Gelding - Needing some moral support here please...

The OP didn't ask for opinions, that was my point exactly. She asked for moral support.
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We gelded three stallys this year (yippee!). One was nearly three, one was eight, and one was about two. Life is so much better, now! The older stally had been used for breeding a few times. He was a real sweetheart with people and the ladies, but was horribly gelding agressive. Now he's an equal opportunity picker oner. He picks on the mares and the geldings - but it's all in fun, now. He is really enjoying life in the herd. The other two youngsters were never separated from the herd, so they didn't even notice anything was different.

(And before anybody says anything - one of the stallions (the three year old)had serious health issues, so we had to wait to geld him - he didn't drop until shortly before he was gelded, and we lost him just recently anyway, in spite of our best efforts. The other one was supposed to be a gelding. We got up one morning to the most gawd awful racket - squealing and screaming you've ever heard. Stupid thing had dropped over night and one of the mares was in heat. Fortunately, she was in a different pen. We got him gelded PDQ!)

I'm so sorry to hear that dee!

Ray - there wasn't anything that could be done. We knew something serious was wrong with him - his dam was 15HH and his sire was 16+HH, but Junior was only about 10HH at three years old and skinny as a rail, although he ate his dang fool head off.

He had a number of genetic abnormalities - just like his dam (and no, we weren't responsible for breeding him), turned out HYPP in a particularly nasty form was one of the abnormalities. End the end, it was just kinder to put him down.

That must have been really hard :( Makes you get even more angry at irresponsble breeders.

Anyone who thinks a horse is happier being a stallion is simply uninformed. I don't care how well trained they are, they are still a liability legally and personally. They can never reach their full potential as a family horse as long as they are intact.

I gelded a 20 year old stallion and he made the best lesson horse I have ever owned. He was a Palomino parade horse that had been everywhere from the Rose Parade to Madison Square Garden. He was impeccably trained, but his owner died, the 'stable boy' that cared for him inherited him, he was sent to prison and that boy's mother called to see if I wanted him. She was going to have him put down. I drove 800 miles straight through to save him. He had already lost 300 to 400 pounds in her care. I knew what a wonderful horse he was. He made the most incredible gelding. He taught too many children to count over the next 13 years. [We rode him and loved him until he was 33.] They all learned how to ride on 'Lucky' and none of that would have been possible if I had not had him gelded.