A gelding is a castrated male horse or other equine, such as a pony, donkey or a mule. The term is also used with certain other animals and livestock, such as domesticated camels. By comparison, the equivalent term for a castrated male bull would be ox, or a wether for rams and billy goats.
A 3-year-old gelding
Gelding a male horse can reduce potential conflicts within domestic horse herds.
An open castration being performed on a horse under ketamine anaesthesia
Recumbent castration, including use of emasculators
Castration is any action, surgical, chemical, or otherwise, by which a male loses use of the testicles: the male gonad. Surgical castration is bilateral orchiectomy, while chemical castration uses pharmaceutical drugs to deactivate the testes. Castration causes sterilization ; it also greatly reduces the production of hormones, such as testosterone and estrogen. Surgical castration in animals is often called neutering.
A 15th century Ottoman medical illustration by Sabuncuoğlu Şerafeddin depicting an operation for castration
The Castration of Uranus: fresco by Vasari & Cristofano Gherardi (c. 1560, Sala di Cosimo I, Palazzo Vecchio, Florence)
The procedure of castration as punishment during the 16th century
An Italian soldier who was castrated and emasculated during the Second Italo-Ethiopian War.
