Gelding

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Gelding

How & When to Geld
Horses gain the most improvements from gelding when they are young. If you buy Genetic Ratings for your yearlings and already know some need to be gelded, the best practice is to geld them by December of their yearling year. However, there is absolutely nothing wrong with waiting to geld a colt until he's 2 (or even older) if you're not ready to make that decision when he's a yearling. Once you've decided to geld a colt, all you have to do is visit his Manage page and click the Geld button. Gelding is quick, instant, and earns money based on the genetic quality of the colt. Geldings on FFH can immediately resume training and racing. If you have favorited (blue star icon) the horse you want to geld, you will be unable to geld it! You can unfavorite the horse at any time by clicking on the icon again.
Reasons to Geld
There are several reasons to geld a colt on FFH. Most commonly, geldings are simply colts who were not considered "Stud Potential" genetically or whose potential was not high enough to make earning points a very easy endeavor. Gelding is also done to maintain or increase the value of a pedigree. If your horse is 2 years or older, you have the option to buy Trait Stars and/or Genetic Ratings. (Genetic Ratings are also available for yearlings.) If you've already purchased some stablewide upgrades, you may also have Hidden Stats, Stat Genes, Heritage, and other genes at your fingertips to help guide your decision. With those things in mind, you'll want to evaluate whether or not your colt is stud quality. Generally speaking, you only want to keep colts intact who can earn 100+ racing points and who also possess desirable genetic qualities. This means they usually need to be approximately 30 potential or higher (this can be somewhat flexible). Genes do depend a little on the breed - more established breeds such as Thoroughbreds and Goldbloods might be more 'strict' about the genes a horse should have while newer breeds as Standardbreds cannot be quite as picky. If you are not sure how good your colt's genes are, it can be wise to take a quick look at the studs that are currently standing. Generally, a colt should not have any 'Poor' Performance genes and few 'Fair' Performance genes. In addition, you want to see several 'Excellent' or 'Outstanding' genes across Performance, Stat, and Heritage. Other flaws that may influence your decision to geld include: •Poor Producing Pedigree •Intermediate Distance Genes •Low Peak and/or Poor Prime Genes •No Genetic Surface •"Cloaked Line" Blood Type More information on »Producer Quality« can be found on the dedicated page. If you suspect the colt is from a poor producing line, you'd benefit from gelding him and enjoying a long and successful racing career. Cloaked Line Blood Type is easily fixed with either a Runemaster's Tome or Mistweaver's Cloak.
Benefits of Gelding
Now that you know what to geld, you're probably still asking why you should geld. The simple answer is that there are numerous benefits to gelding which will result in your horse having a longer and more successful racing career, thus earning you more points and money! Gelding your horse will have a chance to increase: •Potential •Maximum Courage •Maximum Consistency •Athleticism (always increases if Low) Gelding your horse will always increase: •Longevity •Peak (if not already 100%) •Prime Geldings are also easier to train overall, maxing out their base stats, Courage, and Consistency more quickly. If a gelding is not yet saddle trained, they'll learn basic riding skills faster as well. Appendix geldings are exempt from normal Appendix restrictions, meaning they may enter series races without meeting normal requirements. You will also receive a monetary compensation any time you geld a horse, provided he is not Horse Trader bred, not pensioned, and, if retired, has at least 5 foal slots remaining, although their bonus will be reduced if they have less than 10 slots remaining. Gelding also rewards an additional $2,000,000 bonus to the base compensation for each Select Sale parent. It is worth noting here that the (hidden) Geldability gene, as well as age, determines how much a colt's stats will benefit from gelding. Colts whose sires have been fed Valebloom will show an increased benefit from gelding as well. These two factors explain why some colts may see their potential increase by 30+ points while other colts may only see their potential increase by 2 points. If you have the 7th Skill Star, your colts also have a higher chance of gaining Stats when they are gelded.
Gelding Buddies
Retired Geldings can be used as Workout Buddies or Yearling Buddies, which allows them to bring benefits to your horses already in training or actively racing. You can find out more information about Buddies or Buddy Workouts here.

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