviour, temperament and rideability – thereby supporting the view that each horse should be assessed on its individual merits rather than preconceived ideas about how a mare or gelding will behave. Authors and contributors Anna Aune, Kate Fenner, Bethany Wilson, Elissa Cameron, Andrew McLean and Paul McGreevy explored data on riders’ and trainers’ reports of ridden horse behaviour, evaluating sex-related behavioural differences based on 1233 responses from the pilot study of the Equine Behaviour and Research Questionnaire (E-BARQ) survey.
The study results suggested that while some sex-related differences in behaviour between male and female horses could be observed; for example, geldings are more likely to chew on rugs and lead ropes when tied, and mares are more likely to move away when being caught in the paddock, there was no significant evidence of sex-related differences in ridden horses’ behaviour. Full results of the study can be found here.
It does appear that any mare-versus-gelding debate will only be won by the debater with the strongest and most articulate powers of persuasion; in every breed and every discipline there are examples of outstanding mares and outstanding geldings who have both inspired and achieved greatness. The co-existence of Team Mare and Team Gelding looks set to continue! EQ
