Quite simply, a gelding is a castrated male horse, donkey or mule - but the term most often means horse. Male horses are gelded, if they are not needed for breeding, to make them easier to control and ride as stallions can be aggressive and potentially dangerous to handle due to hormones.
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Young male horses (colts) are usually castrated when they are yearlings but they can be castrated later - there is no upper age limit. However, if they are older there is a risk they will keep learned stallion traits.
Gelding horses is not a modern method of quietening male horses. It is believed the Scythian nomads of the 8–9th centuries BC were among the first to geld their horses, and apparently Aristotle is said to have mentioned gelding in around 350 BC.
Today, thankfully, horses are anaesthetised for the procedure – which is carried out by veterinary surgeons – and given pain relief.
The word gelding comes from the Old Norse words gelda - meaning castrate - and geldr meaning barren.